Player of the Week (Jan. 25): He's spent a lot of this season in Toronto, but when he's been in St. John's he's done the job and goaltender Marcel Cousineau gets the POTW after a week with a 2-0-2 record, 1.92 average and .944 save percentage. Cousineau faced the same two teams - Albany and Portland - and had the same results, a win and a tie, against each team.

Marcel Cousineau by Tricia McMillan

Player of the Week (Feb. 1): Springfield Falcon Brad Isbister only played in two games last week, but he had a hat trick plus another goal and two assists and came up with an award. The latter scoring (the goal was the game-winner) came against New Haven on Jan. 30, followed by the hat trick against Worcester. Isbister spent most of the season with Phoenix before being demoted recently.

Insurance Player of the Month: As seems to be habit, the award goes to a River Rat. This time it's rookie centerman John Madden and his +13 in 13 games picking up the nod. Madden, a college teammate of current teammate Brendan Morrison, was signed by the Devils as a free agent after he graduated from Michigan. Madded also ranks second in the season totals as he is tied with Philadelphia's Jamie Heward at +26, just behind Hamilton's Scott Fraser at +27.

Rookie of the Month: He won Player of the Week, went to the NHL and was named to the PlanetUSA All-Star team in absentia. Now he is the Rookie of the Month, also in absentia. He would be Cincinnati's Matt Cullen, who had 17 points in just seven games during February, including 11 goals. He had seven multiple-point games and four multiple-goal games and is expected back in the AHL at least long enough to participate in the All-Star Game.

Goaltender of the Month: Last month his protege Petr Franek won the award, this month he gets it himself (and the AHL actually announced the award this time). Hamilton Bulldogs JF Labbe wins the award for the first time as a non-Hershey Bear after he went 7-3-4 with a 2.65 GAA and .923 save percentage in 14 games for the Bulldogs. He shutout the high-flying Flames 5-0 and now ranks second in the league in wins, save percentage and shutouts. Labbe is also en route to the All-Star Game.

Additional Olympians: Several AHL personnel are in Nagano for the time being. Albany coach John Cunniff is an assistant coach for Team USA, linesman Tim Kotyra is on the officiating staff, and players Robert Petrovicky (Slovakia), Alexander Zhurik (Belarus), Erich Goldmann (Germany) and Tuomas Gronman (Finland) will be, well, playing. Late adds from the AHL, all players, include: Jan Benda (Germany), Alexei Lojkin (Belarus) and Martin Hohenberger (Austria).

In And Out: Igor Karpenko made one heckuva splash with the Saint John Flames, posting two shutouts and coming within nine seconds of a third in his three emergency starts for the team. Then he went back to the UHL's Port Huron; Karpenko is property of the IHL's Las Vegas Thunder and the Thunder were unenthused about loaning him to Calgary, insisting Karpenko be returned to Port Huron rather than making an arrangement with the Flames.

Eric Houde by Tricia McMillan

All-Star Trivia: As provided by the league, natch. The Empire Division is sending the most players to the game, with 15. The Atlantic is sending a mere seven. Thirteen of the eighteen teams landed players on each team. The Philadelphia Phantoms and Albany River Rats are sending five players each. Hamilton's Jean-Francois Labbe and Albany's Geordie Kinnear are on their third time around as All-Stars. Rochester Amerks rep Craig Charron is the nephew of PlanetUSA honorary captain Jim Craig. Twenty-eight players will face off against teammates; six will face their coach. Wanna talk? The AHL has scheduled six on-line chats with the following: Bryan Trottier, Jim Craig and Pat Flatley, Brian Boucher and Rory Fitzpatrick, Steve Guolla and Marc Savard, Bill Barber and Bob Hartley, and AHL President David Andrews.

More All-Star Stuff: The Washington Capitals will not permit Andrew Brunette to play for Team Canada and the Buffalo Sabres decided likewise as to Vaclav Varada appearing for PlanetUSA. Conversely, St. Louis has promised to send Rory Fitzpatrick to the game and Anaheim is expected to have Matt Cullen available. No word yet on the other players still in the NHL. Team Canada captain Dane Jackson was returned to the Amerks by the Islanders and promptly broke his ankle in his first game back. He won't play in the All-Star Game, but will still attend as a guest. He was replaced on the roster by Fredericton's Eric Houde.

