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AHL Morning Skate: April 30

by theahl

Take a game-day spin around the AHL ice with latest news and notes from
the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs in today’s Morning Skate.

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

   
Game 4 – 7:00 ET, AHL Live
(Portland leads series, 2-1)
   

It took the longest game in franchise history to do it, but the Portland Pirates grabbed a 2-1 series lead with a 2-1 victory in triple overtime on Thursday night, setting up a chance to eliminate Hershey with another win in Game 4 this evening… Rob Flick (1-1-2) scored 3:10 into the sixth period, one-timing home a pass from Rob Schremp (2-1-3)… Mike McKenna (2-1, 2.17, .916) finished with 41 saves and takes a shutout streak of 77:38 into Game 4 after allowing only a Nathan Walker (1-0-1) goal early in the second period on Thursday… Greg McKegg (1-0-1) scored for Portland in Game 3, his first game back from Florida (NHL)… Justin Peters (1-1, 1.10, .961) stopped 42 of 44 shots in the loss for the Bears, who are 6-1 all-time at Giant Center when facing elimination… The Pirates are looking to close out their first series victory since defeating Connecticut in the opening round in 2011… In addition to being the longest game in the Pirates’ 23-year history, Game 3 was the second-longest in the 78-year history of the Bears, coming up 80 seconds short of a 1951 contest against the Pittsburgh Hornets… Portland is 1-for-19 on the power play in the series; Hershey is 1-for-14.

Atlantic Division Semifinals – Series “A” (best-of-5)
A1-Hershey Bears vs. A4-Portland Pirates
Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 22 – PORTLAND 6, Hershey 4 
Game 2 – Sat., Apr. 23 – Hershey 3, PORTLAND 1 
Game 3 – Thu., Apr. 28 – Portland 2, HERSHEY 1 (3OT) 
Game 4 – Sat., Apr. 30 – Portland at Hershey, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 1 – Portland at Hershey, 5:00
   *if necessary… All times Eastern
Friday’s Recaps
#ONTvsSJ: Reign advance with Game 4 win
#SDvsTEX: Gulls use special teams to snuff out Stars
Working Overtime
There have been 5 overtime games played in the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs so far:

Apr. 28 – Portland 2, HERSHEY 1 (Rob Flick, 43:10)
Apr. 26 – UTICA 2, Albany 1 (Alexandre Grenier, 9:13)
Apr. 23 – W-B/Scranton 5, PROVIDENCE 4 (Jake Guentzel, 33:52)
Apr. 21 – W-B/SCRANTON 4, Providence 3 (Daniel Sprong, 5:13)
Apr. 20 – W-B/SCRANTON 3, Providence 2 (Carter Rowney, 1:09)
Alumni Watch
In Stanley Cup Playoff action last night, Radek Faksa scored with 4:44 left in regulation to propel Dallas to a 2-1 win over St. Louis in Game 1 of their second-round series… A Calder Cup champion in 2014, Faksa had 15-11-26 in 28 AHL games with Texas during the 2015-16 regular season… 2010 AHL All-Star Logan Couture scored twice during a five-goal third period as San Jose defeated Nashville, 5-2, in Game 1.

AHL Live
Don’t miss a second on the road to the 2016 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.