Falcons Host Pirates Tonight
March 11, 2011 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Springfield Falcons News Release
The Springfield Falcons and the Portland Pirates meet for the ninth time this season when they face off Friday night in Springfield. The Pirates lead the season series with a record of 5-3, including a 6-1 win in Portland last Sunday. The two teams will wrap up their season series in the last regular season game on April 10th in Portland. Springfield's last win against the Pirates came at The Nest on February 26th when the Falcons beat Portland 4-1.
The Falcons will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak tonight. Springfield is 2-2 against the Pirates when playing at home. Going into this weekend, Springfield is in fifth place, five points behind fourth place Worcester, and seven points behind the third place Connecticut Whale for the final guaranteed playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.
Falcons captain Ben Guite leads the team in scoring against the Pirates this season with three goals and three assists for six points in eight games. Maksim Mayorov has two goals and three assists against Portland this season, good for five points in eight games played. Goalie David LeNeveu has seen most of the starts against the Pirates. He has a record of 3-3 in six games with a 2.68 GAA and a .905 save percentage.
Pirates rookie forward Luke Adam has two goals and seven assists for nine points in just five games against the Falcons this year. Adam is currently tied for second in the league in rookie scoring. Mark Parrish has tallied up five goals and two assists for seven points in seven games versus Springfield. Goaltender David Leggio is 2-0 in two starts versus Springfield this season. Leggio has a 1.50 GAA and a .956 save percentage in those two starts, including a 35-save effort in Portland last Sunday.
FALCONS TEAM/PLAYER NOTES
Defenseman Brent Regner has two goals in his last three games, and five points in his last six games.
Rookie Tomas Kubalik is tied for second in the AHL in rookie scoring with 20 goals and 22 assists, good for 42 points on the year. Kubalik became the first Falcons rookie to score 20 goals in a season since Jeff Taffe scored 23 in 2002-03. Daniel Briere holds the Falcons rookie record for goals in a season with 36, followed by Jason Jaspers with 25 in 2001-02 and Taffe's 23 in 2002-03.
PIRATES BEAT BEARS ON TUESDAY
Corey Tropp scored a goal and netted his fourth shootout game-winner of the season and David Leggio continued his solid play in net with 30 saves as the Portland Pirates defeated the Hershey Bears 3-2 in an American Hockey League game played Tuesday in front of 4,403 at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Mark Voakes scored the other Pirates goal and Marc-Andre Gragnani recorded an assist in his fourth straight game as Portland improved their record to 38-17-5-2 with their fourth straight win. With the victory, the Pirates improved their American Hockey League best home record to 22-4-4-1.
At 2:58 of the third period, Voakes scored his second goal in as many games to tie the game at one, and Tropp gave the hosts a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 15:15. After a scoreless overtime, both Tropp and Colin Stuart beat Hershey goaltender Nolan Schaefer and Leggio stopped all four Hershey shooters to send the Pirates to victory.
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American Hockey League Stories from March 11, 2011
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