Jose Theodore by Meredith Martini

Player of the Week (Feb. 21): As a whole, Fredericton goalie Jose Theodore is not real happy about being in the AHL. But he had to be pleased for at least this week, as he went 2-0-0 with a 1.50 GAA, a .962 save percentage and a shutout for the baby Habs and that was good enough for some hardware. Theodore had a 41 save blanking of the Falcons and held his own against Hartford to give the Canadiens a perfect week on the road.

Player of the Week (Feb. 28): He has the award, but still hasn't been online. Portland's Jean-Pierre Dumont won the POTW for the second time this year, and again the Blackhawks yanked him out of the AHL just before he could do the POTW online stint. Dumont scored four goals and added three assists in the Pirates' two games during the week, both of which they lost. Dumont is now third in rookie scoring and second in rookie goal-scoring, having topped the 30 goal mark, and has a seven game goal-scoring streak alive.

Rookie of the Month: Weren't we just talking about him? That would be the Pirates' Dumont, who picks up this award as well. Dumont had a total of 16 points in eight games during February, with 11 goals and five assists. Only Jason Podollan has scored more goals this season. Dumont has also finally taken the lead in rookie power play goals with 12, an honor that had been held by Martin Sonnenberg for two months after his recall to the NHL. Dumont won't be adding to his totals though, he's back in Chicago.

John Grahame by Meredith Martini

Goaltender of the Month: Nothing like perfection to get noticed. Providence's John Grahame was 8-0-0 for the month, posting a 2.82 GAA and an .890 save percentage in the nine games he appeared in. While Grahame was yanked from one game, the P-Bruins came back to win and get him off the hook. Grahame hasn't lost a game since December 26, with 16 straight wins despite the occasional mid-game departure.

Plus/Minus Player of the Month: The overall leader in plus/minus this season is a Providence Bruin, Antti Laaksonen. The winner of the monthly award for February is a Providence Bruin, but not Laaksonen. Terry Virtue wins the award after posting a +15 in 13 Bruins games during February. That brings Virtue's overall rating to +30, still behind Laaksonen's +34.

The Battle For Quebec: After the failure of the Nordiques and the Rafales, one would think Quebec City and Le Colise‚ wouldn't be attractive to a new team. Instead, two groups fought over who gets to put an AHL team there. Jean-Paul Boily's group was the first interested and had strong backing from the Ottawa Senators, with whom they had completed an affiliation deal. Polls indicated about two-thirds of the fans in QC would support a Senators farm team there.

Conversely, Jacques Tanguay's group didn't get an agreement with Montreal until late February and the fans haven't gotten over their dislike for the Canadiens. But Tanguay is close to a deal with Molson for sponsorship and already owns a Le Colise‚ tenant, the Quebec Remparts. Once the agreement with Montreal was set, Tanguay got his team and Freddie lost theirs, apparently guaranteeing the AHL will be in Quebec City next season. The Senators have already started their next plan for the dormant franchise they own - a farm team in the Corel Centre. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the Adirondack Red Wings are toast. The ownership group of both the Detroit and Adirondack Wings is in the process of building a nice new arena in Rossford, a suburb of Toledo, and will move the baby Wings there as soon as the arena is finished. That could be as soon as 2000-2001. That would also put the Red Wings' AHL and ECHL affiliates in the same city. Could be interesting to see which one draws better.

Messin' With Success: Two teams that had a good thing going in the net voluntarily ended it. The only goaltender who's been healthy or consistent for Portland all season is Joaquin Gage, who also happened to be the only Portland goaltender not under contract to Washington. Gage was released when the other goalies were finally healthy, but fear not, he landed with the Providence Bruins. Yes, that is correct. The Boston Bruins, seeing the sterling tandem of Jim Carey and John Grahame in net, and seeing how Carey was in the top five in most AHL goaltending categories, put him on waivers and bought out the last two years of his contract. Carey was signed by the goalie- short St. Louis Blues hours after clearing waivers.

And The Rest...: Hartford's Vladimir Vorobiev had a twelve game point streak...

Cincinnati set a franchise record for attendance Feb. 21, drawing 8,241...

