Falcons Host Bruins Tonight

Published on January 24, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Springfield Falcons News Release


The Springfield Falcons and Providence Bruins meet for the eighth time this season when they go head-to-head at the MassMutual Center on Saturday night. The Falcons are 1-5-1-0 against the Bruins this year with Providence winning the last four games in the season series. Springfield is 1-2-0-0 on home ice against Providence this year.

Falcons center Ryan Potulny leads the Falcons in scoring against the Bruins this year with two goals and five assists for seven points in six games played. Defenseman Theo Peckham leads Springfield in goals against Providence this year with three.

Providence defenseman Johnny Boychuk leads the Bruins in scoring against the Falcons this year with three goals and nine assists for 12 points in seven games played. Martins Karsums is second in points against Springfield with 11, while also leading Providence in goals against Springfield with six. Goaltender Tuukka Rask is a perfect 4-0 with a 1.00 goals against average and .959 save percentage, including two shutouts, against the Falcons this year.

The Falcons head into Saturday's action having earned at least a point in three straight games (2-0-1-0) and they have also gone 3-1-1-0 in their last five games played. Springfield has a record of 16-21-6-1 good for 39 points and they are now only two points behind sixth place Manchester. The Falcons have also pulled within seven points of fifth place Lowell after earning a point Friday night in a hard-fought 4-3 overtime loss suffered against the Worcester Sharks. Mathieu Roy, Ryan Potulny and Bryan Lerg scored for the Falcons against the Sharks on Friday night.

The Bruins visit Springfield after having a rare Friday night off last night. Providence remains in first place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 24-18-2-1 good for 51 points. The Bruins have currently lost four of their last five games, including a 4-3 loss in their most recent game back on January 18 against Rochester.

BUSY WEEK OF TRANSACTIONS: The Springfield Falcons announced Tuesday the Edmonton Oilers have assigned forwards Gilbert Brule and Liam Reddox to the Falcons. Brule has appeared in 11 games with the Oilers this season scoring two goals and an assist with 12 penalty minutes. He scored his first career Oilers goal versus St. Louis on January 11th and then registered his first multiple point game of the season with the game-winning goal and an assist in the Oilers 5-2 win at Washington on January 13th. The 5'10", 180 pound native of Edmonton was third on the Falcons scoring list at the time of his recall to the Oilers on December 31st. He has scored 11-5-16 with 34 penalty minutes in 20 games with Edmonton's AHL affiliate and was second in goals, while being tied for the team lead with six power play goals.

Reddox has scored 3-2-5 with eight penalty minutes in 23 games with Edmonton this season. Recalled from Springfield on November 14th, he scored his first career NHL point with a goal versus Colorado on November 15th. The 5'10", 180 pound forward from Whitby, Ontario has appeared in 13 games with Springfield this season and has netted 5-4-9 with two penalty minutes.

FALCONS ALL-STAR: Falcons center Ryan Potulny will be a member of the PlanetUSA roster and will represent the Falcons at the 2009 AHL All-Star Classic in Worcester, MA on January25-26 at the DCU Center in Worcester. Potulny currently leads the Falcons in scoring with 18 goals and 14 assists for 32 points in 37 games this season. The 6-foot, 190-pound native of Grand Forks, North Dakota also leads Springfield in goals and multi-point games with nine. Potulny is in his first campaign with the Falcons and started the year in style scoring a pair of goals and earning the game's first star in Springfield's 4-3 opening night win at Hartford on October 11, 2008. Potulny was recently named the game's top star when he scored one goal in regulation and two more markers in the shootout on January 2, 2009 in a 3-2 Falcons' victory over the Manchester Monarchs.

BRUINS NOTES: The Providence Bruins announced this week that the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins have assigned forwards Vladimir Sobotka and Martin St. Pierre, and defenseman Matt Lashoff to Providence.

Sobotka, 21, was recalled by Boston on January 14, since appearing in four games while tallying one assist. Overall, the second-year center has scored three points (g, 2a) in 19 games for Boston over three recalls this season. Sobotka scored his lone NHL goal of the year on December 21, 2008 at the St. Louis Blues before later suiting up for his 100th professional game on January 15 against the New York Islanders. The forward has 23 points (11g, 12a) in 19 games for Providence. He returns riding a seven-game AHL point-streak (3g, 6a) dating back to November 28, 2008.

Sobotka split the 2007-08 campaign between Boston and Providence, appearing in 48 regular season games with Boston while amassing seven points (g, 6a), plus another six Stanley Cup Playoff contests, where he scored two goals versus the Montreal Canadiens. A native of Trebic, Czech Republic, Sobotka had 20 points (10g, 10a) and a plus-12 rating in 18 regular season games for the P-Bruins a year ago. He was drafted by Boston 106th overall in the fourth round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.

St. Pierre, 25, was recalled to Boston on January 12, where has he scored two goals and added two assists in 14 games over three recalls this season. The first-year Bruin appeared in last night's 4-3 shootout win for Boston at the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring a goal in the shootout. He returns to Providence, where he ranks second on the team with 38 points and first with 28 assists in 32 games. St. Pierre will be one of three P-Bruins to represent the club at the 2009 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Charter Communications this weekend, joining Johnny Boychuk on the Canadian team while Martins Karsums suits up for the PlanetUSA squad. The All-Star selection is the fourth straight for St. Pierre after serving as the starting center each of the last two years. The undrafted native of Ottawa, Ontario, leads Providence with 11 multiple-point games and he has produced four point-streaks of at least four games, including an 11-point (2g, 9a), six-game run in November. His performance earned him the P-Bruins' November Player of the Month award after totaling 16 points, including 12 assists, over 14 games.

St. Pierre was recalled to Boston for the first time on December 20, 2008, making his Bruins debut the following night on the road against St. Louis in a 6-3 Boston win. The fifth-year pro recorded his first career Boston point that night with an assist and added his first Bruins goal on December 30, 2008 versus the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-2 victory. Signed as a free agent by the Chicago Blackhawks on November 12, 2005, St. Pierre was acquired by Boston in a July 24, 2008 trade for left wing Pascal Pelletier. Prior to joining Boston, St. Pierre appeared in 21 career NHL games in three seasons for Chicago, scoring four points (g, 3a).

Lashoff, 22, returns to Providence after appearing in 16 games for Boston over three recalls. The defenseman has recorded one NHL point this season, an assist on January 10 in a 5-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. He saw considerable action for Boston, enjoying more than 10 minutes of ice-time in 12 of his 16 contests and better than 15 minutes in six games.

The fourth-year Bruin has 16 points (4g, 12a) in 18 games for Providence this year, which ranked third among AHL defensemen at the time of his first call-up on December 1, 2008. He has yet to appear in a P-Bruins game since despite two previous assignments. Lashoff registered a five-game AHL point-streak in mid-October, followed by his best game of the season on November 14, 2008 against the Worcester Sharks in which he scored a goal and added three assists for a four-point game and a plus-four rating.

A native of East Greenbush, New York, Lashoff split the 2007-08 campaign between Boston and Providence, earning five points (g, 4a) in 18 games for Boston while matching a career-high with 36 points (9g, 27a) for the P-Bruins. The two-time PlanetUSA AHL All-Star starter was drafted by Boston 22nd overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 24, 2009


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