Springfield at River Rats

My apologies for my extended absence. Several issues have kept me away, but I plan to be around more regularly in the coming weeks, as events allow.

Pretty uneventful first period tonight at the former Knickerbocker Arena, with the Albany River Rats and Springfield Falcons in a scoreless tie. There was a total of 16 shots (Springfield, 9-7) and one penalty, on Albany defenseman Jon Paiement for hooking at 10:47.

The Falcons were outshot, 3-0, to that point, but directed three shots at Rats starting goalie Justin Peters during the two-minute advantage, and held a 9-4 edge in the last 8:22.

Albany (5-4) has dropped three of its last four games, outscored 13-8. Springfield (4-4-1-1) snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Lowell in its last game on Sunday, behind a hat trick from ex-Rats winger Chris Minard.

Minard and his wife are expecting their first child soon, as is Falcons alternate captain Jake Taylor, whose wife's due date is Saturday. As a precaution, Springfield athletic trainer Brandon Dionne drove Taylor's car to Albany (Taylor took the team bus) in case Taylor needed to get home quickly. Good thinking.


Here are tonight's lineups:

Albany line combinations: Drayson Bowman-Nick Dodge-Pat Dwyer (C); Zach Boychuk-Stefan Chaput-Jerome Samson; Chris Terry-Harrison Reed-Nicolas Blanchard (A); Brad Herauf-Jacob Micflikier-Matt Pistilli.

Defense pairings: Bryan Rodney (A)-Jonathan Paiement; Jamie McBain-Zack FitzGerald; Benn Olson-Brett Bellemore.

Scratches: D Brett Carson, C Mike Angelidis, RW Steve Goertzen.

Springfield line combinations: Viachelsav Trukhno-Ryan Potulny (A)-Colton Fretter; Charles Linglet-Chad Wiseman-Chris Minard; Liam Reddox-Ryan O'Marra-Colin McDonald; Kip Brennan-Geoff Paukovich-Ryan MacMurchy.

Defense pairings: Dean Arsene (C)-Jake Taylor (A); Chris Armstrong-Johan Motin; Cody Wild-Alex Plante.

Scratches: D Matt Nickerson, LW Bryan Lerg.