AHL Morning Skate: June 2

Take a game-day spin around the AHL ice with latest from around the American Hockey League in today’s Morning Skate.

Complete Schedule || Playoff Brackets || Today’s Scoreboard || League Leaders

Tonight’s Previews

tex  tor
Game 6 – 8:30 ET (TEX leads series, 3-2)
AHL Live, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (Sirius 207, XM 211)
The Texas Stars can advance to the Calder Cup Finals tonight as they take a 3-2 series lead into Game 6 against the Toronto Marlies at Cedar Park Center… Texas pulled out a 2-1 win in Saturday’s pivotal Game 5, with rookie Taylor Peters‘ first career playoff goal at 9:02 of the third period holding up as the game-winner… Peters (1-1-2) tallied 7-9-16 in 70 regular-season games with Texas in the regular season… Scott Glennie (4-3-7) also scored for the Stars on Saturday afternoon, his third goal of the series and fourth of the postseason… Cristopher Nilstorp (8-3, 2.06, .916) stopped all 17 shots he faced after allowing a goal on Toronto’s first shot of the contest… Spencer Abbott (4-5-9) opened the scoring 41 seconds into Game 5 following his hat trick in Game 4… Petter Granberg (0-2-2) earned an assist on Abbott’s goal, his first point since Game 1 of Toronto’s first-round series vs. Milwaukee… Peter Holland (6-6-12) saw his eight-game scoring streak come to an end… Abbott (4-2-6), Holland (2-4-6) and T.J. Brennan (3-3-6) have accounted for nine of the Marlies’ 15 goals and 18 of their 36 points in the Western Conference Finals… Drew MacIntyre (9-3, 1.92, .944) stopped 31 of 33 shots in Game 5 as the Marlies were outshot for the 10th time in 12 playoff games… Nilstorp and MacIntyre have both allowed 12 goals in the series; MacIntyre has faced 192 shots (.938) to Nilstorp’s 114 (.895)… Stars captain Maxime Fortunus played his 108th career Calder Cup Playoff game on Saturday, moving into sole possession of 11th place all-time (see below)… The Marlies have now scored the game’s first goal in all 12 of their playoff outings, and have outscored their opponents 17-3 in the first period this postseason… Texas has a 20-6 edge in scoring during the third period and overtime during these playoffs… The Stars are 5-1 at home this postseason, and have won 15 of their last 18 on home ice since Feb. 21… The Marlies are 5-1 on the road in the playoffs… Texas is 6-1 all-time with a chance to win a series; Toronto is 6-5 when facing elimination… Of the 222 previous teams who have held a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven Calder Cup Playoff series, 134 won the series in six games (60.4 percent), 46 won the series in seven games (20.7 percent) and 42 lost the series (18.9 percent)… Tonight’s game will air live on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (Sirius 207, XM 211).

Western Conference Finals – Series “N” (best-of-7)
1-Texas Stars vs. 3-Toronto Marlies
| Series Snapshot
Game 1 – Fri., May 23 – Toronto 5, TEXAS 1
Game 2 – Mon., May 26 – TEXAS 6, Toronto 3
Game 3 – Wed., May 28 – Texas 3, TORONTO 2
Game 4 – Thu., May 29 – TORONTO 4, Texas 1
Game 5 – Sat., May 31 – Texas 2, TORONTO 1
Game 6 – Mon., June 2 – Toronto at Texas, 8:30
*Game 7 – Tue., June 3 – Toronto at Texas, 8:30
   *if necessary… All times Eastern

Quick Strikes
Toronto has scored the game’s first goal in all 12 of its playoff contests… In the last eight, that goal has come within the first 10 minutes of the game:

Game 1 at Milwaukee – 17:46, 1st
Game 2 at Milwaukee – 18:51, 1st
Game 3 vs. Milwaukee – 17:31, 2nd
Game 1 at Chicago – 10:54, 1st
Game 2 at Chicago – 1:04, 1st
Game 3 vs. Chicago – 5:26, 1st
Game 4 vs. Chicago – 7:51, 1st
Game 1 at Texas – 3:11, 1st
Game 2 at Texas – 4:22, 1st
Game 3 vs. Texas – 9:16, 1st
Game 4 vs. Texas – 1:36, 1st
Game 5 vs. Texas – 0:41, 1st

