Lowell Devils Beaten 4-2 by Springfield Falcons, Playoff Implications Abound - AHL

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com - March 7, 2008 - The Springfield Falcons beat the Lowell Devils 4-2 on Friday night at the MassMutual Center and now have a four point lead over the Manchester Monarchs for the fourth and final playoff spot within the Atlantic Division. The Falcons are back at home on Saturday against the Hershey Bears.

The Falcons started the game strong and jumped on the Devils early as Troy Bodie opened the scoring for the Falcons at 1:44 of the first period setting the tone in the opening frame.
The Falcons expanded their lead in the second period as Stephane Goulet scored at 8:35 of the middle frame, followed by Rick Berry tallying a shorthanded marker at 12:14 of the second period giving Springfield a 3-0 lead. Viacheslav Trukhno added a power play goal at 17:22 of the second frame putting the Falcons on top 4-0 through 40 minutes of play.

The Devils cut their deficit to 4-2 in the third period on a pair of goals from their captain Stephen Gionta, but the Falcons held on for their 28th win of the season.

ADVERTISEMENT Falcons goaltender Jeff Deslauriers was very steady between the pipes earning the game's first star making 37 saves.

GAME NOTES
The game was delayed about 15 minutes due to a power failure inside of the arena right before pre-game warm-ups.
The first period was delayed about 8 minutes due to a glass break behind the Falcons goal.

FALCONS LINEUP

Potulny - Schremp - McDonald
Simon - Sestito - Almtorp
Trukhno - Reddox - Goulet
Werner - Bodie
Kemp - Young
Gabinet - Farynuk
Berry - Smith
Deslauriers
Dubnyk
FALCONS SCRATCHES - T.J. Reynolds (Injured), Les Reaney (Healthy), Sebastien Bisaillon (Injured), Ryan O'Marra (Injured), Allan Rourke (Injured), Jean-Francois Jacques (Injured), Jacob Micflikier (Healthy)

For Box Score, see:

>>Friday's Box Score

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