Wellwood scores five in Leafs win

Second-year pro Kyle Wellwood recorded the first five-goal game in the American Hockey League in nearly six years, leading St. John’s to an 8-3 win over Cleveland at Mile One Stadium on Saturday night.

Wellwood, who was the AHL’s top-scoring rookie in 2003-04, had just one goal in eight games entering the contest. He scored two power-play goals in the first period, completed the hat trick just 5:48 into the second, got his fourth goal with 6:02 gone in the third, and capped his historic night with 2:09 remaining in regulation.

Wellwood’s five goals were all scored off Cleveland goaltender Nolan Schaefer.

The performance was the first five-goal effort in the AHL since Randy Robitaille scored five times for the Providence Bruins in a 14-2 rout of the Syracuse Crunch on Nov. 25, 1998.

Carlo Colaiacovo added a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs, and David Ling and Jason MacDonald registered three assists each.

Recent five-goal games in the AHL:
Kyle Wellwood, St. John’s — Oct. 30, 2004 vs. Cleveland
Randy Robitaille, Providence — Nov. 25, 1998 at Syracuse
Brendan Morrison, Albany — Apr. 1, 1998 at Hartford
Sebastien Bordeleau, Fredericton — Apr. 5, 1997 at Portland
David Nemirovsky, Carolina — Dec. 27, 1996 vs. Baltimore
David Sacco, Baltimore — Dec. 2, 1995 at Binghamton
Ken Gernander, Binghamton — Nov. 4, 1995 vs. P.E.I.
Pavol Demitra, P.E.I. — Oct. 13, 1995 at Fredericton

Elsewhere on Saturday:
Jarret Stoll had two goals and an assist and Tony Salmelainen added four assists, but Edmonton dropped a 5-4 decision in a shootout to Houston… Defensemen Kevin Klein and Andrew Hutchinson recorded a goal and an assist each as Milwaukee defeated Utah, 6-2… Joffrey Lupul had a goal and an assist and Frederic Cassivi made 36 saves against his former team to lead Cincinnati over Chicago, 4-1… Chris Higgins scored with 1:13 to go in overtime and Yann Danis finished with 44 saves as Hamilton beat Syracuse, 3-2… Nathan Horton‘s first AHL goal helped San Antonio past Grand Rapids, 4-3… Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots and Mikhail Yakubov recorded two assists in Norfolk’s 3-0 win over Albany… Andy Chiodo made 26 saves as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton beat Bridgeport, 1-0, in their first meeting since last year’s epic playoff series… Hartford went to 6-0-0-0, getting four second-period goals to defeat Portland, 4-1… Manitoba scored four power-play goals and got a 43-save effort from Alex Auld in a 5-3 win at Binghamton… Rochester got in the win column for the first time this year, as Jason Botterill scored twice in the second period to spark the Amerks to a 5-1 win over Hershey… Alexei Shkotov scored the winning goal late in the second to lift Worcester past Lowell, 3-2… Manchester improved to 6-0-0-0, as Brad Smyth and Mike Cammalleri recorded three points each in a 4-2 win over Springfield.