ROAD TRIP CONCLUDES IN ST. JOHN'S
April 8, 2012 - The Springfield Falcons concluded their weekend road trip to St. John's, Newfoundland on Sunday dropping a hard-fought 4-3 decision to the IceCaps. The Falcons rallied twice from one goal deficits in the third period, but St. John's forward Eric O'Dell scored on the power play at 11:06 of the third leading the IceCaps to victory. The Falcons split their weekend series in St. John's and will now return home to conclude the regular season next weekend at the MassMutual Center.
After a scoreless first period, the Falcons opened the scoring at 7:36 of the second period when Andrew Joudrey's slap shot beat St. John's goaltender Eddie Pasquale to the glove side giving Springfield a 1-0 lead. For Joudrey, it was his third goal in the last two games.
St. John's would battle back and take a lead of their own before the middle frame concluded when Kevin Clark and O'Dell scored just 2:43 apart late in the second period giving the IceCaps a 2-1 advantage heading into the third period.
In the third period, the scoring was fast and furious. Sean Collins tied the game at 2-2 for the Falcons when he tallied his first AHL goal at 4:48 of the final period, but St. John's Jason King converted on a 5 on 3 power play giving the IceCaps a 3-2 lead. The Falcons battled back again and tied the game when Alexandre Giroux took a feed from Martin St. Pierre evening the score at 3-3 at 9:06 of the third period.
St. John's used the power play again late in regulation when O'Dell converted for the second time in the game giving St. John's a 4-3 lead.
SUNDAY'S LINEUP
Alexandre Giroux -
Andrew Joudrey - Nick Drazenovic - Dane Byers
Ryan Garlock - Nate Longpre - Sean Collins
Boone Jenner - Aaron Bogosian
Theo Ruth - Cody Goloubef
Brent Regner - Greg Amadio
Patrick Cullity - David Savard
Anton Blomqvist
Paul Dainton
Manny Legace
Not dressed: Nick Holden (Injured), Adam Mair, Cody Bass (Injured), Mike Clemente, Tomas Kubalik (Injured), Matt Calvert (Injured), Trent Vogelhuber, Daniel New, Tim Spencer (Injured)
Springfield Falcons 3 at St. John's IceCaps 4 - Status: Final
Sunday, April 8, 2012 - Mile One Centre
Springfield 0 1 2 - 3
St. John's 0 2 2 - 4
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Savard Spr (slashing), 16:13.
2nd Period-1, Springfield, Joudrey 14 (Collins, Garlock), 7:36. 2, St. John's, Clark 12 (Meech), 11:11 (PP). 3, St. John's, O'Dell 10 (DeSantis, Albert), 13:54. Penalties-Festerling Stj (boarding), 4:47; Jenner Spr (slashing), 10:04; DeSantis Stj (hooking), 18:42.
3rd Period-4, Springfield, Collins 1 (Garlock), 4:48. 5, St. John's, King 21 (Gagnon), 6:17 (PP). 6, Springfield, Giroux 27 (MacLeod, St. Pierre), 9:06. 7, St. John's, O'Dell 11 (Dries, Clark), 11:06 (PP). Penalties-Giroux Spr (hooking), 5:36; Savard Spr (delay of game - restricted area), 6:36; Savard Spr (slashing), 9:42; Amadio Spr (misconduct - unsportsmanlike conduct), 11:06; Clark Stj (misconduct - unsportsmanlike conduct), 11:06; Byers Spr (boarding), 15:28; MacLeod Spr (tripping), 19:59.
Shots on Goal-Springfield 7-15-7-29. St. John's 15-11-10-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Springfield 0 / 2; St. John's 3 / 7.
Goalies-Springfield, Dainton 12-12-1 (36 shots-32 saves). St. John's, Pasquale 22-11-1 (29 shots-26 saves).
A-6,287
Referees-Marcus Vinnerborg (45).
Linesmen-Todd Horwood (34), Sheldon Keough (63).
