Player of the Week (Jan. 10): Showing up for training camp out of shape will not impress your coach. Six goals in three games will. Hershey's Christian Matte was booted out of Avalanche camp but made up for it in spades lately, with a six- game goal-scoring streak and his first hat trick of the season against Portland. Matte had seven points total to win the POTW. Matte had 13 points in his first nine games back with the Bears after another demotion from Colorado.

Christian Matte by Kevin Fischer

Player of the Week (Jan. 17): He's starting the All-Star Game, but first he takes care of regular season business. Does he ever. Rochester's Martin Biron had a sparkling week in net for the Amerks to acquire some hardware a week early. Biron won all three games he started, with a 1.00 GAA and a .968 save percentage as he stopped 91 of 94 shots sent his way. He also posted his league-leading fifth shutout of the season and tenth of his career, tying him on the franchise record list with Gerry Cheevers. Biron is also leading the AHL in GAA, wins and shutouts, and is second in minutes, saves and save percentage.

Fast Track: Seems like it was just a few months ago that Bill Stewart took Saint John to the Calder Cup finals, and now he's the Islanders head coach. Actually it was just a few months ago, before the Islanders signed away Stewart to be an assistant on Long Island. And a good choice for head coach too, not the least because the Islanders had to fork over a draft pick to Calgary for plundering their farm coach.

Should've Known Better: Albany coach John Cunniff faces criminal misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and trespassing in an Albany court after a Jan. 7 incident at a neighbor's house. Cunniff and the neighbor apparently were having a dispute regarding Cunniff's girlfriend, which resulted in Cunniff showing up at the neighbor's house late at night and breaking the door. Neither Cunniff nor the Rats have commented on the matter.

New Heavyweight Champion: Springfield's Rob Murray etched his name in the AHL record books - he is now the career penalty minutes champ of the AHL. Fred Glover's 30-year-old record of 2,402 PiMs fell as Murray's penalty minute total rose to 2,403. Of course, it took Glover 1,201 games to pick up his number. Murray needed 686 games. He's a baaaad boy. By the way, Geordie Kinnear passed the 1,000 PiM mark last week too. Maybe he can catch up.

Cost of Living: Attendance figures through Jan. 21, plus ticket costs at each arena (thanks to the Lexington Herald for supplying the info.)

Team             Total  Games  Average
Philadelphia   275,569     25   11,022
Rochester      164,206     21    7,819
Hartford       149,161     21    7,102
Providence     124,337     19    6,544
Kentucky       146,764     24    6,115
Hershey        133,992     23    5,825
Worcester      122,885     23    5,342
Syracuse       114,546     22    5,206
Albany          62,572     13    4,813
Springfield     96,500     21    4,595
Saint John     105,091     24    4,378
Hamilton        93,028     22    4,228
Portland        94,999     23    4,130
New Haven       84,974     21    4,046
Cincinnati      80,333     21    3,825
Adirondack      78,971     22    3,589
Lowell          65,354     20    3,267
St. John's      74,246     24    3,093
Fredericton     69,958     23    3,041
League       2,137,486    412    5,188
 
Team           Ticket prices
Adirondack      $11.50
Albany          $14, $8
Cincinnati      $14, $11, $9, $5
Fredericton     $12.50, $8
Hamilton        $14, $10, $7
Hartford        $17.50, $14.50, $12.50
Hershey         $16, $15, $13, $10
Kentucky        $25, $17, $14, $12, $10
Lowell          $35, $11
New Haven       $14, $12, $7
Philadelphia    $15, $14, $11
Portland        $13, $11, $9, $7, $5
Providence      $11, $7
Rochester       $15, $12.50, $9
Saint John      $16.50, $14.40, $13, $12
Springfield     $12, $9.50, $7
St. John's      $16.50, $9
Syracuse        $13.50, $11.50, $9.50
Worcester       $13.50, $11.50, $8.50

Little Things:St. John's Jeff Reese turned in a 31-save shutout for the Leafs against Portland Jan. 12, as Lonny Bohonos racked up three points...

Aaron Downey by Meredith Martini

Aaron Downey scored two goals for Providence and Andre Savage had three points as well in a Jan. 12 game their coach still won't like - the Bruins had a 6-0 lead on Springfield after two periods, but allowed the Falcons four third-period goals...

That was Providence's tenth straight win, a season high in the AHL this year...

The Amerks squeaked out a division lead battle with Hamilton Jan. 12 after Matt Davidson broke a tie late in the game...

