The Falcons will play a rare Thursday game at the MassMutual Center.
Springfield's Matt Calvert scores the only goal of the game against Branden Holtby Saturday in the Falcons' 1-0 win over the Bears in Hershey, Pa.
They stand 10 games over .500. They lead the American Hockey League’s Northeast Division by eight points. They stand one point shy of first place in the AHL’s 15-team Eastern Conference with a game in hand.
They are the Springfield Falcons, who return to the ice Thursday night at the MassMutual Center to face the Albany Devils.
A Thursday game is rare for the Falcons, and management hopes that school vacation week will boost attendance.
The Falcons also play at home Saturday night against Connecticut and Sunday afternoon (5 p.m.) against Norfolk. This sudden bit of home scheduling comes after a stretch in which the Springfield club played 12 of 16 games on the road.
The Falcons went 8-5-2-1 during that stretch to hold the lead they had built over
the season’s first five weeks.
The team does have some concerns about a lack of scoring power in recent games. Over their last four, they have managed only eight goals. In the last of those four, the Falcons won 1-0 at Hershey – the franchise’s first such victory since Dec. 3, 2005, at Manchester. In franchise history, the Falcons have had only eight 1-0 victories.
Defensively, the Birds rank No. 1 in the Eastern Conference with 61 goals allowed – an average yield of 2.26 per game. Only Abbotsford of the Western Conference has a better defensive record, allowing 2.10 goals per game.
The Springfield club came off its brief Christmas break with a late-afternoon practice Wednesday.
Coach Brad Larsen refrains from making lineup decisions until game day, but it seems likely that goaltender Allen York will play one of the three home games. Springfield’s No. 1 goaltender, Curtis McElhinney, who already holds the franchise record with six shutouts, has started 21 of his team’s 27 games, posting a 15-3-2 record.
The Albany club stands last in the Northeast Division, 12 points behind the Falcons. The Devils have scored 60 goals, the lowest total in the 30-team AHL. However, they do have one of the league’s elite players in forward Billy Butler, a former University of New Hampshire standout from Marlborough. He played 56 games for New Jersey last season.
ICE CHIPS: Fans coming to Sunday’s game are asked to bring new packages of white socks, to be donated to Friends of the Homeless, the largest adult shelter in Western Massachusetts. The socks can be dropped off at a table in the concourse during the game ... If the Falcons end the calendar year leading their conference, Larsen would become coach of the Eastern team in the AHL’s All-Star Classic, set for Jan. 28 at Providence ... Cam Atkinson leads the Falcons in goals with 15, while linemate Jonathan Audy-Marchessault leads in assists with 19 ... Albany’s Butler was Hockey East player of the year in 2010. At Marlborough High, he posted 284 points in 116 games.