SATURDAY'S RECAP
April 7, 2012 - The Springfield Falcons traveled to St. John's, Newfoundland and turned in a dominating performance on the road beating the St. John's IceCaps 6-3 at the Mile One Centre on Saturday night. Andrew Joudrey and Nate Longpre each scored twice in leading the Falcons to their 34th win of the season. The Falcons and IceCaps will meet again on Sunday starting at 4 pm local time, 2:30 eastern standard time.
"Obvioulsy a really good win tonight on the road," said Falcons head coach Rob Riley. "The guys played hard and we collected a well-deserved two points."
After falling behind 1-0 just 1:37 into the game, the Falcons responded in a big way and used the power play to get momentum back on their side. Martin St. Pierre converted on the man advantage at 11:09 of the first period evening the score at 1-1 and opening the floodgates for Springfield's offense. Just 56-seconds after St. Pierre tied the score, Joudrey tipped home a Greg Amadio shot from the left point give Springfield a 2-1 edge.
The Falcons carried a 2-1 lead into the second period and it was in the middle frame in which Springfield extended their lead and never looked back. The Falcons used their second power play marker of the night at 3:12 of the middle period when Longpre gave Springfield a 3-1 lead. Longpre added his second goal of the game at 10:56 of the second period building a 4-1 advantage. Joudrey tacked on his second goal of the night at 13:06 of the second period giving Springfield a 5-1 lead through 40 minutes.
Cody Goloubef netted his first goal of the year in the third period and Paul Dainton earned the win between the pipes stopping 26 shots. Nick Drazenovic concluded the night with three assists.
SATURDAY'S LINEUP
Alexandre Giroux -
Andrew Joudrey - Nick Drazenovic - Dane Byers
Ryan Garlock - Nate Longpre - Sean Collins
Tim Spencer - Boone Jenner - Aaron Bogosian
Theo Ruth - Cody Goloubef
Brent Regner - Greg Amadio
Patrick Cullity - David Savard
Paul Dainton
Manny Legace
Not dressed: Nick Holden (Injured), Adam Mair, Cody Bass (Injured), Mike Clemente, Tomas Kubalik (Injured), Matt Calvert (Injured), Trent Vogelhuber, Daniel New, Anton Blomqvist
Springfield Falcons 6 at St. John's IceCaps 3 - Status: In Progress (2:11 remaining in 3rd)
Saturday, April 7, 2012 - Mile One Centre
Springfield 2 3 1 - 6
St. John's 1 0 2 - 3
1st Period-1, St. John's, O'Dell 7 (Albert), 1:40. 2, Springfield, St. Pierre 11 (Drazenovic, Byers), 11:09 (PP). 3, Springfield, Joudrey 12 (Amadio, Drazenovic), 12:15. Penalties-Murray Stj (hooking), 11:05; Goloubef Spr (interference), 14:48.
2nd Period-4, Springfield, Longpre 10 3:12 (PP). 5, Springfield, Longpre 11 (Collins, Garlock), 10:56. 6, Springfield, Joudrey 13 (Drazenovic, Savard), 13:06. Penalties-Clark Stj (slashing), 2:11.
3rd Period-7, St. John's, O'Dell 8 (Redmond, Albert), 7:25 (PP). 8, Springfield, Goloubef 1 11:03. 9, St. John's, O'Dell 9 12:56. Penalties-Goloubef Spr (high-sticking), 6:44; Dries Stj (hooking), 9:00; Joudrey Spr (double minor - high-sticking), 16:18.
Shots on Goal-Springfield 3-9-6-18. St. John's 7-8-14-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Springfield 2 / 3; St. John's 1 / 3.
Goalies-Springfield, Dainton 11-11-1 (29 shots-26 saves). St. John's, Aebischer 15-10-2 (9 shots-5 saves); Pasquale 21-11-1 (9 shots-7 saves).
A-6,287
Referees-Marcus Vinnerborg (45).
Linesmen-Todd Horwood (34), Sheldon Keough (63).
