WILLIAMS: The AHL primer – Juolevi shut down, players shipping out for WJC’s

With the World Junior Championships looming and another weekend slate of games coming up, here is EP Rinkside’s primer on what is currently going on in the American Hockey League.

CHICAGO WOLVES (VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS)

Good teams bank points just in case tougher times might sit ahead.

That is what the Wolves are doing lately, hammering a quality opponent in the Texas Stars, 6-1, at home earlier this week. That effort followed a two-game sweep of the Tucson Roadrunners, another strong foe, this past weekend at Allstate Arena. The Wolves own a six-game win streak going into another tough test to close out their four-game homestand, a visit from the Rockford IceHogs on Friday night. Head coach Rocky Thompson’s team has averaged 4.7 goals per game through the streak.

After hosting Rockford, the Wolves will have five consecutive back-to-back games against five different opponents. That starts Saturday at the Milwaukee Admirals and wraps up with a return visit on Boxing Day. They then play two-game sets against Rockford, plus the Iowa Wild, San Antonio Rampage, and Tucson.

However, the Wolves did lose the AHL’s leading scorer on recall to the Golden Knights this week. Brandon Pirri is 17-24-41, and the 27-year-old forward left the Wolves with a nine-game point streak (9-10-19). Thompson is also without Eric Brannstrom, his elite 19-year-old defenseman off with Sweden at the World Junior Championship.

CLEVELAND MONSTERS (COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS)

Call it a good response after a tough weekend.

Swept in a home-and-home series by the Rochester Americans this past weekend, Cleveland went into Grand Rapids on Wednesday night up against another hard test in the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Griffins brought an eight-game home point streak (6-0-1-1) into the game.

But the Monsters ended that run, taking a 3-1 victory on Grand Rapids ice. That leaves the Griffins’ home record at 10-3-1-2, a .719 performance that is sixth-best in the AHL. The Monsters’ 9-5-1-0 road record, a .633 mark, puts them fifth in the AHL. Cleveland netminder Jean-François Bérubé held the Griffins to one goal on 22 shots.

The Monsters go home this weekend for back-to-back games against the Belleville Senators.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK (NEW YORK RANGERS)

Desperate for a boost, the Wolf Pack received it Wednesday night from goaltender Dustin Tokarski.

The Rangers had returned Tokarski to Hartford, where the Wolf Pack found themselves stuck in a five-game losing streak. He had not played since December 1 after being recalled by the Rangers the next day. He had not played for the Rangers, so it was his first game action in 18 days.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous,” Tokarski told the Wolf Pack website after the game.

But Tokarski stepped in and turned in a 29-save shutout at home against the Providence Bruins on Wednesday night. Hartford had lost a pair of one-goal decisions on the road to the Charlotte Checkers before returning home.  Hartford has employed a three-goalie rotation involving Tokarski, Alexandar Georgiev, and Marek Mazanec. Georgiev exchanged places with Tokarski in the most recent swap.

At 12-14-1-2, Hartford is trying to stay within striking distance of the Atlantic Division playoff line, which is seven points away and held by the fourth-place Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS (PHILADELPHIA FLYERS)

After a chaotic start to the week, Lehigh Valley actually could simply play hockey on Wednesday.

The Phantoms had lost top goaltending prospect Carter Hart and head coach Scott Gordon to the Flyers this past Monday. Hart departed for Philadelphia as injuries continue to decimate the Flyers’ goaltending plans. After Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol was fired, Gordon moved up to serve as interim head coach in Philadelphia. Phantoms assistant coach Kerry Huffman took over behind the Lehigh Valley bench as interim head coach, and development coach Kjell Samuelsson shifted to an assistant-coaching role with the Phantoms.

In the past three weeks, the Flyers have fired Hakstol, general manager Ron Hextall, assistant general manager Chris Pryor, and assistant coach Gord Murphy. Goaltender Calvin Pickard was put on waivers and departed for the Arizona Coyotes. In came Chuck Fletcher to replace Hextall and Rick Wilson to take Murphy’s place.

So, a 5-0 home win against the Hershey Bears on Wednesday was a welcome distraction in Lehigh Valley. Phantoms forward Chris Conner became the 94th AHL player to reach 500 points in the league. Huffman picked up his first official AHL head-coaching win.

“I’m sure you guys get the impression, but everybody in here really loves [Huffman], winning Phantoms goaltender Alex Lyon said to the Lehigh Valley website. “Just so excited for him for his opportunity, as well as [Gordon] moving up there. But it’s [Huffman’s] first coaching job, so for him to get in here and have this opportunity, we all want to do everything we can to make sure it’s successful for him.”

ROCKFORD ICEHOGS (CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS)

IceHogs goaltender Anton Forsberg has shown that he can carry a team, even if this season has not gone as planned for him.

After playing 35 games last season for Chicago, Forsberg has been in Rockford for two months. But as he displayed in a run to the Calder Cup in 2016, he can get very hot. That spring he took over for Joonas Korpisalo midway through the playoff run and won nine consecutive games on a 1.34 goals-against average and .949 save percentage.

Now in the Chicago organization, Forsberg and Rockford went to work after spotting the visiting Milwaukee Admirals a 3-0 lead in the first period on Wednesday. They chipped away with three unanswered goals that put the game into overtime, where Rockford defenseman Jan Rutta won it, 4-3. Forsberg finished with 27 saves on 30 shots, including all 17 that he saw after the first period. Rutta scored for the first time in three games since the Blackhawks assigned him to the AHL on December 14.