You may remember that starting last season, area bantam players were invited to join the Skills Competition as members of the PlanetUSA team. One of them was the only player in the competition to nail all four targets in the accuracy shooting phase. This year's aspiring stars are Syracuse-area 14-year-olds Chuck Wallace, Josh Randall and Brent Bucktooth. They will participate in the Skills Competition as regular players and their stats count.

All-Star Favoritism?: The Hershey Bears are absolutely livid over the 'rescheduling' of the snowed out game with Syracuse. As you may recall, the Bears were ready, willing and able to play Dec. 29 but the Crunch opted to postpone the game due to heavy snow in the area. Hershey suggested a late-January makeup but Syracuse declined, citing All-Star preparations. Hershey then proposed three dates in March, all three of which were opposed by Syracuse and the AHL sided with the Crunch. The Crunch proposed one date - March 23 - which was opposed by Hershey as it would give the Bears seven game in nine days, plus trips to Kentucky on either end of the makeup date. The league approved that date despite Hershey's strong objections.

More Adventures in Travel: The New Jersey Devils recalled Peter Zezel from Albany, but that was the easy part. Zezel was with the Rats in Fredericton at the time, so he flew from Fredericton to Montreal with the intent of then flying to New York. His problem? There was a storm in Montreal and no flights going out. So Zezel rented a car, drove to Albany and spent the night at home, then tried to drive to New York the next morning. But he hit a patch of ice and wound up in a ditch; by the time he got the car towed out and arrived in New York, the game was less than an hour away and Zezel was scratched for being late. He then flew out with the Devils to their next game - in Montreal. He didn't play that game either.

Maybe You Should Ask First: Trades between the AHL and the IHL are rare and there's a reason for that, as exemplified by the Rochester Americans. Desperately seeking to shake the team up, Amerks GM Jody Gage worked out a deal with the Detroit Vipers to send Patrice Tardif to the Vipers for NHL vet Brent Fedyk and rookie Tim Murray. Tardif showed up in Detroit, Murray showed up in Rochester, and Fedyk refused to show up anywhere, much less Rochester. Fedyk apparently will retire rather than report. Last season the Amerks cut a deal to acquire Mike Donnelly, but he also refused to report. Hint guys - before you trade for someone, you might want to see if he's willing to show up first.

Number Please: Go figure, as it were. When Fredericton and Hartford recently hooked up, the Wolfpack's Peter Ferraro wasn't listed on the lineup card given the referee and the officials had no problem with the omission. Days later the Portland Pirates were hit with a minor penalty when Saint John's coach Bill Stewart noticed the Pirates' lineup card contained an incorrect uniform number for goaltender Mike O'Neill, crediting him with #30 when in fact that was Martin Brochu's number. Then Fredericton and Saint John hooked up Jan. 30 and 31 and the Canadiens submitted a lineup card listing Eric Houde as both #20 and #26, when #26 belonged to Eric Belanger. Belanger was given a game misconduct by referee Mark Joanette during the first intermission because of coach Michel Therrien's mistake and some glaring inconsistency in rule enforcement. (For the record, a bench minor should cover it. It wasn't Belanger's mistake.) Stewart claims he may protest the game for allowing Belanger to play the first period, another overreaction.

David Ling by Tricia McMillan

Of course there was plenty else in that Flames/Habs series to capture interest - and earn each team's coach an honorary diaper. When Therrien and Stewart were through carping over the lineup discrepancy, the baby Habs further decimated the Flames' already totalled lineup when the Habs' David Ling slashed the Flames' Sami Helenius and kneed Denis Gauthier, knocking both out indefinitely. No penalties were called on either play; then the Habs' Donald MacLean kneed Flame Ladislav Kohn and received only a major penalty, prompting Stewart into a post-game screaming match with the director of officials that earned him a gross misconduct and later a $300 fine. Stewart sent tapes of three plays to the league for review, so Therrien sent the league tapes of four plays he claimed warranted review even though no one was injured on his team. Even the team's trainers managed to get into screaming fits with each other in these games; the Habs' trainer and goalie Jose Theodore were observed yanking sticks away from Flames players and breaking them. Real mature behavior, guys.