The second overtime game under the new rules featured the first four-on-three power play - and it resulted in a win for St. John's, as Lonny Bohonos' power-play goal in overtime put them up over Fredericton 3-2 on Feb. 22...

The next night the two teams repeated their performances, with St. John's picking up a 5-4 victory in OT this time. Jason Podollan finished a hat trick 1:46 into overtime for a win and his AHL-leading 38th goal...

Saint John picked up a 5-2 win against Lowell Feb. 23 as Greg Pankewicz had two goals and an assist...

While Adirondack's ECHL acquisition Xavier Majic had been racking up the assists, he didn't get a goal until Feb. 24. That was the game-winner for the Red Wings, who defeated Springfield 4-3...

Richard Rochefort by Meredith Martini

Another OT game in the new system and another decision. Albany beat Syracuse 3-2 on a Richard Rochefort goal early in overtime on Feb. 24...

Landon Wilson scored two goals but it was Shawn Bates' unassisted shortie that was the game-winner as Providence knocked off Hartford 6-5 Feb. 24. The Bruins spotted the 'pack three goals before mounting a comeback...

Fredericton came out ahead of Saint John Feb. 25 by a score of 5-2, with Scott King picking up three points...

Kentucky picked up several protests of their 'Wieners on Ice' intermission promotion on Feb. 26. Apparently a lot of people thought having a half dozen dachshunds 'race' was cruel. There were no protests lodged against the second intermission baby race, however, and both promotions went on as scheduled...

Mark Greig registered a hat trick plus an assist as the Phantoms defeated Adirondack 5- 2 on Feb. 26. Peter White assisted on all of Greig's goals, plus scored one of his own...

Also notching a hat trick that night was Providence's Shawn Bates, who scored two of his shorthanded as the baby Bruins also won by a 5-2 score over Worcester...

Kentucky's dachshund race went off without a hitch, but the game was hitched by Springfield's Joe Dziedzic who scored two goals as the Falcons beat their hosts 4-2...

Hamilton won their fourth straight on Feb. 26, beating Syracuse 4-2 as Craig Millar had a three point night for the Bulldogs...

For the second time in a week, the Albany River Rats defeated Rochester by that all popular score of 4-2 on Feb. 26. Eric Bertrand scored two for the Rats...

Cincinnati defeated Hershey 2-1 compliments of Ivan Ciernik's successful penalty shot against David Aebischer...

Another 2-1 score Feb. 27 as Fredericton's Jose Theodore was less than three minutes away from blanking the Maple Leafs...

Another day, another hat trick. Saint John's Hnat Domenichelli picked up one and Chris Clark added his own pair as the Flames beat Portland 6-3. Martin St. Louis set up all of Domenichelli's goals...

Hershey won over Kentucky in overtime 5-4 Feb. 27 on Mike Gaul's OT winner. Chris Armstrong and Christian Matte had three points each...

Providence finally lost a game, just their third in thirty games, when Lowell beat them 3- 1 on Feb. 27...

Cincinnati was also an overtime winner, getting a goal in the first minute of OT from Jeff Winter to top Springfield 3-2 Feb. 27. It was Winter's first point of the season...

Scott Roche came close to a shutout but settled for a mere 5-1 win over Hartford Feb. 27...

A wild one between St. John's and Portland Feb. 28, as seven goals were scored in the third period. The Leafs' four goals gave them the 7-5 victory...

Hamilton's Mike Minard joined the team Jan. 27 when Tim Thomas quit. Minard won his fourth straight game for the Bulldogs Feb. 28, stopping 48 of 50 shots...

Philadelphia thought they were going to win. Kentucky had other ideas and scored two late goals for a 3-3 tie, keeping the T-Blades one point ahead of the Phantoms. Steve Guolla set up all of Kentucky's goals...

Attendance for the game at the First Union Centre was 19,524, second best attendance in AHL history. The Phantoms were trying to top 20,000 and get the number one spot...

Dane Jackson scored two for Lowell but New Haven came back for a 2-2 tie on Feb. 28...