Forsberg, 26, is 6-3-1 | 2.65 | .915 in 10 games for Rockford this season. The IceHogs are in the middle of the tight Central Division at 34 points on a 14-10-2-4 mark.

SAN ANTONIO RAMPAGE (ST. LOUIS BLUES)

A 3-12-0-0 beginning to their season left the Rampage with little room for error the rest of the season, but they are trying to chip away at that early-season damage.

San Antonio has won three in a row going into a home-and-home battle against Texas this weekend. The Stars host the first leg on Friday night before the teams shift to San Antonio on Saturday. Rampage forward Jordan Kyrou has assembled a six-game point (5-8-13) streak, badly needed production for a team that is 28th in AHL scoring at 2.61 goals per game.

Since that poor start, the Rampage have run off a 9-3-1-0 tear and won seven of their past eight games at home, bringing them up to 25 points in the Central Division. However, they still sit nine points behind Rockford for fourth place. They will need a strong run going into and through January to put themselves in a position for a playoff spot. They have their annual February rodeo road trip that will send them out of town on a 10-game journey.

TORONTO MARLIES (TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS)

The Marlies found themselves in a blue-line jam on Wednesday night against the Binghamton Devils.

After losing Andreas Borgman and Calle Rosen earlier in the night, third-period scraps cost them Sam Jardine to a game misconduct. Steve Oleksy also was penalized in the skirmish, leaving the Marlies with two defensemen at one point as they tried to hold down a 2-1 lead. They made it through, picked up another goal, and closed out a 3-1 victory, their third in a row.

The Devils and Marlies combined for 124 penalty minutes in the game. Toronto forward Morgan Klimchuk received a match penalty for a mid-ice hit on Devils first-rounder Michael McLeod that set off the late fireworks. Goaltender Eamon McAdam had 29 saves in his second straight strong start since allowing three goals on five shots before being pulled in an 8-1 home loss to the Syracuse Crunch on December 12. Toronto has moved to 10-10-3-2 going into a two-game visit to the Laval Rocket that starts Friday night at Place Bell.

With Rasmus Sandin off to the World Junior Championship to compete for Sweden, and Timothy Liljegren injured, the Marlies put in a call for Newfoundland Growlers defenseman Alex Gudbranson on Thursday to restock their defensive corps.

UTICA COMETS (VANCOUVER CANUCKS)

Comets defenseman Olli Juolevi went to Utica for a key season in his development process, but it turned out not being much of a season at all.

The 20-year-old’s season is done after 18 AHL games, finished by a knee injury that resulted in surgery earlier this past week. Vancouver management shut down the 2016 NHL Draft’s fifth overall pick after he had not played since November 17.

Canucks general manager Jim Benning told reporters that Juolevi went through a rehabilitation and skating process after the injury. When Juolevi reported that the pain still persisted, the Canucks sent him to a specialist in Colorado, where it was decided to proceed with surgery. Juolevi will be out six months, and the Canucks expect him to be healthy in time for training camp next September.

“Talking to the doctors, everything went well with the surgery,” Benning said. “He was playing so well, and [we] were hoping as he kept developing the second half of the [season] to get him up and playing in some [NHL] games.”

“We have to make sure as an organization that we do the right thing by him, and that’s what we did.”

In those 18 games, he was 1-12-13 after playing last season in the Liiga on loan to TPS Turku.

AROUND THE AHL

Brännström and Sandin will be joined by a sizable AHL contingent at the World Junior Championship. The Czech team will receive forwards Martin Kaut (Colorado Eagles), Martin Necas (Charlotte), and Filip Zadina (Grand Rapids). San Antonio forward Klim Kostin will play for Russia. Sweden will also have San Diego Gulls forward Isac Lundeström.

Four AHL players will represent Canada at the Spengler Cup next week in Davos, Switzerland. San Diego is sending goaltender Jared Coreau and forward Adam Cracknell. Cleveland forward Zac Dalpe and Laval defenseman Simon Després will join them. Canada has won the tournament three times in a row and begins play against host HC Davos next Wednesday.

Two AHL fixtures have been selected as captains for the Lexus AHL All-Star Classic presented by MGM Springfield in January. The league chose Rockford defenseman Andrew Campbell and Lehigh Valley forward Colin McDonald for the honor Thursday. The 30-year-old Campbell is in his first season with Rockford after an offseason trade from the Arizona organization. He captained Tucson last season and has also been an AHL captain while with the Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings organizations. He has 679 regular-season AHL games to his name. McDonald, 34, is in his fourth season as Lehigh Valley’s captain and has played 654 regular-season AHL games. The Springfield Thunderbirds host the event January 27-28.

After Saturday’s game, the AHL takes a three-day break before resuming action on Wednesday.

THIS WEEKEND

Saturday – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Syracuse: Each team has been hot, though the Crunch have run into back-to-back losses. The Crunch also have to go into Lehigh Valley on Friday night to face the Phantoms.

ON THE MOVE

Bridgeport defenseman Devon Toews has shown well after a shoulder injury last season, and the parent New York Islanders have taken notice. He was recalled after a 5-14-19 beginning to his season. He did not dress Thursday on the road against the Golden Knights but could play his first NHL game this weekend when the Islanders visit the Dallas Stars….Jack Campbell is on a conditioning loan to the Ontario Reign from Los Angeles….Lehigh Valley forward Radel Fazleev has departed. He was 0-2-2 in 15 games this season….The Boston Bruins sent forward Gemel Smith to Providence after three games….Through Thursday, 59 AHL players have made their NHL debuts this season.