The American Hockey League added Jake Dowell to the Western Conference AHL All-Star roster on Tuesday. The All-Star Classic will be held from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1 at Onodaga County War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, N.Y, home of the Syracuse Crunch.
Dowell, 30, leads the Rockford IceHogs with 24 points and is tied for the team lead in assists with 17. The Rockford captain joins right winger Ryan Hartman and goaltender Michael Leighton as All-Star nods. It’s the first time in the IceHogs’ eight year history in the AHL the team has sent three players to the Midseason Classic.
The All-Star rosters include 41 first-time players, nine AHL rookies and 24 players that have already played at least one NHL game this season.
Like the NHL All-Star Game, the AHL edition will be different this year. The All-Stars will be divided into four teams, one representing each of the league’s four divisions. Instead of a 60-minute game, the teams will play a round-robin tournament with six games of nine minutes each. The first half of each game will be four-on-four and the second half at three-on-three. The two teams with the best records at the end of the tournament will meet in a six-minute three-on-three championship game.