Hartford took a 3-0 lead into the third period against Providence but blew it, allowing the Bruins to tie and then letting Randy Robitaille win it in OT. The Wolfpack played with only 13 skaters in the game...

Rochester blew a 3-1 lead, giving up a natural hat trick to Martin St. Louis and thus a 4- 3 lead to Saint John. But Mike Hurlbut scored less than six seconds left to leave the teams tied at 4...

Portland's Jean-Pierre Dumont also picked up a hat trick Feb. 28 against St. John's, but Portland still lost the game 7-5...

The Hershey Bears are suing the UHL's Muskegon Fury. The Bears loaned Rod Hinks to the Fury in the 96-97 season, but Muskegon never reimbursed Hershey for their part of Hinks' salary...

Only Providence has won more road games than the Beast of New Haven...

Joe Dziedzic by Meredith Martini

Nothing like the last .02 seconds of the game. That's when Joe Dziedzic scored the game-winning goal for Springfield in their 3-2 victory over Saint John Mar. 3...

Rob Shearer and Christian Matte combined for the three goals as Hershey defeated Albany 5-3 on Mar. 3. The pair have 36 points in their last 11 games...

The borrowed Bujar Amidovski won his first game for the Phantoms, stopped 30 shots for a 3-2 win over New Haven Mar. 3...

Worcester tends to outshoot opponents. For instance, outshooting Portland on Mar. 3 55-27. Oh yeah, Portland's Martin Brochu stopped all 55. Meanwhile Benoit Gratton had a hat trick and Ryan VandenBussche had a pair of goals as the Pirates proceeded to lambast the IceCats 8-0...

Saint John lost by a 3-2 score again on Mar. 4, but with four minutes left this time. Erik Rasmussen scored the game-winner for Rochester...

Jean-Francois Jomphe was involved in all three Springfield goals, including scoring the game-winner, as the Falcons beat Fredericton 3-1 Mar. 4...

The Phantoms got a point out of Fredericton when Richard Park tied the game with just 36 seconds left in regulation Mar. 5. The game ended 3-3...

St. John's outshot Lowell 34 to 20 Mar. 5, but it was the Monsters who got the 2-1 win...

Alexander Boikov scored two goals for Kentucky as they defeated Adirondack 3-2 Mar. 5. It was the T-Blades' first win in five games...

Worcester made reparations for the Portland blowout with a 5-2 win over Hartford Mar. 5. Jochen Hecht had two goals for the IceCats, while Tyson Nash and Stephane Roy had three points each...

New Haven got a shorthanded goal from Pat Mikesch in the third period to earn a 2-2 tie with the Pirates...

Lowell's Mike Kennedy scored in overtime as the Lock Monsters beat St. John's by a 3-2 score for the second game in a row Mar. 6. The game went to OT when Mike Mader scored with 34 seconds left in regulation...

Mike Gaul by Kevin Fischer

Mike Gaul had his first two goal game in over a year but it wasn't enough. Rochester beat Hershey 5-3 Mar. 6 on a three goal first period...

Syracuse won for only the second time in 19 games - against division leader Kentucky. The Crunch dropped the T-Blades 6-2 on five power play goals, two from Josh Holden...

Adirondack's Ryan Tobler scored late in regulation Mar. 6 to give the Wings a 3-2 win over Cincinnati...

Providence goaltender John Grahame set a new AHL record Mar. 7, winning his 19th straight game to break Mike Dunham's record. The Bruins beat Fredericton 5-4 on a couple of goals from Shawn Bates...

Kentucky gave back to Syracuse Mar. 7, winning 5-3 as Steve Guolla and Matt Bradley scored 10 seconds apart in the last minute of the game...

Brad Smyth, Vladimir Vorobiev and Derek Armstrong all had three points for the WolfPack against New Haven as Hartford won 6-3...

Mike Gaul scored an overtime game-winner for the second time in eight days, this time getting a power play goal with 51 seconds left against Cincinnati Mar. 7...

Also getting an OT game-winner that day was Worcester's Lubos Bartecko, to give the IceCats a 5-4 win over Adirondack. Jan Horacek had three points...

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