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 || Series Preview
Tonight’s Previews
2013 Calder Cup Finals – Game 1 – 7:00 ET
TV: Time Warner Cable SportsChannel, ESPN America
Webcast: AHL Live (free offer)
The Calder Cup Finals return to Syracuse for the first time in 75 years as the Eastern Conference champion Crunch host the Western Conference champion Grand Rapids Griffins in Game 1 of the AHL’s best-of-seven championship series tonight… The Crunch (founded in 1994) and Griffins (joined the AHL in 2001) are both in the Calder Cup Finals for the first time in their histories… The Syracuse Stars were the first league champions in 1936-37 and lost in the Finals in 1937-38, but no Syracuse team has gotten this far since… Both of these clubs were division champions and the 3-seed in their conference coming out of the regular season… The Crunch, winners of 11 of 12 games during the postseason after sweeping Portland and Springfield and ousting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in five games, are the first team to reach the Finals with just one loss since Rochester (11-1) in 1996… Grand Rapids outlasted Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals with a 5-4 win in Game 7 on Wednesday, reaching the Finals with an 11-7 record… The Griffins also went the distance with Houston in the best-of-five first round, and disposed of Toronto in six games in round two… The Crunch outscored the Penguins 16-4 over the last four games of their conference final series… Ondrej Palat (5-15-20) is tied for the AHL playoff scoring lead, with Tyler Johnson (9-8-17) three points behind… Tomas Tatar (11-5-16) is Grand Rapids’ postseason scoring leader followed by Tomas Jurco (7-6-13), who scored the series-winning goal late in Game 7 vs. Oklahoma City, and East Grand Rapids, Mich., native Luke Glendening (5-8-13)… With Chad Billins (2-9-11) and Riley Sheahan (2-9-11) tallying 11 points each, four of the Griffins’ top eight playoff scorers are first-year pros, as is starting goalie Petr Mrazek (11-7, 2.18, .921), who has recorded four shutouts in 18 playoff starts after posting one whitewash in 42 regular-season contests… Both Mrazek and Syracuse’s Cedrick Desjardins (11-1, 1.86, .920) had two shutouts during the conference final round… After Gustav Nyquist (1-1-2) and Joakim Andersson (1-3-4) rejoined the lineup from Detroit for Game 4 vs. OKC, the Griffins scored 15 goals in four games and went 6-for-14 on the power play (after starting the series with five goals in three games and 0-for-9 on the PP)… Syracuse is averaging 4.00 goals per game in the playoffs while allowing just 1.91 goals per game… In Calder Cup Finals history, the Game 1 winner has gone on to take the series 75 percent of the time (57 of 76).
2013 Calder Cup Finals – Series “O” (best-of-7)
E3-Syracuse Crunch vs. W3-Grand Rapids Griffins
Game 1 – Sat., June 8 – Grand Rapids at Syracuse, 7:00
Game 2 – Sun., June 9 – Grand Rapids at Syracuse, 6:00
Game 3 – Wed., June 12 – Syracuse at Grand Rapids, 7:00
Game 4 – Fri., June 14 – Syracuse at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sat., June 15 – Syracuse at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 6 – Tue., June 18 – Grand Rapids at Syracuse, 7:00
*Game 7 – Thu., June 20 – Grand Rapids at Syracuse, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
About Last Night…
The Boston Bruins won the Prince of Wales Trophy and earned a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, completing a four-game sweep… Adam McQuaid, who played three seasons with the Providence Bruins (2007-10) and reached the AHL’s conference finals in 2009, scored the only goal in Game 4 while 2008 AHL All-Star Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for the shutout… Boston will face the winner of the Western Conference Finals between Chicago and Los Angeles.
Game 1 Histories
The home team (higher seed) is 13-7 in the opening game of the Calder Cup Finals since 1993, but 5-7 since 2001:
2012 – NORFOLK 3, Toronto 1
2011 – HOUSTON 3, Binghamton 1
2010 – Texas 2, HERSHEY 1
2009 – Hershey 5, MANITOBA 4 (OT)
2008 – CHICAGO 5, W-B/Scranton 4
2007 – Hamilton 4, HERSHEY 0
2006 – MILWAUKEE 2, Hershey 1
2005 – Philadelphia 1, CHICAGO 0
2004 – MILWAUKEE 2, W-B/Scranton 1 (OT)
2003 – Houston 2, HAMILTON 1
2002 – Chicago 5, BRIDGEPORT 4 (OT)
2001 – W-B/Scranton 4, SAINT JOHN 3
2000 – HARTFORD 1, Rochcester 0
1999 – PROVIDENCE 4, Rochester 2
1998 – PHILADELPHIA 3, Saint John 2 (2OT)
1997 – HERSHEY 4, Hamilton 2
1996 – ROCHESTER 5, Portland 3
1995 – ALBANY 4, Fredericton 3
1994 – PORTLAND 5, Moncton 1
1993 – ROCHESTER 5, Cape Breton 4 (OT)
Working Overtime
There have been 13 overtime games played in the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs so far… Road teams are 10-3:
Apr. 26 – Texas 3, MILWAUKEE 2 (Brett Ritchie, 11:44)
Apr. 26 – Charlotte 4, OKLAHOMA CITY 3 (Brody Sutter, 3:06)
Apr. 27 – SPRINGFIELD 2, Manchester 1 (Cody Bass, 10:36)
Apr. 27 – W-B/Scranton 3, BINGHAMTON 2 (Chad Kolarik, 8:18)
Apr. 27 – SYRACUSE 4, Portland 3 (Richard Panik, 6:36)
Apr. 28 – Hershey 5, PROVIDENCE 4 (Jon DiSalvatore, 3:05)
Apr. 28 – SPRINGFIELD 3, Manchester 2 (Cody Bass, 18:44)
*May 1 – Toronto 3, ROCHESTER 2 (Will Acton, 5:14)
*May 2 – Syracuse 4, PORTLAND 3 (Ondrej Palat, 19:43)
*May 4 – Springfield 4, MANCHESTER 3 (Nick Drazenovic, 8:06)
May 9 – Oklahoma City 2, TEXAS 1 (Anton Lander, 1:28)
May 15 – Providence 2, W-B/SCRANTON 1 (Carter Camper, 0:31)
May 20 – W-B/Scranton 2, PROVIDENCE 1 (Trevor Smith, 3:26)
*indicates goal ended series
Watch the Calder Cup Finals Free on AHL Live
As a thank you to our fans, the American Hockey League and NeuLion are offering free streaming of the 2013 Calder Cup Finals on AHL Live… Visit ahllive.com for details.
