Mighty fine victory for Mighty Ducks

There will be a new Calder Cup champion in 2004.

The Cincinnati Mighty Ducks defeated the Houston Aeros on Saturday night, 6-3, ending the Aeros’ reign as champions with a two-game sweep of the West Division qualifying series.

Cincinnati moves on to face Milwaukee in the next round, beginning Wednesday night at the Bradley Center.

Stanislav Chistov scored twice, Curtis Glencross had a goal and two assists and Tony Martensson issued four assists for the Mighty Ducks, who won a playoff series for the first time in franchise history.

Ilya Bryzgalov finished with 34 saves on the night.

CLEVELAND 2, TORONTO 1 (2OT)
Shawn Mather scored 12:38 into the second overtime period to give Cleveland a season-saving 2-1 win over Toronto in Strongsville, Ohio, on Saturday.

The best-of-three North Division qualifier is now even at one game apiece. The winner of Sunday’s Game 3 will advance to face Hamilton.

Nolan Schaefer stopped 44 of 45 shots to earn the win in net for the Barons, who kept the Roadrunners off the board during a 52-second 5-on-3 in the first overtime.

WORCESTER 3, MANCHESTER 2 (OT)
Worcester took a 2-0 series lead on Manchester with a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday.

Scott Pellerin got the winning goal at 7:46 of OT. Jame Pollock had a goal and an assist for the IceCats, and Curtis Sanford, who left Game 1 with an injury, returned to the crease and made 28 saves.

ROCHESTER 6, SYRACUSE 0
Ryan Miller made 30 saves and Domenic Pittis scored twice to lead Rochester to a 6-0 win in Syracuse in Game 2 of the North Division semifinals.

Six different Amerks recorded two points apiece in the game, which also saw the rivals combine for 118 minutes in penalties.