Good morning from the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., where the St. John's IceCaps are on the ice for a short morning skate before heading to Manchester, N.H., where they take on the Monarchs tonight at 8:30 p.m. Newfoundland time.
Both the IceCaps and Monarchs were winners in their season-opening games Friday night, with St. John's defeating the Providence Bruins 4-1 at "The Dunk" and Manchester downing the Springfield Falcons 5-2 at the Verizon Wireless Centre in southern New Hampshire.
We'll have more teeing up tonight's game later today, but we can tell you that IceCaps' defenceman Mark Flood heads to Manchester short a stick.
Flood scored the IceCaps' first-ever goal Friday night, with a point shot that eluded P-Bruins goalie Anton Khodubin at 1:15 of the opening frame. The puck and Flood's stick were set aside for the Hockey Hall of Fame. So was St. Johns' captain Jason Jaffray's jersey.
If you're looking for a description of Flood's goal, which was redirected by something or somebody (presumably a Bruin), don't ask the St. John's rearguard.
"I have no idea," Flood said this morning. "I just know it went in."
Note
Forward Patrice Cormier, who only joined the IceCaps Friday morning after being assigned from the parent Winnipeg Jets, was one of a half-dozen scratches Friday, joining goalie Eddie Pasquale, defencemen Ben Chiarot and Jason DeSantis, and forwards Eric O'Dell and Tommy Maxwell ... Flood and Forward Spencer Machacek were the assistant captains for St. John's Friday ... Forward Marc-Andre Cliche had a pair of goals for Manchester Friday in a game whose start was delayed because the Falcons were late arriving at the arena. Their bus had been held up by a highway closure created by a serious accident on route 495 outside of Boston ... A reminder that IceCaps season tickets can be picked up until 4 p.m. today at the Holiday Inn in St. John's and that today is the first day for purchase of single-seat tickets for St. John's home games before Christmas, You can get the latter at Mile One Centre or at admissions.com ... Tonight's game will be broadcast on 930 AM This Is Newfoundland Labrador and online at that radio station's website. Brian Rogers' pre-game show starts at 8 p.m. ... Attendince at Friday's game in Providence was 10,337 ... In the NHL Friday, Kilbride's Luke Adam, playing on the Buffalo Sabres' No. 1 line with Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville. had two assists as the Sabres defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 in their season-opening game in Helsinki, Finland. And Teddy Purcell of St. John's picked up an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning downed the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 ... It's a long weekend in both Canada and the United States, but for different reasons. It's the Canadian Thanksgiving, but Columbus Day in the U.S. The American Thanksgiving doesn't come until late November ...
bmcc@thetelegram.com
Twitter@telybrendan
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