FRIDAY'S TRAVEL DAY RECAP
April 6, 2012 - Happy Good Friday everyone as Damon Markiewicz checks in from St. John's Newfoundland tonight where we are 90 minutes ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. It was a long travel day, but a good one that had no delays thankfully. Myself, equipment manager Ralph Calvanese and head athletic trainer Tom Bourdon took a flight with all of the equipment from Logan Airport in Boston, had a layover in Toronto before arriving in St. John's. The day started at 1 am at the MassMutual Center where we packed all of the equipment on a truck and headed for Boston. Myself and Bourdon sat in the back with the equipment, it was cold and bumpy. We arrived at Logan Airport around 3:30 am, checked in with Air Canada and finally departed for Toronto at 6:30 am.
The players and coaches took a separate flight leaving Logan Airport at 8:15 am, connecting through Halifax before arriving in St. John's. The bus picked up the players at 5 am in Springfield and Louie our award winning bus driver from Peter Pan delivered the team to Boston for the flight.
We arrived in Toronto around 8:15 am, had a quick breakfast at the airport and boarded a plan for St. John's around 11:45 am. Once we arrived in St. John's around 4:30 pm local time (3 pm EST), we gathered all 37 hockey bags we are traveling with and boarded an equipment truck to the arena in St. John's, Mile One Centre. When we fly as a team, we fly commercial so we are traveling with the general public, no private plane. This also means, when we gather the hockey equipment, we are right there with the general public waiting for our bags to appear. As one youngster reminded me in Toronto, this young fan was displaying his St. John's IceCaps jersey and stated he will be at both games this weekend. This reminded me that we were truly on a road trip, no familiar faces on this trip.
During our connection flight from Toronto to St. John's, myself, Calvanese and Bourdon had to gather all of the bags and lead them through customs. It's always adventurous trying to gather hockey bags down at the baggage claim, but we started the day with 37 bags and ended the day with 37 bags. Finally by 6 pm St. John's time, everyone had arrived in Newfoundland, players, coaches, trainers and staff. After a quick dinner in downtown St. John's, everyone used some time to rest up for two important games. If you ever get a chance to visit St. John's, do it, these are some of the nicest people in the world who love their hockey.
HOCKEY UPDATE
On the hockey side of things, there was some news today for the Falcons. Maksim Mayorov was recalled by the Columbus Blue Jackets. His hockey bag was at Logan Airport when assistant coach Brad Larsen tracked down Calvanese to make sure the equipment truck dropping off the gear had Mayorov's bag on it headed back to Springfield.
With Mayorov on recall, the Falcons have 21 players on the trip in St. John's. The following is a breakdown of who is on the trip in St. John's:
Forwards - Tim Spencer, Nathan Longpre, Sean Collins, Wade MacLeod, Dane Byers, Nick Drazenovic, Boone Jenner, Alexandre Giroux, Andrew Joudrey, Ryan Garlock, Martin St. Pierre, Aaron Bogosian
Defensemen - Greg Amadio, Anton Blomqvist, Theo Ruth, Brent Regner, Patrick Cullity, David Savard, Cody Goloubef
Goalies - Manny Legace, Paul Dainton
BLUE JACKETS SIGN WEBER
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed defenseman Will Weber to a standard two-year entry level contract, club Executive Vice President and General Manager Scott Howson announced today.
Weber, 23, just completed his senior season at Miami University (CCHA), where he registered four assists and 69 penalty minutes in 40 games. In 154 career games with the RedHawks, he tallied 4-26-30, 263 penalty minutes and a cumulative plus/minus rating of +26 from 2008-12.
A native of Gaylord, Michigan, Weber was the Blue Jackets’ third pick, 53rd overall, in the 2007 Entry Draft. He took home CCHA All-Tournament team honors in 2010-11 after recording 1-10-11, 57 penalty minutes and was +7 in 33 games. He was named CCHA Best Defensive Defenseman in 2009-10 after collecting 1-9-10, 62 penalty minutes and was +12 in 43 games, setting career highs in the latter two categories. Prior to his career at Miami, he notched 8-10-18, 137 penalty minutes and was +12 in 46 games with Chicago of the United States Hockey League.
