Author’s Note: Games played on Monday, November 11 will not be included in these rankings, as they run from Monday, November 4-Sunday November 10. November 11 games will be accounted for next week.
1. Abbotsford Heat (11-4-0-1)
The Heat have taken over the top spot by going on a seven-game win streak, which included a sweep of a two-game set with the Toronto Marlies. Defenseman Chad Billins is tied for third in the AHL with four power-play goals and boosts a unit that is ranked in the top half of the league with a 14.4 percent success rate.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday, November 13 at Texas Stars, Friday, November 15 and Saturday, November 16 at Oklahoma City Barons
2. Syracuse Crunch (9-3-1-0)
Last season’s Calder Cup finalists held the Norfolk Admirals to one goal in two games this weekend and took a shootout win from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Rookie Nikita Kucherov continues his outstanding play and is first in the AHL with 12 goals.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Saturday vs. Albany Devils
3. Binghamton Senators (9-4)
The Senators have won four games in a row, although two of their victories this week came in extra time. Stephane Da Costa was named AHL Player of the Week after tallying seven points in three games and is second on Binghamton with 12 points overall.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Adirondack Phantoms, Saturday vs. Rochester Americans
4. Grand Rapids Griffins (9-2-1-1)
Grand Rapids put up 12 goals in its two games on Wednesday and Friday. Ryan Sproul had three assists in the 6-2 victory over the Rockford IceHogs, and Gustav Nyquist has 17 points in 12 games for the Griffins, who have also won their last seven games.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday at Milwaukee Admirals, Friday vs. Rockford, Saturday at Chicago Wolves
5. Texas Stars (8-4-2)
The Stars have won three in a row and have scored at least five goals in all of those games. They won 7-4 against Milwaukee on Friday, and Travis Morin continued his early season hot streak with three points.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday vs. Abbotsford, Saturday at Utica Comets, Sunday, November 17 at Toronto Marlies
6. Providence Bruins (7-4-0-2)
The highlight of the Bruins’ week was a 6-0 shutout of the Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday night. Niklas Svedberg and first-year goalie Malcolm Subban combined for 17 saves in the win. Although Subban is 2-3, he has a respectable .913 save percentage and 2.48 GAA.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Norfolk, Sunday vs. Portland Pirates
7. Rochester Americans (5-3-2-2)
The Americans have taken over the lead in the Western Conference’s North Division after defeating the Hamilton Bulldogs and taking a point in an overtime loss with Binghamton. Luke Adam is fourth in the AHL with nine goals, five of which have come on Rochester’s third-ranked power play (26.8 percent).
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday at Hamilton, Friday at Utica, Saturday at Binghamton
8. Manchester Monarchs (9-2-1-2)
The Monarchs split a weekend series with St. John’s, losing 5-2 on Friday but bouncing back with a 3-2 victory on Saturday. Martin Jones, who leads the AHL with nine wins, had 31 saves on 33 shots.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday vs. Norfolk, Friday at Portland, Saturday vs. Norfolk
9. Springfield Falcons (8-3-0-1)
The Falcons bounced back from a 3-0 shutout loss to Adirondack on Friday by beating Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4-3 on Sunday. Current Springfield and former WBS captain Ryan Craig scored the late goal to secure the win. It was his first goal of the season.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Saturday at Portland
10. Rockford IceHogs (8-7-1-0)
Rockford lost 6-2 to Grand Rapids on Wednesday before splitting a weekend series with the Iowa Wild. Adam Clendenning has 12 assists to rank fourth in the AHL.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday at Grand Rapids, Saturday vs. San Antonio Rampage
11. Adirondack Phantoms (7-5-0-2)
Adirondack had won six straight games before losing to the Sound Tigers on Sunday by a score of 3-2. It had two shutouts this weekend, with Cal Heeter making 26 saves in Friday’s 3-0 win over Springfield, while Yann Danis stopped 28 shots in a 2-0 victory against the Albany Devils.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday at Binghamton
12. Chicago Wolves (6-6-0-1)
The Wolves defeated the Charlotte Checkers by identical scores of 2-1 on Thursday and Saturday. Goaltender Jake Allen made 58 saves on a combined 60 shots in the two games.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday at Iowa, Friday at Milwaukee, Saturday vs. Grand Rapids
13. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (8-3-0-2)
The Penguins took a step back in the second week of November and have lost some of their third-period magic. Their trademark comebacks were not enough for wins over all three of their opponents this week, including an Albany team they have traditionally dominated.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday at Syracuse, Saturday vs. Hershey Bears
14. Toronto Marlies (6-5-1)
Toronto started the week with a 5-2 win over a poor Comets team, but then lost Saturday and Sunday matchups with the Heat. T.J. Brennan is tied for third in the league with 10 goals, while Spencer Abbott is first with 16 assists.
