News

Finals continue with Game 2 tonight

by theahl

CALDER CUP UPDATE:
Pekka Rinne stopped 36 of 37 shots as Milwaukee struck first in the 2006 Calder Cup Finals with a 2-1 win over Hershey last night… Scottie Upshall and Darren Haydar scored in the first period, and Rinne made 29 of his saves over the final 40 minutes as the Admirals won their 10th game in a row… Game 2 is tonight at the Bradley Center (8:00 ET), with the Bears looking to avoid an 0-2 deficit from which only two teams have ever come back in a Calder Cup championship series (Springfield 1991, Nova Scotia 1972)… Frederic Cassivi turned aside 34 shots in the loss for Hershey…

  • Darren Haydar’s goal was his 15th of the postseason, tying Sergei Varlamov (Saint John, 2001) and Martin Gendron (Portland, 1996) for second-most ever in a Calder Cup Playoff… Bill McDougall scored 26 playoff goals for Cape Breton in 1993
  • Haydar now has a point in 11 straight games (13g, 8a)
  • Pekka Rinne’s 9-0 record marks the best start for a goalie from the start of his AHL playoff career since Wendell Young went 12-0 for Hershey in 1988, his only career Calder Cup postseason
  • Milwaukee has now won eight consecutive Game 1’s
  • With their 1-for-6 last night, the Admirals have scored at least one power-play goal in all nine home playoff games (14/56, 25.0 percent)
  • Milwaukee improved to 7-0 in one-goal games this postseason, and 8-0 when outshot by the opposition
  • In playoff games since 2004, the Admirals are 11-10 in first-round games and 21-3 in games after round one

     

  • Hershey had won four straight Calder Cup Finals openers since their last loss in 1976
  • Lawrence Nycholat netted the Bears’ only goal in Game 1, snapping a personal 31-game playoff drought
  • Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Beech both extended their scoring streaks to eight games with assists on the goal
  • Frederic Cassivi stopped 34 shots in the loss, the seventh time in the last eight games he has made at least 30 saves
  • Boyd Gordon and Dean Arsene were the only two of Hershey’s 18 skaters not credited with a shot on goal in Game 1
  • The Bears were scoreless in five power-play opportunities, just their third 0-fer of the postseason
  • With the loss, Hershey’s record in Calder Cup Finals games now stands at 50-51.

     

    2006 Calder Cup Finals
    W1-Milwaukee vs. E2-Hershey
    Game 1 – MILWAUKEE 2, Hershey 1
    Game 2 – Sat 6/3 at Milwaukee, 8:00
    Game 3 – Sat 6/10 at Hershey, 7:00
    Game 4 – Sun 6/11 at Hershey, 6:00
    *Game 5 – Tue 6/13 at Hershey, 7:00
    *Game 6 – Thu 6/15 at Milwaukee, 8:00
    *Game 7 – Sat 6/17 at Milwaukee, 8:00

    Complete Calder Cup Playoff schedules and results

    All times Eastern… *if necessary

    BY THE NUMBERS:
    2-1 — Final score of eight of the 16 Calder Cup Finals games played since 2003, including last night’s Game 1… Philadelphia and Chicago played two 2-1 games last year, Milwaukee and Wilkes-Barre played two in 2004, and Houston and Hamilton played three 2-1 games in 2003.

    ON THIS DATE (June 3):
    2002 – Steve Maltais nets a hat trick and Yuri Butsayev scores 2:05 into the second overtime period to give Chicago a 4-3 win over Bridgeport and its first Calder Cup championship… 1998 – Peter White gets the winner at 2:54 of OT as Philadelphia beats Saint John, 4-3, the third straight overtime game to begin the Calder Cup Finals.

    LIVE CHAT:
    Hershey Bears forward Dave Steckel is scheduled to enter the AHL Chat Room to answer fans’ questions live on theahl.com and caldercup.com, Wednesday, June 7, at 2:00 p.m. ET.

    AHL ON B2 NETWORKS:
    B2 Networks brings all the action of the 2006 Calder Cup Finals to your computer with live video webcasts of every game… Click here for details.