Sports stats



AHL American Hockey League

Puck drops on AHL's 69th season

October 18, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ... The American Hockey League's 69th season is off to a tremendous start, as all 28 teams began their quest for the Calder Cup 2005 championship in action last week.

The Manitoba Moose raced out to a 3-1-0-0 start while opening with a four-game road trip. The Moose scored 22 goals in their four games, and have placed five players among the top seven scorers in the AHL entering Monday's action. Lee Goren and Jason King each recorded a hat trick over the weekend, Jeff Heerema had a four-assist effort on Friday against Rochester and four players – King, Heerema, Peter Sarno and Ryan Kesler – picked up at least one point in each match.

Manchester scored 12 goals in its two games, with Yanick Lehoux's five goals (on six shots) and six points pacing the Monarchs to convincing wins over Worcester and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. There were a total of 201 goals scored in the first 32 games around the AHL last week for an average of 6.3 goals per game, up from the 5.5 gpg over the same number of games to start the 2003-04 season and 5.1 gpg for all of last year.

Attendance was also up more than six percent league-wide through the first weekend of the season, with an average of 7,167 fans catching AHL action in person. The opening night crowd of 16,001 at Rexall Place on Friday was the largest ever for a regular-season AHL game in Canada, and the fans went home happy as their hometown Edmonton Road Runners got a goal from J.J. Hunter 90 seconds into overtime to take a 3-2 victory from the visiting Hamilton Bulldogs.

The 28 AHL team rosters submitted to the league office by Wednesday's deadline included 677 players, from Abel (B.J.) to Zion (Jonathan). The average age of those players was 23 years and 8 months, 10 months younger than last year. The youngest player in the AHL is Providence forward Patrice Bergeron, who will not turn 20 until July 24, 2005. Bergeron was one of 15 teenagers on opening-night rosters in the AHL, and part of a group of 467 players (69.0 percent) under the age of 25.

Among the 677 players were also 205 former first- and second-round draft picks starting the 2004-05 season in the American Hockey League, including top-threes Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal, Nathan Horton, Kari Lehtonen, Jay Bouwmeester, Jason Spezza and Alexander Svitov. In Rochester, 15 of the 24 players on the Americans' roster were taken in the first or second round of an NHL Entry Draft, the highest total in the AHL. Portland boasts 13 first- and second-rounders, followed by Utah (12), San Antonio (11), Albany (10) and Hamilton (10).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MILWAUKEE BEGINS TITLE DEFENSE ... The Milwaukee Admirals raised their Calder Cup championship banner at the Bradley Center on Friday night, and celebrated with a 4-2 victory over arch-rival Chicago. The 14 remaining Admirals from last year's title squad also received their rings in a pre-game ceremony.
The next night, the Admirals took the show on the road to Music City and posted a 5-4 overtime win over Rochester in front of 10,642 fans at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, home of the parent Nashville Predators. Timofei Shishkanov, a 2004 AHL All-Rookie selection at forward, scored the game-winner.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ROSTER INCREASE APPROVED ... The AHL's Board of Governors today approved the increase in the size of playing rosters to 18 skaters and two goaltenders, up from 17.

The change will take place beginning immediately, and be in effect until the end of the work stoppage in the National Hockey League.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SHOOTOUTS AT THE AHL CORRAL ... There were three shootouts in the opening week of the season, beginning on Wednesday with Cincinnati taking a 4-3 decision from Utah thanks to a 2-1 edge in a shootout that lasted six rounds. On Friday, Grand Rapids earned a win in its home opener by defeating Cleveland, 3-2. Down 2-0 in the shootout, the Griffins scored on three consecutive attempts to pick up the victory. And Saturday, Colin Forbes, Eric Staal and Ryan Bayda converted on Lowell's final three attempts as the Lock Monsters rallied to post a 5-4 win over Providence in their own home debut.

Through the first weekend of the season, shooters are 13-for-33 (39.4 percent) on shootout attempts.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OFF THE ICE ... Joe Nuxhall, a member of the Cincinnati Reds organization for the past 60 years as a player and a broadcaster, will drop the ceremonial first puck before Saturday's Mighty Ducks home opener at Cincinnati Gardens... Bridgeport's opening weekend festivities, sponsored by MasterCard, included a live performance by The Zambonis (I Wanna Drive the Zamboni; Hockey Monkey) and free admission for children under 14.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ETC. ... Worcester rookie defenseman Dennis Wideman recorded the first five points of his pro career with two goals and three assists in a 7-2 win over Springfield on Saturday night... Mike Smith, who missed the last two months of last season and the entire 2004 preseason due to injury, made 35 saves in Houston's 3-1 win over Cincinnati on Saturday, his first victory since Jan. 30... Aleksander Suglobov had two goals and two assists to help Albany past Binghamton, 6-2, on Friday, securing Robbie Ftorek's 300th career victory as an AHL head coach... Adam Henrich scored twice in his professional debut, a 4-3 Springfield win in Providence on Friday... Grand Rapids has sold out their home opener at Van Andel Arena in each of their nine seasons, including all four since joining the AHL in 2001... Syracuse's 3-0 win over St. John's on Friday marked the Crunch's first opening night victory since 1998... With a 2-1 decision over Philadelphia on Saturday, Hartford has gone 6-0-1 in its last seven season openers... Bridgeport, which set an AHL record for penalty killing efficiency last season (90.7%), has succeeded on 16 of its first 17 shorthanded situations this year.

Check out the American Hockey League Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from October 18, 2004


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central