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Another busy AHL weekend begins for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Friday night in Wilkes-Barre, where Kevin Poulin is expected to get the first start of the three-game set.
The chief lineup wrinkle is Colin McDonald's two game suspension, which removes him from consideration Friday and Saturday nights. In practice, that gave Jason Clark a chance to bump up into the equation, but David Ullstrom is now "available" for the weekend, so we'll see how coach Scott Pellerin handles things. [UPDATE: Looks like Max MacKay gets his pro debut.]
Fornabaio has more from Ullstrom in the paper. Also in that second-to-last link: Casey Cizikas doesn't sound quite ready yet.
Weekend Schedule
Friday, 7:05 p.m., at Wilkes-Barre (7-6)
Saturday, 7 p.m., vs. Manchester (7-4-0-1)
Sunday, 3:05 p.m., at Providence (4-6-0-1)
The Penguins have gotten stingier defensively and on the penalty kill. They are also riding a hot streak after a rough start to the season. From that last link, here's their coach John Hynes on facing Bridgeport without McDonald:
"Colin is a big part of their team, but they have four lines that can go and multiple guys that are threats," he said. "We won’t prepare any differently with Colin not in the lineup. We’ll still have to be ready to face one of the better teams in the league."
There are also plenty of other Islanders properties in action this weekend -- John Tavares and Josh Bailey both scored in Europe Friday as we post this, with Tavares also picking up a penalty for Übertriebene Härte in the win.
The official site has a good update on Ryan Strome and Mitchell Theoret, making sweet music together on Niagara's top line, and sharing some insight into their summer efforts at earning contracts. They play at Ottawa and Kingston this weekend.
Meanwhile, Saturday night Adam Pelech's Erie Otters face Andrey Pedan's Guelph Storm. Pedan has 15 points in 18 games so far this season, but he'll probably be more worried about Connor McDavid than about collecting points or seeing his fellow Isles blueline prospect on the other end of hte ice.
As the weekend carries on, we'll have more updates -- but as always, keep posting links and updates as you see them from around the Isles-centric hockey world. The world beyond the dormant NHL, that is.