The Hartford WolfPack went eight days without a game, then played six in nine days...

The rookie rules. New Haven's Shane Willis is now the AHL scoring leader...

Providence hasn't lost at home since October 17. That's 14 games...

The Ottawa Senators recalled Ivan Ciernik and Erich Goldmann from loan to Adirondack and Hershey, respectively, and reassigned both to Cincinnati...

Jason Podollan and Lonny Bohonos had four points each for St. John's in its 5-4 win over Portland Jan. 14. Podollan tied Jeff Williams for the AHL goalscoring lead too, with 24...

Cincinnati's Tom Askey has two shutouts this season, and the Hershey Bears have been shut out twice. Guess what? Same games. Askey stopped 28 shots to blank the Bears 1-0 Jan. 14, with the only goal coming from Rastislav Pavlikovsky, who joined Cincinnati that day from the crosstown Cyclones...

Not only did Saint John finally win a game, they beat the division leader. The Flames ended a seven game losing streak Jan. 14 against Lowell as Eric Landry scored the game-winner in overtime for a 3-2 win...

How bad were the Flames? Ronald Petrovicky's late first period goal against Lowell Jan. 14 was Saint John's first lead in 459 minutes, 34 seconds...

Craig Mills bagged a pair as Portland won for the first time in six games, topping off Fredericton 4-2 on Jan. 15. It was the first time this season the Pirates won a game on a Friday...

Dennis Bonvie, of all people, scoring the game-tying goal for the Phantoms against St. John's Jan. 15. The game stayed tied, 3-3...

Kevin Hodson was sent to Adirondack for work and he got some against Albany, stopping 44 of 45 shots Jan. 15. Dave Paradise scored the game-winner for the Wings...

Kentucky lost their fourth straight after winning ten straight, this time dropping to New Haven 3-2 Jan. 15 on a game-winner from Jaroslav Spacek...

The T-Blades also lost enforcer Garrett Burnett for the rest of the season with a torn patellar tendon. Burnett was the second player the team lost to a knee injury, after a torn ACL finished Christian Gosselin...

The Providence Bruins won their 11th straight game, the best streak this season, as Mattias Timander scored his first goal of the year for a 3-2 win over Springfield Jan. 15...

All-Star Lubos Bartecko was returned to Worcester just in time for two goals and an assist against Hartford Jan. 15. Bartecko lost a hat trick to the crossbar as the IceCats won, 4-1...

The Jan. 15 game between Lowell and Saint John was called off due to the weather. It hasn't been rescheduled yet...

Chris O'Sullivan by Meredith Martini

But Saint John didn't need that game to get a second win. They did it Jan. 16 at Fredericton, winning 2-1 with both goals coming from Chris O'Sullivan. Martin St. Louis set up both goals and Igor Karpenko stopped 39 shots...

St. John's lost for the first time in five games, to Hershey 3-2 on Jan. 16. Ville Nieminen two goals to include the game- winner...

Sergei Vyshedkevich had two goals and Jiri Bicek set up three as Albany set down rival Adirondack 5-2 Jan. 16...

Kentucky ended a four game losing streak with a 2-2 tie with Hamilton. Dan Lacouture scored both goals for Hamilton...

The Amerks knocked over Syracuse 5-1 Jan. 16, with Jason Holland scoring his first goal since being traded by the Islanders last March...

The largest crowd of the season in Hartford saw the WolfPack and the Phantoms enter the third period tied at 2. Then they saw Hartford go nuts on Philly, scoring four goals for the 6-2 win. All-Star Johan Witehall had a three-point night...

The Providence Bruins' 11-game winning streak ended but their unbeaten streak continues after a 2-2 tie with Worcester Jan. 16. Cameron Mann scored both for Providence...

It was the second time in a week the struggling IceCats ended a double digit win streak. Worcester ended Kentucky's ten-game streak just days earlier...

The IceCats then proceeded to go wild on Hartford the next day, taking a 2-2 tie into the third and then scoring three unanswered goals for the 5-2 win that was the exact opposite of Hartford's game the night before...

Kentucky, meanwhile, completed the reversal of their losing streak with a 6-1 thumping of Hamilton Jan. 17. Steve Guolla and Herbert Vasiljevs had five points each...

