The Skates Are
Sharpened Another exciting season of AAA hockey is upon us again as
the 2002-03 AHL campaign gets underway.
The American Hockey
League began its 67th season this past weekend with 22 games in 16 different
cities, and an average of 6,812 fans per game filled AHL arenas to support
their favorite clubs.
Here is a look back on some of this weekend’s action:
On Friday night, the league returned to Binghamton, N.Y., with the first-year
Senators pulling out a thrilling 5-4 overtime decision over the defending
Eastern Conference champion Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the first AHL game
at the Broome County Arena since April 1997. Defenseman Brian Pothier netted
the game-winner just 47 seconds into OT.
A crowd of 14,031 turned out on Saturday night for the Chicago Wolves' home
opener against Cincinnati. The Wolves raised their 2002 Calder Cup championship
banner to the Allstate Arena rafters before downing the Mighty Ducks, 7-4,
on the strength of a five-goal third period. Andreas Karlsson dished out
four assists for Chicago, which is looking to become the first team to successfully
defend its AHL crown since the 1990-91 Springfield Indians.
Also on Saturday, a sold-out Van Andel Arena (10,834) ushered in the Detroit
Red Wings affiliation era in Grand Rapids. The Cleveland Barons spoiled
the party, however, scoring four times in the final 10:10 of the game to
earn a 6-4 victory.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins ran their streak of consecutive sellouts
at the First Union Arena to 62 games with capacity crowds on Thursday and
Saturday.
The Manchester Monarchs (9,893) and Lowell Lock Monsters (6,875) each sold
out their end of a weekend home-and-home series between the rivals. Lowell
earned a split against Manchester thanks to Mike Zigomanis, who recorded
two goals and four assists in the two games. Moose goaltender Tyler Moss
won 20 games for the Lock Monsters last season.
Under rookie head coach Mike Sullivan, Providence got off to a quick 2-0-0
start with a pair of weekend victories at Harbour Station in Saint John.
Matt Herr, a 2002 AHL All-Star, scored three times in the two wins and 2002
AHL All-Rookie forward Andy Hilbert added two goals and an assist as the
B's posted 3-2 and 5-2 decisions over the Flames. Andrew Raycroft made 30
saves in Friday's win, and Tim Thomas turned aside 35 shots on Saturday.
Hartford opened the season with a pair of wins for their rookie coach as
well, as Ryan McGill oversaw the Wolf Pack's road victories over division
rivals Springfield and Binghamton. Rico Fata broke a 2-2 tie with a pair
of goals to give Hartford a 4-2 win over the Falcons, and Ted Donato capped
a comeback from an early two-goal deficit as the Pack beat the Senators,
5-3. Hartford was 4-for-10 on the power play in the two games.
After knocking Utah out of the playoffs in the conference quarterfinals
last spring, Houston opened the 2002-03 season with two more W's against
the Grizzlies. Jeremy Stevenson's two-goal effort sparked Friday's 3-1 win,
and Tony Virta chipped in with a goal and an assist as the Aeros won Saturday
by the same score. Houston outshot Utah on the weekend by a margin of 95-55.
AHL One-Timers:
Juraj Kolnik scored the first goal in San Antonio Rampage history on Saturday
night, less than 24 hours after being acquired by the Florida Panthers from
the N.Y. Islanders in a trade for Sven Butenschon...
Matt Herr scored the game-winning goal in both of Providence's weekend victories
at Saint John…
Derek Armstrong, AHL MVP in 2000-01 and MVP of the 2000 Calder Cup Playoffs,
recorded a hat trick for Manchester in Saturday's 6-3 win over Lowell…
Lock Monsters blueliner Ed Hill picked up an assist on Saturday for his
first career AHL point after going scoreless in 37 contests last year...
Norfolk defenseman Burke Henry, a Calder Cup champion with Hartford in 2000,
scored his first goal since April 1, 2001, in Saturday's win over Bridgeport...
Cincinnati's Peter Podhradsky also netted a goal on Saturday after going
scoreless in 2001-02…
Grand Rapids was the only team in the AHL to go through the entire 2001-02
season without losing a game they had led after two periods (35-0-4); they
are already 0-1-0 this year after Cleveland's comeback win on Saturday…
Philadelphia's Neil Little became the 16th goaltender in AHL history to
reach 150 career victories with a 1-0 overtime win over Rochester on Saturday…
Albany's road winless streak hit 22 games (0-13-5-4) with Friday's 2-2 tie
at Rochester…
After Friday's 4-2 loss to Hartford, Springfield is winless (0-6-2) in its
last eight season openers…
When Binghamton held Bridgeport without a shot on goal in the third period
on Friday, it was the first time an AHL team was held shotless in a regular-season
period since Portland blanked Lowell in the third on Dec. 15, 1999…
Here are the final
results of this weekend’s contests:
[HOME TEAM in CAPS]
Fri 10/11
Providence 3, SAINT JOHN 2... BINGHAMTON 5, Bridgeport 4 (OT)... Norfolk
4, PORTLAND 2... Lowell 7, MANCHESTER 3... Albany 2, ROCHESTER 2 (OT)...
Hartford 4, SPRINGFIELD 2... HOUSTON 3, Utah 1... MANITOBA 4, Worcester
1... Syracuse at Hamilton, ppd.
Sat 10/12
Providence 5, SAINT JOHN 2... St. John's 7, ALBANY 3... Manchester 6, LOWELL
3... Hartford 5, BINGHAMTON 3... Norfolk 4, BRIDGEPORT 2... PHILADELPHIA
1, Rochester 0 (OT)... Hershey 6, WILKES-BARRE 3... Cleveland 6, GRAND RAPIDS
4... Portland 6, SPRINGFIELD 2... CHICAGO 7, Cincinnati 4... MILWAUKEE 6,
San Antonio 2... HOUSTON 3, Utah 1... MANITOBA 6, Worcester 3
