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
Game 5 – 7:05 ET, AHL Live (Series tied, 2-2)
Less than a second away from a 3-1 series deficit last night, Providence tied the game with a buzzer beater and won it in overtime, shocking Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and squaring their Eastern Conference semifinal series at two games apiece… The teams go right back at it in Game 5 tonight at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center… Cory Kane (1-0-1) scored his first professional goal at 6:31 of OT to give the Bruins the 3-2 win last night after Ryan Spooner (4-6-10) had tied it with six-tenths of a second left in regulation… Seth Griffith (4-6-10) also scored for Providence in Game 4, the second straight contest to go to overtime after Games 1 and 2 were both decided by at least four goals… Reid McNeill (1-1-2) and Conor Sheary (3-3-6) scored for the Penguins… Sheary has tallied a goal in three consecutive games… Malcolm Subban (2-0, 3.31, .889), making his first start of the series, stopped 28 of 30 shots in the victory… Peter Mannino (5-3, 2.33, .908) made 28 saves, including a stop on Nick Johnson‘s penalty shot early in the third period… Chuck Kobasew (5-5-10) and Brian Dumoulin (2-8-10), who each had an assist in Game 4, have tallied points in seven of the Penguins’ eight playoff games… Providence improved to 21-13 all-time in playoff overtime games, and snapped a five-game home losing streak in playoff OT’s dating back to 2009… Wilkes-Barre fell to 26-20, including 16-11 on the road… In Calder Cup Playoff history, 125 previous best-of-7 series have been tied 2-2; the Game 5 winner has won the series 101 times (80.8 percent).
Eastern Conference Semifinals – Series “J” (best-of-7)
6-W-B/Scranton Penguins vs. 7-Providence Bruins | Series Snapshot
Game 1 – Fri., May 9 – Providence 4, W-B/SCRANTON 0
Game 2 – Sat., May 10 – W-B/SCRANTON 6, Providence 1
Game 3 – Wed., May 14 – W-B/Scranton 5, PROVIDENCE 4 (2OT)
Game 4 – Fri., May 16 – PROVIDENCE 3, W-B/Scranton 2 (OT)
Game 5 – Sat., May 17 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05
Game 6 – Mon., May 19 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 7 – Wed., May 21 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern
About Last Night…
Toronto advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the third time in seven seasons with a 4-0 win over Chicago, completing its second consecutive sweep and improving to 7-0 in the 2014 Calder Cup Playoffs… Toronto has not trailed in a game all postseason… Drew MacIntyre made 30 saves for his seventh career playoff shutout and Carter Ashton and Korbinian Holzer tallied a goal and an assist each… St. John’s scored the final three goals of the game for a 5-2 win over Norfolk and a 4-2 series victory, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three years… Andrew Gordon, Eric O’Dell and Ben Chiarot all had a goal and an assist for the IceCaps, who will host Games 1 and 2 of the conference finals May 24 and 25… Chris Mueller scored 3:18 into overtime to give Texas a 3-2 win over Grand Rapids in the pivotal Game 5 of their second-round series… The Stars will take a 3-2 series lead back home to Cedar Park with Game 6 set for Sunday night… Mike Hedden and Brendan Ranford also scored for Texas; Mitch Callahan and Teemu Pulkkinen had the Griffins’ goals… Cristopher Nilstorp earned the win in relief of Jack Campbell, who left the game with an injury late in regulation.
Alumni Watch
Los Angeles advanced to the Western Conference Finals of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-2 win in Game 7 at Anaheim last night… Former Calder Cup champions Jeff Carter and Mike Richards notched a goal and an assist each for the Kings, and Manchester Monarchs alumni Kyle Clifford, Slava Voynov, Alec Martinez, Tanner Pearson, Tyler Toffoli and Dwight King combined for seven points… Jonathan Quick stopped 25 shots in the win.
O, Canada
With Toronto and St. John’s wrapping up their respective series last night, 2014 becomes the eighth consecutive year in which at least one AHL affiliate of a Canadian NHL team has reached the Calder Cup conference finals:
2014 – Toronto (TOR), St. John’s (WPG)
2013 – Oklahoma City (EDM)
2012 – Toronto (TOR), St. John’s (WPG), Oklahoma City (EDM)
2011 – Binghamton (OTT), Hamilton (MTL)
2010 – Hamilton (MTL)
2009 – Manitoba (VAN)
2008 – Toronto (TOR)
2007 – Hamilton (MTL)
Working Overtime
There have been 14 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)
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.