The Phantoms, fresh off giving Hartford four unanswered goals, gave four more to St. John's the next day before staging a pair of comebacks to tie the game at 4 and then at 5 before allowing the game-winning goal to Ladislav Kohn with 52 seconds remaining in overtime. It was Kohn's fifth point, while Jason Podollan and Lonny Bohonos had three each...

Martin Biron got his fifth shutout of the season against Syracuse Jan. 17 with 23 saves as the Amerks won 5-0. Domenic Pittis scored two goals...

Providence kicked their unbeaten streak to a lucky 13 on Jan. 18 with a 6-2 win over Lowell, powered by two goal games from Randy Robitaille and Marquis Mathieu...

New Haven's four game win streak and six game unbeaten streak ended the same day when Springfield pulled off their patented third period comeback for a 4-2 win...

Hartford, Worcester and Albany all posted season highs in attendance on the weekend of Jan. 15-17, with 11,085, 11,972 and 9,036 respectively...

The Beast of New Haven are the lone team with two 20 goal scorers - Shane Willis and Scott Levins...

Providence is on pace to score over 300 goals this season...

The St. John's Maple Leafs got their offense in gear, with a 12 point week from Lonny Bohonos and a ten point week from Jason Podollan, neither of whom received the POTW...

The Phantoms are on pace to break the AHL record for shorthanded goals in a season. They have 16; the record is 26, set by St. Catharines in 1985-86

Adirondack's Dave Paradise ran up an eight-game point streak...

Albany's Steve Brule set a franchise record with a 15 game point streak, a streak that was ended by Adirondack...

Hershey's Marc Denis posted his second shutout of the season and Rob Shearer had three points as the Bears trounced St. John's 5-0 on Jan. 20...

That goose-egg was the first time this season the baby Leafs were involved on either end of a shutout. The only AHL team yet to appear on one side of a zero or the other is Hartford...

Jason Elliott hasn't played much lately, but still stopped 45 shots for the Red Wings in their 3-1 over Springfield Jan. 20. Darryl Laplante had a pair of goals...

Fredericton picked a 1-0 shutout against Lowell Jan. 20, with Martin Gendron scoring the only goal and Jose Theodore stopping 25 shots...

Worcester set a franchise record for fewest shots in a game, recording only 14 against Hartford in a 4-1 loss Jan. 20...

The Mighty Ducks took care of Syracuse Jan. 20, getting a 3-1 win after Chris Albert scored two goals...

Eric Veilleux had two goals and two assists against Syracuse Jan. 21 as the T-Blades went on to win 5-1. Jarrod Skalde also had three points...

Hershey knocked off Philadelphia for the second time in a row Jan. 22 as Ville Niemenen scored a pair. The Bears went on to win 5-2...

Providence ran their unbeaten streak up to 14 with a 3-2 win over Fredericton Jan.22...

Rookie Pierre Dagenais had three points in Albany's 7-2 win over Lowell Jan. 22, but more importantly three Rats scored their first ever AHL goals: Henrik Rehnberg, Josh DeWolf and David Cunniff...

Eric Landry and Chris Dingman split the goals as Saint John defeated Hamilton 4-1 Jan. 22...

Bobby House and Trevor Letowski had three points each for Springfield in a 5-1 win over Adirondack...

Cincinnati's Craig Reichert posted a five-point game against Syracuse Jan. 22, with a goal and four assists en route to a 7-1 win...

St. John's knocked off Rochester Jan. 22 when Brad Chartrand scored the gamewinner with just 1:23 remaining in regulation...

Shane Willis scored two and set up two as New Haven defeated Portland 4-2 Jan. 22. Byron Ritchie also had three points...

The Phantoms had better start watching their rear view mirror, because the Bears are just two points behind them. Hershey swept the home-and-home with Philly Jan. 23, winning 3-1 on Mitch Lamoureux's two goals...

Warren Luhning and Craig Charron were both involved in all four Lowell goals as the Monsters defeated Adirondack 4-1 Jan. 23...

Springfield also won 4-1 over Portland, as Trevor Letowski scored two goals including one short-handed, and Joe Corvo scored the others...

Yet another 4-1 game as Rochester knocked over Albany. Craig Fisher scored two...

Mathieu Garon stopped 23 shots for his third shutout of the season Jan. 23 as Fredericton took down Worcester 3-1...

It took 11 tries, but it finally happened - New Haven won a game in Hartford. They made it darn interesting too, as Byron Ritchie scored the winning goal with only 57 seconds remaining in regulation. The Beast came away on the good end of 2-1...

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