Former Tallahassee Tiger Shark center Ben Guite was called up to the Colorado Avalanche yesterday. He played 68 games with the ECHL Tiger Sharks in the 2000-01 season, the Sharks final season before the relocation to Macon.

After spending last season with the Bruins organization, the 28-year old native of Montreal, Quebec, signed as a free agent with the Avalanche in July.

Guite played one game with the NHL Bruins last season. He has spent most of his career in the AHL, playing with Bridgeport, Cincinnati and Providence.

Currently ranking second in scoring with the Albany River Rats, Guite has 25 points (8 g, 17 a) in 33 games played. He has registered points in 12 of his last 13 games, and ran his career-best point streak to 8 games in December.

Guite played four season with the University of Maine, including winning a Frozen Four championship in 1999 with the team. He served as an assistant captain last year win Providence and has been serving as co-captain this season on the Rats with former Everblade Keith Aucoin on call ups to Carolina.

In a related move, the Avalanche reassigned forward Brad Richardson to Albany. Richardson had 9 points (5 g, 4a) in 36 games with Colorado this season.

The Avalanche take on Tampa Bay at the Pepsi Center tomorrow night. Colorado is fourth (19-18-2, 40 points) in the Northwest Division while Tampa Bay is fourth (18-20-2, 38 points) in the Southeast Division. Colorado broke a three-game losing streak Monday with a 5-3 win on the road over the Nashville Predators.

In moves elsewhere, the Phoenix Coyotes acquired 23-year-old centerman Alexei Kaigorodov from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Mike Comrie. Ottawa's second choice (47th overall) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Kaigorodov made his NHL debut on October 14. He has 1 assists in six games with the Sens this season. He appeared in 12 games with Magnitogorski, in Russia earlier this season, netting 5 points (1g, 4a).

Comrie had 20 points (7g, 13a) in 24 games with the Coyotes this season. He was one of several unrestricted free agents (along with Ladislav Nagy and Shane Doan) that the Coyotes were considering trades on following the lifting of the holiday roster freeze.

Meanwhile the ECHL Florida Everblades traded defenseman Niko Tuomi to the Pensacola Ice Pilots for forward Adam Taylor. Taylor, a Florida Panthers prospect is on his third ECHL team this season, having been traded from the Victoria Salmon Kings to Pensacola earlier in the year.

“Adam is a player that will make an immediate impact on our club.” Everblades head coach Gerry Fleming said in a press release. “He's a solid player that we feel will contribute right away for us. At the same time it was tough having to move Niko. He’s a good player that played hard every night and we wish him nothing but the best.”

“Adam was somebody we tried to sign at the beginning of the year but we couldn't work something out with Victoria. I think his heart was not with Victoria or Pensacola so the Ice Pilots agreed to trade his rights,” said team president Craig Brush in a Naples Daily News article. The Everblades are the Panthers ECHL affiliate, so the move makes good sense for Taylor, who will now be working within the Panthers developmental program.

The Everblades loaned defenseman Chris Lee to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL, and received forward Jonathan Lehun from Rochester. He'd been called up to the Americans over the Christmas break.

The Port Huron Flags skated to a 2-1 win over the Elmira Jackals last night at the First Arena. Port Huron newcomer Bobby Kukulka scored both goals in a late Flags rally for the win.

Former Everblade and current Elmira captain Brent Cullaton got the Jackals on the board first when he took a long pass from Scott Wray and snapped a wrist shot over the blocker of Port Huron goalie Noah Ruden for his 5th gal of the season at 6:16 of the second period. Erik Anderson also assisted on the goal.

Kukulka tipped in a Shayne Tomlinson shot at 17:18 of the same period for a power play goal, tying the game at one each.

Game would stay that way until 18:35 of the third, when Kukulka swooped in, tucking the puck past netminder Kris Tebbs for the Flags victory. Greg Bullock and Tomlinson assisted on the goal.

Ruden stopped 32 shots to claim his first win of the season for the Flags, while Tebbs turned back 25 Port Huron shots to drop to 11-8-0 on the season.

The Jackals hit the road for three games in three nights this weekend beginning Friday night in Port Huron for a rematch with the Flags at 7:30 pm. Saturday the Jackals are in Flint to face the Generals and Sunday Elmira is in Kalamazoo for an afternoon game against the K-Wings. The games can be heard live over the internet at www.jackalshockey.com.

Flags Fly In Elmira 2-1
Boxscore
Game Sheet
Late goal sends Jackals to loss
Flags end road skid, clip Jackals

Chanse Fitzpatrick, one of the players suspended for last weekend's altercation, failed to show up for the game, although he did practice on Wednesday morning.

"We talked to Binghamton twice, and they didn't call him up," Jackals head coach Kris Waltze is quoted as saying in the Elmira Star Gazette. There was no word on his status according to Owen Newkirk, the director of broadcasting and public relations for the Jackals.

Fitzpatrick participated in the Ottawa Senators preseason training camp and was assigned to the Jackals two weeks ago by the Sens AHL affiliate in Binghamton.

Note: I have added a photo gallery to my Live Journal account. You can view it here. These were the pictures I was trying to upload when NHL Connect's editing tools broke. Now I can't upload anything! :( I will be posting more photos to the gallery soon.