The Springfield Falcons have announced that the New York Islanders have assigned LW Travis Brigley to the Falcons. In exchange, the Falcons assigned defenseman Harlan Pratt, who had been previously assigned to Johnstown of the ECHL, to the Islanders' affilate in Bridgeport of the AHL.

Brigley, a 6'1" 200 lb 27 year old, has had a journeyman professional career that included 55 games in the NHL as well as stints in the IHL, AHL, BISL (Great Britain) and ECHL. Drafted by Calgary in the 2nd round in 1996 out of the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL, Brigley's best AHL season came in 1998-99 when he had 15 goals and 50 points in 74 games for the St. Johns Flames. Brigley has 7 goals and 17 points in 39 games this season for Bridgeport. Brigley is considered a good two way player with above average skating ability whose offensive game hasn't emerged as hoped since juniors.

Both this game and the Atlanta game were probably the team's two best of the season. The common denominator was John Grahame who just posted his second straight shutout.

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Ruslan Fedotenko with the quick wrister from the right circle beat Martin Brodeur for the game winning goal. 20 saves on 20 shots faced for Grahame.

Paul Ranger played 19:12 with one shot on goal. Ryan Craig played 15:23 with one blocked shot. Evgeny Artyukhin played a painfully sparing 3:50 with two hits. Norm Milley was a scratch.

Game sheet from NHL.com.

Today was the second installment of a budding rivalry between two of the best young goaltenders in Finland as HPK squared off against Ilves Tamperre. The match featured the second SM-liiga contest between Karri Ramo and Tuukka Rask. Rask, who beat Ramo for the starting job for the Finnish junior team at the World Junior Championships, carried the first matchup less than a month before the tournament. Today, however, was different.

In a shootout, Karri Ramo defeated Tuukka Rask and Ilves 2-1. Ramo made a remarkable 40 saves on 41 shots including a remarkable 21/21 third period to be named third star of the game. Rask, for his part, was named the game's second star making 41 saves on 42 shots faced. The victory moves Karri Ramo's record to 7-5-3 on the season.

So much for the resurgent Brian Eklund.

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Eklund allowed 6 goals on 36 shots faced. Dennis Packard led the way for Springfield with a short handed goal and an assist. Gerard Dicaire continued to shine since his recall from Johnstown with a helper of his own.

Game sheet from TheAHL.com.