To the Max
Texas captain Maxime Fortunus now ranks 11th in AHL history with 108 career playoff games played… Here are the top 10:

159 Bryan Helmer
128 Boyd Kane
123 – Ken Gernander
120 – Fred Glover
118 Alexandre Giroux
115 – Jody Gage
112 – Les Duff
112 – Willie Marshall
112 – Mike Nykoluk
110 Darren Haydar

Working Overtime
There have been 15 overtime games played in the 2014 Calder Cup Playoffs so far:

Apr. 23 – Springfield 3, PROVIDENCE 2 (Andrew Joudrey, 2:21)
Apr. 23 – Texas 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (Mike Hedden, 5:35)
Apr. 25 – Providence 2, SPRINGFIELD 1 (Matt Fraser, 3:54)
Apr. 25 – W-B/Scranton 3, BINGHAMTON 2 (Anton Zlobin, 8:40)
Apr. 25 – Chicago 4, ROCHESTER 3 (Dmitrij Jaskin, 1:06)
Apr. 25 – Grand Rapids 2, ABBOTSFORD 1 (Ryan Sproul, 39:26)
Apr. 26 – BINGHAMTON 4, W-B/Scranton 3 (Stephane Da Costa, 11:07)
Apr. 26 – Texas 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (Brendan Ranford, 15:04)
Apr. 30 – W-B/SCRANTON 3, Binghamton 2 (Chuck Kobasew, 7:32)
Apr. 30 – NORFOLK 1, Manchester 0 (Maxime Sauve, 14:51)
May 13 – NORFOLK 3, St. John’s 2 (Andre Petersson, 13:10)
May 14 – W-B/Scranton 5, PROVIDENCE 4 (Simon Despres, 26:32)
May 14 – TORONTO 4, Chicago 3 (Jerry D’Amigo, 3:28)
May 16 – PROVIDENCE 3, W-B/Scranton 2 (Cory Kane, 6:31)
May 16 – Texas 3, GRAND RAPIDS 2 (Chris Mueller, 3:18)

Alumni Watch

Alec Martinez scored 5:47 into overtime to send the Los Angeles Kings to the Stanley Cup Final with a 5-4 win over Chicago in Game 7 last night… Martinez played 147 games with the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs from 2008-11, totaling 20 goals and 49 assists for 69 points… Tyler Toffoli, the AHL’s rookie of the year in 2012-13, tallied a goal and an assist for the Kings, and 2005 Calder Cup champion Jeff Carter scored a goal… Patrick Sharp, also a Calder Cup champion in 2005, scored twice in the loss for the Blackhawks.

Western Conference Finals History
The Robert W. Clarke Trophy is presented each season to the playoff champions of the AHL’s Western Conference… There have been eight different conference champions in the last eight years; either Texas (2010) or Toronto (2012) will end that streak… Here are the results of the Western Conference Finals since the league split into two conferences in 1995-96:

2013 – Grand Rapids Griffins 4, Oklahoma City Barons 3
2012 – Toronto Marlies 4, Oklahoma City Barons 1
2011 – Houston Aeros 4, Hamilton Bulldogs 3
2010 – Texas Stars 4, Hamilton Bulldogs 3
2009 – Manitoba Moose 4, Houston Aeros 2
2008 – Chicago Wolves 4, Toronto Marlies 1
2007 – Hamilton Bulldogs 4, Chicago Wolves 1
2006 – Milwaukee Admirals 4, Grand Rapids Griffins 0
2005 – Chicago Wolves 4, Manitoba Moose 0
2004 – Milwaukee Admirals 4, Rochester Americans 1
2003 – Houston Aeros 4, Grand Rapids Griffins 3
2002 – Chicago Wolves 4, Houston Aeros 1
2001 – W-B/Scranton Penguins 4, Hershey Bears 0
2000 – Rochester Americans 4, Hershey Bears 0
1999 – Rochester Americans 4, Philadelphia Phantoms 2
1998 – Philadelphia Phantoms 4, Albany River Rats 2
*1997 – Hershey Bears 4, Springfield Falcons 3
*1996 – Rochester Americans 4, Syracuse Crunch 1
  *known as Southern Conference

AHL Live
Don’t miss a second on the road to the 2014 Calder Cup championship. AHL Live brings AHL action to your desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet all season long with live video webcasts and free highlights of every AHL game… Visit ahllive.com for details.