Weekly Wrap-Up - North Division (Week 18)

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In this week’s post All Star edition of the North Division Notebook:

-All 3 recipients of the AHL January awards hail from the North:

Reid Boucher of Utica was named AHL Player of the Month after scoring nine goals and picking up five assists in 11 games, then added three goals in four games during the All-Star Challenge.

Mitchell Stephens of Syracuse won AHL Rookie of the Month honors with 14 points--8 goals and 6 assists—in 12 appearances, scored 3 game winners, and was named as a last minute replacement for the All-Star Classic.

Garret Sparks of Toronto was named AHL Goaltender of the Month after going 5-0-1 with a 0.98 goals against average and .966 save percentage in six starts, including two shutout wins.

-With the NHL and AHL All Star breaks ending, there were also many roster moves for all seven North teams:

Belleville

Colin White, Chris DiDomenico, and Erik Burgdoerfer were recalled to Ottawa, while Filip Chlapik was sent down.

Andrew Hammond was reassigned by Colorado on Thursday.

Burgdoerfer was sent back to Belleville on Wednesday after a two day recall.

Willie Corrin and Daniel Ciampini were recalled from Brampton.

Binghamton

Defenseman Jake Walman was reassigned by St. Louis to the Devils on Wednesday.

Rookie Colton White was reassigned to Adirondack on Thursday.

John Quenneville was recalled to New Jersey, while Steven Santini and Jimmy Hayes (on conditioning) were sent down on Friday.

Laval

Goaltender Zachary Fucale was recalled from Brampton on Monday, while Nikita Scherbak went up to Montreal on Friday.

Rochester

Defensemen Arvin Atwal and Devante Stephens were recalled from Cincinnati on Wednesday.

Brian Gionta, who had been practicing with the Amerks most of the year, signed a one game PTO on Friday as a tune-up for the Olympics.

Nicholas Baptiste was sent down by Buffalo on Saturday, while goaltender Jonas Johansson was recalled from Cincinnati.

Syracuse

In two separate moves with the Edmonton organization on Wednesday, Tampa Bay acquired goaltender Eddie Pasquale and assigned him to the Crunch, while Ty Loney and Nick Riopel were traded to Bakersfield.

Shane Conacher was recalled from Adirondack on Thursday.

Toronto

Justin Holl and Kasperi Kapanen were recalled to the Maple Leafs, and Nikita Soshnikov came down for conditioning.

After appearing in two games and scoring his first two NHL goals, Holl was returned to the Marlies on Saturday.

Utica

Goaltender Mitch Gillam was brought in on a PTO on Friday after a minor injury to Thatcher Demko, while forward Tony Cameranesi was released from his PTO.

Now for this weekend’s highlights:

Friday, February 2nd

Syracuse - 1 at Utica - 3

The Comets kicked off a home and home series with a victory over the Crunch at the Adirondack Bank Center.

Alexis D’Aoust, Nikolay Goldobin, and Dylan Blujus all had goals for Utica, while Dennis Yan had the lone Crunch goal.

Richard Bachman stopped 27 of 28 shots for his sixth win of the season.

Belleville - 3 at Binghamton - 2 (SO)

The Senators returned to their former home and used a third period comeback to down the Devils in the bonus round.

Santini would score in his Binghamton debut, and Jacob MacDonald scored his 14th goal of the season to put the Devils ahead 2-1 going into the third period.  But, a Macoy Erkamps goal would tie the game 3:02 into the final period, and Belleville would score the only goal in the fourth round of the shootout for the extra point.

Danny Taylor would stop 36 Devil shots, while Eddie Lack returned to the net and had 28 saves in defeat.  Bracken Kearns had two assists for Binghamton.

Toronto - 4 at Rochester - 2

In front of a huge crowd at the Blue Cross Arena, the Marlies spoiled Gionta’s one night only appearance and extended their point streak to 12 games.

Andreas Johnsson had one goal and two assists, Miro Aaltonen added a goal and an assist, and Sparks stopped 26 shots for Toronto.

Gionta scored his first AHL goal since the 2004-05 season in the second, and Linus Ullmark took the loss in net with 27 saves.

Saturday, February 3rd

Toronto - 7 at Laval - 1

A four-goal first period would power the Marlies to their 13th straight game with a point.

A balanced offensive attack saw seven different Marlies—Rinat Valiev, Trevor Moore, Johnsson, Ben Smith, Soshnikov, Colin Greening, and Dmytro Timashev—score, while Andrew Nielsen added two assists.  Calvin Pickard stopped 31 Rocket shots.

Markus Eisenschmid would break up Pickard’s shutout attempt in the third, and Charlie Lindgren gave up all 7 goals in the loss, stopping 27 of 34.

Belleville - 1 at Bridgeport - 3

The Senators headed south to Connecticut, and were unable to recover from an early 2-0 deficit in a loss to the Sound Tigers.

Chlapik’s third period power play goal would be the only offense, while Taylor added 24 saves.

Utica - 4 at Syracuse - 2

In the second half of the home and home series between the Comets and Crunch, Syracuse would jump out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Olivier Archambault and Alexander Volkov.

However, Utica would then score four straight goals, giving them a 2-game sweep and leap frogging Syracuse into third place in the division.

Philip Holm would score twice, Darren Archibald added two assists, and Bachman had 34 saves.

Ingram would have 20 saves in the loss.

Rochester - 3 at Binghamton - 4 (OT)

The Devils would blow another third period lead, but MacDonald’s 14th goal of the season 35 seconds into overtime would give Binghamton the win.

Blake Pietila had one goal and two assists, Blake Speers and Viktor Loov added goals, and Mackenzie Blackwood had 27 saves to pick up the win.

Matt Tennyson, Sahir Gill, and Kevin Porter each had one goal, while Adam Wilcox had 31 saves for Rochester.

North Division Standings as of February 5th, 2018:

Toronto: 46 GP, 34-11-0-1, 69 points, .750 pct. Rochester: 47 GP, 25-11-6-5, 61 points, .649 pct. Utica: 47 GP, 24-14-6-3, 57 points, .606 pct. Syracuse: 47 GP, 26-17-2-2, 56 points, .596 pct. Belleville: 48 GP, 19-25-1-3, 42 points, .438 pct. Laval: 47 GP, 17-23-5-2, 41 points, .436 pct. Binghamton: 45 GP, 13-23-6-3, 35 points, .389 pct.

This Week’s North Division Schedule

Wednesday, February 7th

Laval @ Binghamton, 7:05 PM Belleville @ Rochester, 7:05 PM

Friday, February 9th

Toronto @ Belleville, 7:00 PM Hartford @ Syracuse, 7:00 PM Laval @ Utica, 7:00 PM

Saturday, February 10th

Binghamton @ Toronto, 4:00 PM Laval @ Syracuse, 7:00 PM Belleville @ Utica, 7:00 PM Rochester @ Lehigh Valley, 7:05 PM

Sunday, February 11th

Binghamton @ Toronto, 4:00 PM Syracuse @ Bridgeport, 5:00 PM Rochester @ Hershey, 5:00 PM