The immaturity behind the benches overshadowed some great performances on the ice by Houde, who scored both Fredericton goals in a 2-1 victory; and Saint John goaltender Tyler Moss, who stopped 40 of 41 shots in the loss.

Packed In Tight: The combined attendance for the nine games played between the Phantoms and the Bears so far this season is over 100,000 - more than the full season draws for New Haven, Adirondack, Fredericton and St. John's. Even more interesting is that Hershey's average attendance at the four games they hosted is 7,568 and more than that number of tickets already have been sold for the two remaining matchups Feb. 14 and 21. This is interesting because the official capacity of the Hersheypark Arena is 7,300. Let's hear it for standing room tickets!

Other Things The Amerks lost captain Scott Nichol for the rest of the season after major reconstructive surgery on his shoulder. However, Nichol intends to stay with the team as an assistant coach while rehabbing...

The Kentucky Thoroughblades have passed the 500,000 mark in attendance in just 65 home games...

Adirondack's Paul Brousseau leads the league in power-play goals with 17 despite spendng several weeks in Tampa. He's there now, too...

Not only was Igor Karpenko's goose egg against Albany his first shutout, it was also the Rats'; Albany hadn't been shut out since last April...

Peter Zezel by Tricia McMillan

Hamilton Bulldog Scott Fraser leads the league in +/- with a +26...

Hamilton's Joe Hulbig, Syracuse's Lubomir Vaic, Albany's John Madden, Springfield's Brad Isbister and New Haven's Peter Worrell all had hat tricks in the last two weeks...

When the Rochester Americans defeated Worcester Jan. 24, it was their first road win since Dec. 10...

Saint John has used nine different goaltenders so far this season - and that's just the ones who actually played...

Hershey Bear Josef Marha is one of the league's top scorers with 44 points, but has only six goals...

Providence's Jim Carey is done for the season after shoulder surgery...

Steve Guolla's point streak is now up to 18 games, going back to Dec. 6. He has 36 points in those 18 games...

Hartford is 18-1-1 when they score four or more goals in a game...

The Beast of New Haven aren't known for their comebacks, but they did recover from a two-goal deficit to tie Springfield. That's the first time the Beast has ever notched such a comeback...

The Providence Bruins had a nice trip to Kentucky and Cincinnati, posting back-to-back victories for the first time this season. Maybe suiting up Rod Langway is the key...

Fredericton's David Ling was stopped on a penalty shot against Providence's John Grahame. Perhaps Grahame shouldn't have bothered, because none of the Bruins congratulated him...

Cincinnati's Igor Nikulin has been suspended for 10 games for 'abuse of an official' during a game against Syracuse...

Hamilton and the IHL's Manitoba Moose worked out a trade, swapping the Bulldogs' Bill Bowler to the Moose for Mark Kolesar, who is actually Toronto property but was allowed to be moved provided he doesn't play against St. John's during the regular season...

Albany head coach John Cunniff has had some strong words for the Rats' ownership of late, suggesting the bankruptcy of one owner had led to stripping the front office of personnel and failing to market the team...

The Canadiens have three defensemen in the top group of defense scoring: Miroslav Guren, Francois Groleau and Jan Nemecek rank third, tenth and eleventh respectively...

Prior to this season, St. John's had beaten Portland once in eighteen tries. Portland needed seven tries before they could beat St. John's this season...

Sami Helenius by Tricia McMillan

On Jan. 24, Saint John Flames defenseman Sami Helenius played his 250th game for the Flames and became the team's all-time leader in both games played and penalty minutes...

The Beast of New Haven were leading Rochester 3-0 and blew it, letting the Amerks tie the game up. Then the Beast came back to win 6-3 on a hat trick by - no kidding - enforcer Peter Worrell...

