With Linkopings having to provide more goal support with Fredrik Norrena out of the lineup, defenseman Andreas Holmqvist is starting to emerge as one of the premiere power play weapons in the Elitserien. Today, Holmqvist chipped in a goal and two power play assists as Linkopings squeaked by HV 71 5-4. The victory was a triumph considering HV 71 is currently the top team in the Elitserien and Linkopings is missing their star goaltender. Holmqvist is suddenly with in a eyelash of the half a point a game plateau with 20 points in 41 games.

Johnstown left a point on the table tonight. With Toledo holding seven games in hand on them, they cannot afford anything less than two against bottomfeeders like Dayton.

JHN-2
DAY-3 (SO)

Morgan Cey stopped 31 of 33 before falling in the shootout. Dimitri Tarabrin scored both goals for Johnstown on the power play.

Game sheet from ECHL.com.

For the record, I believe Jonathan Boutin should be named the Falcons' starter and play 2 out of 3 in all these weekend sets until he proves he can't handle it.

SPR-2
MCH-4

Gerald Coleman stopped just 19 of 24 shots faced in the loss. Timo Helbling extended his point streak to six games scoring a first period power play goal. Chris Dingman also lit the lamp to help dig the Falcons out of an early 2-0 hole, but they were unable to match Manchester in the final two frames.

Game sheet from TheAHL.com.

Goaltender Brian Eklund has been reassigned to Johnstown of the ECHL. The decision comes after the Lightning made the decision to promote Jonathan Boutin to Springfield of the AHL. Rumors of a trade involving Eklund have apparently fallen through, necessitating the goaltender's demotion.

Defenseman Andreas Holmqvist and the Linkopings offense have been forced to step up in the absence of netminder Fredrik Norrena. They did so again today in a 4-1 victory over Sodertalje. Holmqvist assisted on a 2nd period Tony Martensson power play goal to open the game's scoring en route to the victory. Holmqvist now has 17 points in 40 games this season.