ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland and Labrador – The St. John’s IceCaps were swept on home ice for the first time this season over the weekend, dropping both games of a two-game set with the Springfield Falcons on Friday and Saturday night.
The Falcons came into St. John’s as the Eastern Conference’s top ranked team and looked every bit a Calder Cup contender in their victories over the IceCaps. Springfield topped St. John’s 5-3 on Friday and followed up with a 4-2 victory on Saturday.
“They are a good team. Look at the standings, they’re one of the top teams in the league for a reason,” IceCaps head coach Keith McCambridge said of the Falcons. “They have depth, they have speed, they have great goaltending. Everything you need to win hockey games.”
Cam Atkinson led the Falcon’s attack on Friday, picking up two goals and two assists. Jonathan Audy-Marchessault had one goal and a pair of helpers for Springfield, with Ryan Craig and Nick Drazenovic also scoring for the Falcons. Kevin Clark, Ray Sawada and Kael Mouillierat, who was playing his first game with St. John’s after a recent call-up from the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL, replied for the IceCaps in the loss.
Curtis McElhinney was the winning goalie for Springfield on Friday, stopping 33 shots along the way. Eddie Pasquale made 23 saves in taking the loss for St. John’s.
On Saturday the Falcons used three second period goals to pave the way to victory. Atkinson, Ryan Johansen, Matt Calvert and Tomas Kubalik scored for Springfield in the win. Finding the back of the net for St. John’s were Paul Postma and Maxime Macenauer. McElhinney was again the winning goalie after making 46 saves, while Mark Dekanich suffered the loss in the IceCaps net after stopping 28 shots.
“In the second period we had some breakdowns and it cost us,” McCambridge said of Saturday’s defeat.
The IceCaps had several new faces in the lineup for the weekend set with Springfield. Inserted into the team were recent call-ups from the ECHL Joey Sides, Shawn Weller and Mouillierat. All three played a regular shift and impressed their coach with both their effort and execution.
“They all played very strong games,” said McCambridge. “Mouillierat was really good, he scored on his first shift on Friday and played well again tonight. I thought Joey Sides logged some good minutes. Weller, too. I’m happy to see those ECHL guys come in and prove they can play at this level.”
The call-ups were necessary due to a major bite from the injury bug, with a number of IceCaps regulars forced to the sidelines with various ailments. Included in the group of walking wounded are veteran forwards Jason King, Hunter Tremblay, John Albert, Jason Jaffray and Patrice Cormier, as well as defenseman Travis Ramsey. While McCambridge does not want to blame the team’s weekend struggles on the absence of those players, it is obvious the IceCaps are not playing with their best lineup.
“I’m never one to look at what I have on my injury list, but we do have some key players that aren’t in the lineup,” McCambridge said.
The IceCaps next see action on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12 when the Hershey Bears visit St. John’s.
Darcy.MacRae@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.