FALCONS BEAT BRUINS 4-1
February 18, 2012 - The Springfield Falcons picked up a hard-fought 4-1 win over the Providence Bruins in front of 4,566 at the MassMutual Center on Saturday. Goaltender Manny Legace stopped 30 of 31 shots and became the Falcons' all-time wins leader by a netminder recording his 64th career victory in a Springfield uniform surpassing Scott Langkow.
"It was a great night for Manny," said Falcons head coach Rob Riley. "We are happy for him, he has meant a lot to this organization and he was very good for us tonight."
Legace was the game's first star and when he came out for his curtain call, he took a quick lap to center ice pointing up and thanking the fans and pointing over to the family section inside the MassMutual Center.
"He is a true professional and has been all year for us," said Riley. "He was sharp throughout tonight's game and it was a must needed win for our team."
The two teams came out and played an intense first period with Greg Amadio setting the tone for the Falcons in the game's first minute when he laid a nice body check on Providence's Bobby Robins and the two heavyweights dropped the gloves with Amadio scoring the knockdown.
The Birds found themselves in a 1-0 deficit late in the first period when Kirk MacDonald scored for the Bruins at 15:53 of the opening frame. The Falcons battled right back and evened the score just 1:03 after MacDonald's goal when Alexandre Giroux tallied his 18th marker on the campaign tying the score at 1-1.
After a scoreless second period that featured the teams exchanging power play chances, the Falcons took their first lead of the night at 1:36 of the third period when Cam Atkinson wristed home his 29th goal of the year assisted by Martin St. Pierre putting Springfield on top 2-1. Captain Dane Byers added his second goal is as many nights when he knocked home his 12th marker of the campaign at 12:05 of the final frame. St. Pierre added an empty net goal at 18:56 of the third period to conclude the Falcons' 24th victory of the year.
The Falcons are right back in action on Sunday when they host the Worcester Sharks at The Nest starting at 3 pm.
SATURDAY'S LINEUP
Alexandre Giroux - Martin St. Pierre - Cam Atkinson
Matt Calvert - Andrew Joudrey - Maksim Mayorov
Dane Byers - Cody Bass - Tomas Kubalik
Adam Mair - Ryan Garlock - Wade MacLeod
Patrick Cullity - Theo Ruth
Cody Goloubef - Greg Amadio
Brent Regner- Dalton Prout
Manny Legace
Paul Dainton
Not dressed: Aaron Bogosian, Anton Blomqvist, Nick Holden (Injured), Tim Spencer, Mark Dekanich (Injured), Nick Drazenovic (Injured)
Providence Bruins 1 at Springfield Falcons 4 - Status: Final
Saturday, February 18, 2012 - MassMutual Center
Providence 1 0 0 - 1
Springfield 1 0 3 - 4
1st Period-1, Providence, MacDonald 2 (Miller, Tardif), 15:53. 2, Springfield, Giroux 18 (St. Pierre, Atkinson), 16:56. Penalties-Robins Pro (fighting), 0:44; Amadio Spr (fighting), 0:44; Kampfer Pro (hooking), 6:13.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Miller Pro (boarding), 3:50; Giroux Spr (tripping), 7:29; McIver Pro (slashing), 13:29.
3rd Period-3, Springfield, Atkinson 29 (St. Pierre), 1:36. 4, Springfield, Byers 12 (Kubalik, Cullity), 12:05. 5, Springfield, St. Pierre 10 (Giroux), 18:56 (EN). Penalties-St. Pierre Spr (goaltender interference), 7:59; Giroux Spr (holding), 14:04.
Shots on Goal-Providence 17-8-6-31. Springfield 10-9-9-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 0 / 3; Springfield 0 / 3.
Goalies-Providence, Khudobin 18-17-3 (27 shots-24 saves). Springfield, Legace 11-16-1 (31 shots-30 saves).
A-4,566
Referees-Geno Binda (22).
Linesmen-Paul Simeon (66), Frank Murphy (29).
GAME PREVIEW – The Springfield Falcons and Providence Bruins meet for the eighth time this season when they drop the puck on Saturday night starting at 7 pm at the MassMutual Center. The Falcons are 1-5-0-1 against the Bruins this year and Springfield has gone 0-4-0-1 in the last five match-ups with Providence.
Martin St. Pierre leads the Falcons in scoring against the Bruins this year with six assists in seven games. Dane Byers, Alexandre Giroux, Cam Atkinson and Nick Drazenovic all lead the team in goals against the Bruins this season with two each. Goaltender Manny Legace has a 2.22 goals against average and .926 save percentage against Providence this year.
Carter Camper leads the Bruins in scoring against the Falcons this year with two goals and six assists for eight points in seven games. Jamie Tardif leads Providence in goals against Springfield this season with three. Goaltender Anton Khudobin is 6-1 with a 2.07 goals against average and .935 save percentage against the Falcons this year.
The Falcons continue a stretch of three games in three days this weekend as they look to rebound from a 6-3 loss suffered Friday night against the Connecticut Whale in Hartford. The Falcons received goals from Cam Atkinson, Cody Bass and Dane Byers, while also having Tomas Kubalik collect three assists on the evening. Martin St. Pierre extended his scoring streak to three straight games with an assist.
The Bruins head into Springfield coming off a 6-0 shutout win over the Hershey Bears on Friday night on home ice. Providence had 11 of their 18 skaters register at least a point led by two goals each from Craig Cunningham and Jamie Tardif. Maxime Sauve (2 assists), Kevan Miller (1 goal, 1 assist) and Colby Cohen (1 goal, 1 assist) also had multi-point nights. Goaltender Michael Hutchinson recorded the shutout stopping all 23 shots he faced.
FALCONS PLAYER/TEAM NOTES
The Springfield Falcons are 23-24-2-2 through 51 games, they now have 25 games remaining in the regular season, 11 home and 14 away. The Falcons remain in the hunt for a playoff spot as they sit two points behind third place Albany and five points behind second place Bridgeport in the Northeast Division. Bridgeport and Worcester both sit in the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Falcons have four games remaining head to head with Bridgeport and two with Worcester.
With the Falcons having 25 regular season games remaining, the following is a breakdown of how many games left they have against each opponent: Bridgeport (4), Providence (3), St. John’s (3), Connecticut (2), Wilkes-Barre (2), Norfolk (2), Worcester (2), Portland (2), Adirondack (2), Hershey (1), Manchester (1), and Syracuse (1).
Cam Atkinson remains in second place in the AHL in goals with 28 on the year. Atkinson is also tied for the AHL lead in power play goals with 13. Atkinson has four goals in his last four games. He is eight goals shy of tying Daniel Briere’s rookie record for most goals in a season by a Falcons rookie with 36 set in 1997-98. Including last season, Atkinson has 31 goals in his first 53 games in the AHL.
Goaltender Manny Legace is currently tied with Scott Langkow for the team record in wins by a goaltender with 63….Alexandre Giroux recorded his 700th career pro point on Sunday, February 12 against Manchester. Giroux is only three goals shy of tying Jim Bartlett for 8th on the AHL’s All-Time goals list.
BRUINS PLAYER NOTES – Caller Ridderwall has points in three straight games collecting one goal and four assists in that span….Jamie Tardif has points in two straight contests picking up three goals and one assist in that span.
