NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
FRANK ON FIRE FOR AMERICANS
The Boston Bruins are likely regretting their decision to trade 31 year old winger Neil Frank to the New York Americans earlier this season. Frank has moved up to second in the league scoring race after picking up 8 points in 3 games last week. Despite the heroics from the Calgary native, the Americans managed just a win and a tie in their 3 games this week and remain on the outside looking in at a playoff berth.
Frank's week started with a 2 goal, 2 assist effort in a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night. Two nights later he had a pair of assists as the Americans tied the Canadiens 3-3 in Montreal. On Saturday night in Toronto Frank again had 2 assists but it was not enough as the Americans lost 6-5 in an important game against the team they are chasing for the final playoff berth.
The Leafs won two of three games last week to stretch their lead on the Americans and the Chicago Blackhawks to 7 points. In addition to the victory over the Americans the Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at home on Sunday after starting the week with a 4-2 loss in Montreal to the same Canadiens squad.
Code:
NHL STANDINGS GP W L T PTS
Detroit 49 27 9 13 67
NY Rangers 50 23 15 12 58
Boston 48 23 13 12 58
Toronto 51 21 20 10 52
NY Americans 50 19 24 7 45
Chicago 48 15 18 15 45
Mon Canadiens 50 14 27 9 37
Mon Maroons 50 13 29 8 34
SCORING LEADERS TM GP G A PTS
Ryan Dirk NYR 50 34 22 56
Neil Frank NYA 49 21 34 55
Anthony Manca DET 49 23 27 50
Matt Jambrosich BOS 48 25 22 47
Chris Maxwell TOR 51 12 35 47
Chris Bishop TOR 51 23 23 46
Conner Hendricks DET 49 21 24 45
Tyler Wing NYA 50 18 27 45
Nicolas Frenette NYR 50 12 32 44
Lukas Borik NYR 50 14 28 42
Darren Vaness TOR 51 13 29 42
Jean Fulatte NYR 50 6 36 42
AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
The Hershey Bears have been the hottest team in the American Hockey League over the past month and a half, going 16-2-1 since December 10th to move into first place in the league. The Detroit Red Wings farmclub, which last won the Calder Cup in 1931, has relied on the top offense in the league led by Phillippe Morin (17-36-53) and his wingers Angelo Rukkino (24-22-46) and veteran Jim Bohack (24-14-38).
The Bears turnaround really began on October 31st when the parent Red Wings swung a deal to add veteran goaltender Cody Sugarhead from the New York Americans in exchange for winger Daniel Kubista. Kubista did not figure in Detroit's plans but the Americans called him up from the AHL and he had 12 points in 31 NHL games this season. Meanwhile, Sugarhead has posted the best goals against average (3.04) and save percentage (.896) in the AHL since his acquistion and despite missing the first month of the AHL season he is tied for second with 21 victories.
Sugarhead has had an interesting career but has not reached the expectations of him when the CJHL's Flin Flon Bombers selected him 3rd overall in the 1925 junior draft. Two years later the Edmonton native was taken 6th overall by the Boston Bruins in the NHL draft. He missed a year after suffering a devastating knee injury and did not make his AHL debut until the age of 22. Another injury cost him all of the 1931-32 campaign but he returned to Rochester the following season before finally making his NHL debut in 1933-34 with the Bruins.
Later in the 33-34 campaign he was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens and spent two seasons as the Habs starting goaltender before losing his job to the Canadiens young star Max Holden. He played sparingly as the Habs backup for 3 seasons before being dealt to the New York Americans, who assigned him to Buffalo of the AHL for the 1939-40 season. He made the Americans roster as the backup to the legendary Tyler Kennedy this season but appeared in just one game before being moved to the Red Wings organization.
In the images below are the career stats of Sugarhead, a player who never quite lived up to the potential of being a 1st round pick although injury played a factor, and also current Montreal Canadiens netminder Max Holden - a first overall pick who looks destined to have a long and productive career in the NHL.
Code:
AHL STANDINGS
GP W L T PTS
Hershey 50 30 18 2 62
Rochester 50 25 15 10 60
Buffalo 48 25 16 7 57
Providence 49 22 19 8 52
Springfield 48 23 20 5 51
Pittsburgh 50 19 26 5 43
Quebec 51 17 27 7 41
Cleveland 50 10 30 10 30
SCORING LEADERS TEAM GP G A PTS
Andre Tanguay PROV 49 27 30 57
Corey Stewart HER 47 24 33 57
Jacob Vanderhoek ROC 49 21 32 53
Philippe Morin HER 45 17 36 53
Dustin Barrow ROC 49 27 25 52
Steve Amner QUE 51 17 35 52
Jordan Donald PIT 43 12 38 50
Angelo Rukkino HER 40 24 22 46
Chris Petryk SPR 48 17 28 45
Jack Bobek CLE 43 19 25 43
You can catch up on the other sports happenings
here including the first college baseball rankings of the season and a report on the academy leagues.