The Montreal Canadiens have a new farm team this season, the St. John's IceCaps. To help Canadiens fans track the team's performance in the AHL, we have invited Charles Dart, website contributor of the IceCaps' official website to prepare a bi-weekly summary of the action in Newfoundland.

ST. JOHN’S – Spring has arrived and the IceCaps are down to their final 10 games of their inaugural season as the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate. St. John’s (28-27-8-3 | 0.508%) sits sixth in the North Division and chase the Atlantic Division’s Portland Pirates (32-24-5-2 | 0.563%), who currently occupy the second wild card spot and have 13 games remaining on their schedule. The AHL season wraps up on Sunday, April 17th. The Calder Cup Playoff Primer is updated daily to show the standings and chances of all AHL teams making this year’s playoffs. Only one team has been officially eliminated (Manitoba Moose) and one team has clinched (Toronto Marlies).The IceCaps have a tough road ahead to make the playoffs. Eight of their 10 remaining contests are against teams ahead of them in the standings, and while St. John’s is just four points behind Portland, the IceCaps have three more games played.The remaining two games are against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, who sit six points behind the IceCaps in the Eastern Conference standings.--With the college hockey free agency season underway, the organization signed defenseman Christopher Joyaux and forward Cory Ward to Amateur Tryout Contracts (ATO).Joyaux, 23, is a product of the Miami University of Ohio Redhawks while Ward, 22, is coming off his fourth season with the Bemidji State University Beavers.Both players made their AHL debuts this weekend, bringing the total number of players to make their AHL debuts this season with the IceCaps to 14.St. John’s now has 15 rookie skaters on a roster of 25 ( excluding Michaël Bournival and Connor Crisp, who are in Montreal for extended medical treatment ). The Manitoba Moose have the second-most rookies with 12 skaters.--Bud Holloway continues to lead all IceCaps players with 36 assists - a single-season record for the Saskatchewan native. Holloway is seven points behind his personal best of 61 points in a season.Sophomore Charles Hudon tallied his team-leading 21st and 22nd goals in Sunday’s 6-2 loss to the Syracuse Crunch. His personal best was set last season with 19.Team captain Gabriel Dumont is just two points away from tying his single-season points record of 45, also set last season with the Bulldogs.Holloway (54), Hudon (45), and Dumont (43) occupy the top three spots in scoring on the IceCaps.Goaltender Eddie Pasquale has had the hot hand in net as of late, recording a 4-2-0 record in his last seven games along with a .939 SV% and a 1.75 GAA. Zach Fucale is 1-5-1 in his past six starts.--The IceCaps are currently in the midst of a seven-game road trip and are 1-2-0 thus far. They play the North Division’s fourth-seeded Rochester Americans as well as the Toronto Marlies twice each before returning home to close out their season with six home games.

Updated Depth Chart and Lineup

*denotes rookie, italics denotes not in last game’s lineup, **Injured and in Montreal



Forward

*BRANDON MCNALLY GABRIEL DUMONT "C" MAX FRIBERG *TIM BOZON Andrew Yogan (PTO) *Nikita Scherbak Charles Hudon *MARK MACMILLAN Bud Holloway "A" JOHN SCOTT "A" Cory Ward (ATO) *Jeremy Grégoire



**MICHAËL BOURNIVAL CONNOR CRISP



*MARKUS EISENSCHMID Shane bakker *angelo miceli *Alexandre Ranger



Defensemen

*JOSIAH DIDIER *BRETT LERNOUT *Christopher Joyaux (ATO) MORGAN ELLIS *Travis Brown *RYAN JOHNSTON Mac Bennett









Goaltenders