by Mike Ries, Staff Writer, AHL Report
BRAMPTON, ON. — It was a busy week on and off the ice for the Brampton Beast, the ECHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens. After a tough loss at home, they travelled to West Virginia to complete a home-and-home with the Wheeling Nailers (Pittsburgh Penguins.) Unfortunately for the Beast they dropped both games to the Nailers by an identical 5-2 score.
The Beast returned home to face the Elmira Jackals on Friday and then travelled to upstate New York state to take on the Jackals completing the home and home series. The Beast came into the series undefeated in tow games against the Jackals and the trend continued with a pair of victories to continue their winning streak against Elmira.
That left the struggling Jackals, the ECHL affliate of the Buffalo Sabres with a 2-9-2 record while the Brampton Beast have earned a very respectable 7-3-1-2 record to start the season.
Brampton had numerous roster moves this week as Connor Crisp was recalled by the St. John’s IceCaps after only three games with the Beast. He recorded three points in those games and was a physical presence every shift he was on the ice for Brampton. After a weekend stint with the IceCaps, Crisp was returned to the Beast on Monday.
Luke Pither signed a PTO contract with the Utica Comets and was returned to Brampton only missing one game with the Beast.
Yannick Veilleux was recalled by the IceCaps after the game with the Jackals. This season the power forward had been scoring at over a point a game pace as well as being a physical presence, not only leading the Beast in PIM’s but handing out thundering bodychecks on a nightly basis. With those player transactions the Beast transferred Mitch Zion and Mike Folkes to the active roster as well as inserting little used Mathieu Gagnon and Jeremie Blain in the roster as needed.
In goal, as expected Zach Fucale has been given the bulk of the work with backup Bryan Pitton seeing action on the backend of back to back games. Brampton has received scoring from across its roster and that trend continues on a nightly basis the balanced attack for the Beast continues to pileup goals at over four a game average on the season. David Vallorani has been the hottest Beast forward as of late as he scored four goals in the pair of games against Elmira.
Brampton now heads out to sunny Florida to play a three game set with the Orlando Solar Bears, the ECHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs to close out the month of November. The Beast play their next home game on December 1st against the Quad City Mallards.