8 points in three days have left Springfield tied with the league's highest point total and alone with its highest winning percentage.
Goal celebrations like this one vs. Worcester were a familiar sight for the Falcons in Springfield this weekend.
SPRINGFIELD – Going into last weekend, the Springfield Falcons trailed Syracuse by seven points in the race for first place in the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.
Now they are tied.
It all happened because of an eight-point weekend for the Falcons – the first in the history of Springfield pro hockey, and the first in the AHL since Peoria did it Dec. 2-4, 2005.
The Falcons reaped their eight points by winning a 3-2 shootout against Adirondack in the completion of a suspended game, then beating Adirondack 7-2, Providence 2-1 in a shootout and Worcester 2-0.
Meanwhile, the Crunch were losing 3-1 to Albany on Friday, 2-1 in overtime to Rochester on Saturday and 5-3 to Hershey on Sunday. The Syracuse club gained one point out of all that, thus enabling the Falcons to pull into a tie.
The Falcons do have the edge in winning percentage, .682 to .658.
The suspended game, which was completed Friday night, came about because of an injury to Falcons forward Wade MacLeod Feb. 17. He collapsed to the ice on the way to the bench after taking a hit along the boards, creating a scary scene which caused the teams to agree the game should be suspended.
The suspended game in Peoria, Ill., eight years ago happened for an entirely different reason – unsafe playing conditions caused by problems with the ice surface.
“The odds of having a suspended game, then having it tacked onto a three-game weekend, are astronomical anyway. Then add the odds against sweeping such a weekend, and you really have a rarity,” said Eric Levine, manager of media and community relations for the Falcons.
The eight-pointer pushed Springfield’s record to 34-14-4-3, good for 75 points. The Falcons stand 20 games over .500 for the first time since they beat the Portland Pirates on March 28, 1998, to improve to 42-22-9. The Falcons franchise record for games above .500 is 21, set when they defeated the Rochester Americans on April 13, 1996, to stand 42-21-15.
With 21 games to go, the Falcons would have to win 15 to tie the all-time Springfield record for victories in a season. That’s 49, set by the Calder Cup-champion Indians of 1960-61. They did it over a 72-game schedule while outscoring their foes 344-206.
The Falcons franchise record for victories is 45, set by the 1997-98 team which featured 36-goal scorer Daniel Briere and 30-victory goaltender Scott Langkow.
ICE CHIPS: The suspended game goes into the record book as being played on its original date. Thus, it becomes part of Springfield’s 12-2 record in Sunday games, and marks the start of a five-game home winning streak, still intact ... In the Eastern Conference, Springfield’s 2.36 goals-against average is topped only by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s 2.26 ... Falcons goaltenders Curtis McElhinney and Allen York both have a 2.30 GAA. McElhinney has 23 victories, eight of them shutouts. One more, and he breaks the Springfield record held by Marcel Paille, who played for the 1960-61 team ... On the big weekend, Falcons penalty-killers stopped nine of 10 short-handed situations, while York went 9-0 against shootout shooters ... Former Falcons goaltender Danny Taylor leads the AHL in GAA with a 1.82 ... Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, whose hot weekend included two shootout goals, leads the Falcons with 52 points ... With MAAC championship basketball in town, the Falcons play away this week – Friday at Adirondack, Saturday at Albany ... Springfield has one of the AHL’s better road records at 15-7-3-0.
Garry Brown can be reached at geeman1918@yahoo.com