Five games into his pro hockey career, Troy Bourke is cruising on a point-per-game pace.
He scored his second American Hockey League goal this season for the Lake Erie Monsters in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Chicago Wolves Saturday in Chicago.
It was Bourke's fifth point in five games for the Monsters' centre since he wrapped up his fourth season in the WHL as captain of the Prince George Cougars on March 8. Bourke, who turned 20 on Sunday, is eligible to return to the Cougars next season.
The Monsters, the top farm club of the Colorado Avalanche, will be in San Antonio, Texas to play the Rampage on Tuesday.
In Norfolk, Va., Nick Drazenovic and the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins were outshot 24-13 but outscored the Norfolk Admirals 2-1 Saturday. The win improved the playoff-bound Penguins' record to 38-22-3-5, fifth overall in the AHL Eastern Conference.
Drazenovic, 26, a native of Prince George who played for the Cougars from 2003-07, was held off the scoresheet. He ranks second in team scoring with 12 goals 26 assists and 38 points.
In Syracuse, N.Y., Brett Connolly of the Syracuse Crunch picked up two assists in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Binghampton Senators. Connolly and the four other Crunch shooters were unable to score after Senators' Cole Schneider beat goalie Kristers Gudlevskis with the only goal of the shootout. Connolly, the Cougars captain before he joined the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2011, is second in Crunch scoring this season with 18 goals and 47 points in 57 games.
Former Cougar captain Dana Tyrell, who played for the Cats from 2005-09, scored the tying goal 10:58 into the third period and the Springfield Falcons went on to outscore the Adirondack Phantoms 3-2 in the shootout to seal a 5-4 victory Saturday in Glens Falls, N.Y. Phantoms defenceman Brandon Manning, a Prince George minor hockey product and former Spruce King, opened the scoring with his seventh of the season for Adirondack.
Meanwhile in the East Coast Hockey League, Todd Fiddler collected his first goal as a pro Saturday night in Loveland, Colo., but it was the only offence the Colorado Eagles could muster in a 2-1 loss to the Utah Grizzlies.
Fiddler, who scored 50 goals for the Cougars this season as a 20-year-old, scored unassisted at 10:06 of the third period. The Grizzlies scored the next two to seal the victory -- a shorthanded goal from Adam Pineault at 11:11 and a power-play goal from Martin Lee with just one second left.