St. John's Mark Deyell racked up 12 points in seven games, including a couple of game-winning goals...

Looking for last season's T-Blades? Try Nagano. Ville Peltonen will play for Finland, while Jan Caloun plays for the Czech Republic. Both are playing in Europe this season...

Hershey scored all four of its goals on the power play against Syracuse Feb. 1, winning 4-2. Five of the six goals in the game came on the man-advantage...

The Beast of New Haven got a little national TV exposure on the game show "Pictionary" Feb. 2 when host Alan Thicke wore a Beast T-shirt. Thicke really liked a shirt he saw at a Rangers game and the Beast were happy to oblige him with a shirt of his own...

Jean-Yves Roy scored his third goal in OT to give Providence a win over Adirondack, but it wasn't a hat trick. Roy's second goal, which would have been the game-winner, was disallowed for reasons the Bruins considered vague...

Ottawa property Derek Armstrong has been used by the Wolfpack as a checking line forward, but he still had a pair of goals against Kentucky to win the game for Hartford...

Albany defenseman Bryan Helmer was switched to right wing for the first time in his career against Adirondack and responded with two goals, including an OT game-winner...

Andrew Brunette by Tricia McMillan

Worcester defenseman Nick Naumenko had a four-point night against Providence Jan. 30. His two goals and two assists were by far his best night as a pro...

The IceCats were 4-for-7 on the power play in the same game...

Yet another player out because of a meeting between skate blades and flesh: Saint John's Marty Murray will be out until March or so after his hand was skated over and several tendons severed...

The Capitals sent Jan Bulis to Portland for some conditioning work and his answer was a four-point night against St. John's, with a goal and three assists...

Kentucky outshot Hamilton 42-16 overall and 21-6 in the first period Jan. 31 and they did win, 5-2. In the same game, Jamie Ram was penalized for having too wide a goalstick...

The Albany River Rats fired a franchise record 64 shots at Adirondack's Norm Maracle on Jan. 31. He stopped 62 of them and won the game when Darryl LaPlante scored in OT...

Maracle wound up stopping 99 of 104 shots in two games in two nights. Presumably he's tired now, especially since he leads the league in wins, minutes, and saves, the latter now totalling over 1300...

The IceCats set a franchise record for man games lost to injury Jan. 31 as their total for the season hit 165. The franchise had never lost more than 163 for an entire season...

Rod Langway is still playing for the baby Bruins and has even taken a penalty - for knocking down 6'7" Peter Worrell...

The Adirondack Red Wings have been outshot 304-183 in games versus the River Rats this season, but the Wings have won five of the seven games...

Hamilton's Jeff Daw is the only Bulldog to have played in all of the Bulldog's games, and ranks second on the team in all three scoring categories...

Rochester defenseman Sergei Klimentiev, who has been playing hurt for a few weeks now, still has 10 assists in his last eight games...

Syracuse set a franchise record with a nine-game unbeaten streak...

The Hershey Bears are the AHL's best power-play team and proved it with four power-play goals Feb. 1 against Syracuse...

The Thoroughblades' Steve Guolla's point streak ended at 19 games on Jan. 30. Guolla's streak is both a franchise record and the best in the league this year...

Not only have the Philadelphia Phantoms won nine straight at home, they have outscored the visitors 40-18 in those games...

The Jan. 30 tilt between Worcester and Providence included a 15-person brawl...in the stands. A church group apparently instigated the festivities, which led to two arrests and ejection of an entire section...

Beast of New Haven center Ryan Johnson had a five-point game Jan. 27, with four assists...

Oddly enough, the Providence Bruins lead the league with 11 short-handed goals...

The Fredericton Canadiens are the only AHL team who haven't won a game in OT, with three losses and eight ties so far. Rochester and Saint John have yet to lose in OT...

Saint John's Jeff Cowan leads the league in game-winning goals, with six...

The Lowell Lock Monsters have formally affiliated themselves with the New York Islanders for the first three seasons of their existence. The Islanders will provide at least 18 of the Monsters' players, which would be just about all of them...

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