Upcoming Schedule: Thursday, November 14 at Lake Erie Monsters, Saturday vs. Charlotte, Sunday vs. Texas
15. Albany Devils (7-6-0-1)
Albany pulled out a wild 6-5 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, but could not find any offense in a 2-0 shutout loss against the Phantoms on Saturday. Mike Sislo had a hat trick against the Penguins and then added an assist for a four-point game.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday at Hartford, Saturday at Syracuse
16. Portland Pirates (4-5-0-1)
Portland beat the Worcester Sharks twice this weekend, taking a 5-1 win on Friday and a 4-3 victory on Sunday. Tobias Rieder and Chris Brown each had two goals in the second part of the home-and-home series.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Manchester, Saturday vs. Springfield, Sunday at Providence
17. San Antonio Rampage (6-6-0-1)
The Rampage lost head coach Peter Horachek last week when he headed to Florida to replace the fired Kevin Dineen behind the Panthers bench. San Antonio went to the shootout in three straight games and took two wins. Jon Matsumoto scored the only goal needed to beat the Milwaukee Admirals in Sunday’s skills competition.
Upcoming Schedule: Tuesday, November 12 at Oklahoma City Barons, Friday at Iowa, Saturday at Rockford
18. Milwaukee Admirals (6-2-2-1)
The Western Conference Admirals are on a three-game losing streak after winning four games in a row. Leading scorer Anthony Bitteto has 10 points in the team’s first 11 games.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday vs. Grand Rapids, Friday vs. Chicago, Saturday at Iowa
19. Bridgeport Sound Tigers (4-6-1-1)
Things are slowly looking up for the Sound Tigers, who picked up three out of four points this weekend. Bridgeport scored five goals in Saturday’s shootout loss to Hershey which went 10 rounds and got third-period goals from Joe Diamond and Ryan Strome to force extra time.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday at Springfield, Saturday vs. Hartford
20. Norfolk Admirals (7-4-0-3)
Norfolk has lost three of its last four games, including a two-game set with Syracuse. The Ads score about 2.4 goals per game, and defenseman Alex Grant is the team’s leading scorer with seven points.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday at Manchester, Friday at Providence, Saturday at Manchester
21. Hartford Wolf Pack (7-5-0-2)
The Wolf Pack have lost their last four games, and the weekend consisted of tough losses over Providence. However, Hartford still had five goals on Friday and Danny Syvret picked up two assists.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Albany, Saturday at Bridgeport
22. St. John’s IceCaps (6-7-1)
The IceCaps have won three of their last five games and have scored at least three goals in each of those victories. Eric O’Dell had three points in Friday’s 5-2 win over the Monarchs.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday vs. Worcester
23. Iowa Wild (6-5)
After just scoring one goal on Friday, the Wild came back to beat the IceHogs 5-2 on Saturday. They went 4-for-6 on the power play, and Brian Connelly had three assists.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday vs. Chicago, Friday vs. San Antonio, Saturday vs. Milwaukee
24. Hamilton Bulldogs (5-5-0-3)
Hamilton cooled off after looking like it was headed for a hot streak and are now losers of four consecutive games. The Bulldogs were held to two goals combined in losses to the Griffins and Comets. Dustin Tokarski is tied for fifth in the AHL with four wins in net, and he also has a 2.38 GAA and .915 save percentage.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday vs. Rochester, Friday vs. Lake Erie, Saturday at Lake Erie
25. Lake Erie Monsters (6-6)
Lake Erie won two of three games this week, but gave Utica its first win of the season in a 3-2 final on Friday. In Thursday’s 4-0 shutout over the Comets, Bryan Lerg and Mark Olver each had two points, and the Monsters put 42 shots on Utica goalie Joacim Eriksson.
Upcoming Schedule: Thursday vs. Toronto, Friday at Hamilton, Saturday vs. Hamilton
26. Utica Comets (2-8-1-1)
The Comets won their first game of the season on Friday, with team captain Colin Stuart breaking a 2-2 tie with 2:18 to go in the third period. He then added a shorthanded, empty-net goal in Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Hamilton.
Upcoming Schedule: Friday vs. Rochester, Saturday vs. Texas
27. Hershey Bears (3-4-2-2)
The Bears have picked up points in their last three games, which have all gone to shootouts. Ryan Stoa has scored on both of his shootout attempts and is second in the AHL in that category.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday and Thursday at Charlotte, Saturday at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
28. Oklahoma City Barons (5-6-0-2)
The Barons lost their only game of the week on Saturday, a 3-2 shootout defeat to the Rampage. Despite their struggles, their special teams units are still both in the top 10 of the AHL. The penalty kill is ranked fifth at 85.5 percent, and the power play is ninth at 20 percent.
Upcoming Schedule: Tuesday vs. San Antonio, Friday and Saturday vs. Abbotsford
29. Charlotte Checkers (5-6-0-1)
Charlotte is winless in its last three and was held to one goal apiece in two games against Chicago. Goalie John Muse is still among the league’s best with a .954 save percentage and 1.41 GAA.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday and Thursday vs. Hershey, Saturday at Toronto
30. Worcester Sharks (3-7)
The Sharks did themselves no favors by dropping all three of their games this weekend. They have surrendered five goals twice during this losing skid, but Danil Tarasov has been a bright spot. He leads the AHL with three game-winning goals.
Upcoming Schedule: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at St. John’s