AHL Morning Skate: May 23

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Game 2 – 7:00 ET, AHL Live (MCH leads series, 1-0)
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Manchester hosts Hartford in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight… Michael Mersch scored twice to lead the Monarchs to a 3-2 victory in the series opener on Thursday night… Mersch (8-7-15) leads all AHL rookies in goals and points and is first overall in the league in plus/minus rating (+10) this postseason… Nic Dowd (2-3-5) also scored in Game 1, and Jean-Francois Berube (8-3, 2.31, .900) made 24 saves for his sixth win in the last seven games… David Van der Gulik (2-5-7) extended his scoring streak to six games with an assist for the Monarchs in Game 1… Mersch’s first goal of the night came 35 seconds into Game 1, the fifth goal scored by the Monarchs this postseason in the opening minute of a game (see below)… Oscar Lindberg (2-9-11) and Mat Bodie (3-2-5) scored for the Wolf Pack on Thursday, and Chris Bourque (4-12-16) picked up two assists to improve to 1-9-10 in the last four games… Bourque, who also faced Manchester in the conference finals in 2007 and 2010 while with Hershey, now has 3-9-12 in 11 career playoff games against the Monarchs… Joey Crabb, scoreless in Hartford’s first-round series vs. Providence, has points in seven straight contests since then following his assist in Game 1 (4-4-8)… Yann Danis (7-5, 2.05, .928) stopped 22 shots in defeat… The Monarchs have now won 12 in a row (6-0 in the playoffs) on home ice, and 33 of their last 38 home games… The Wolf Pack are 6-3 all-time in Game 2’s following a Game 1 loss… Game 1 winners gone on to take 10 of the 12 series played thus far this postseason.

Eastern Conference Finals – Series “M” (best-of-7)
1-Manchester Monarchs vs. 3-Hartford Wolf Pack
Game 1 – Thu., May 21 – MANCHESTER 3, Hartford 2
Game 2 – Sat., May 23 – Hartford at Manchester, 7:00
Game 3 – Tue., May 26 – Manchester at Hartford, 7:00
Game 4 – Wed., May 27 – Manchester at Hartford, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sat., May 30 – Hartford at Manchester, 7:00
*Game 6 – Sun., May 31 – Manchester at Hartford, 7:00
*Game 7 – Tue., June 2 – Hartford at Manchester, 7:00
   *if necessary… All times Eastern

Game 1 vs. Hartford – 0:35, Michael Mersch (W, 3-2)
Game 5 at W-B/Scranton – 2:01, Adrian Kempe (W, 2-1)
Game 4 at W-B/Scranton – 0:42, Jordan Weal (W, 5-2)
Game 1 vs. W-B/Scranton – 0:18, Nick Shore (W, 4-3)
Game 5 vs. Portland – 1:42, Michael Mersch (W, 5-3)
*Game 2 vs. Portland – 0:30, Jordan Weal (W, 6-2)
Game 2 vs. Portland – 0:20, Michael Mersch (W, 6-2)
Game 1 vs. Portland – 2:07, Jordan Weal (W, 5-2)
   *second goal of the game

Climbing the Charts
Hartford’s Chris Bourque has moved into seventh place on the AHL’s all-time postseason scoring list, and is now fifth all-time in playoff assists:

Western Conference Finals – Series “N” (best-of-7)
1-Utica Comets vs. 2-Grand Rapids Griffins
Game 1 – Sun., May 24 – Grand Rapids at Utica, 7:00
Game 2 – Mon., May 25 – Grand Rapids at Utica, 7:00
Game 3 – Thu., May 28 – Utica at Grand Rapids, 7:00
Game 4 – Fri., May 29 – Utica at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 31 – Utica at Grand Rapids, 5:00
*Game 6 – Tue., June 2 – Grand Rapids at Utica, 7:00
*Game 7 – Wed., June 3 – Grand Rapids at Utica, 7:00
   *if necessary… All times Eastern

May 14 – Grand Rapids 2, ROCKFORD 1 (Tyler Bertuzzi, 0:13)
May 13 – Hartford 5, HERSHEY 4 (Chris Mueller, 11:39)
May 8 – UTICA 2, Oklahoma City 1 (Alexandre Grenier, 3:32)
May 7 – Oklahoma City 2, UTICA 1 (Curtis Hamilton, 60:16)
May 6 – MANCHESTER 4, W-B/Scranton 3 (Zach O’Brien, 44:13)
May 6 – Hartford 2, HERSHEY 1 (Chris Bourque, 16:47)
May 1 – Chicago 4, UTICA 3 (Joel Edmundson, 2:19)
*May 1 – HARTFORD 3, Providence 2 (Tommy Hughes, 4:35)
*Apr. 29 – ROCKFORD 3, Texas 2 (Stephen Johns, 0:23)
*Apr. 29 – Oklahoma City 2, SAN ANTONIO 1 (Jujhar Khaira, 5:01)
Apr. 29 – UTICA 2, Chicago 1 (Darren Archibald, 10:58)
Apr. 26 – PROVIDENCE 2, Hartford 1 (Seth Griffith, 42:00)
Apr. 25 – OKLAHOMA CITY 4, San Antonio 3 (Connor Jones, 4:01)
Apr. 22 – Utica 3, CHICAGO 2 (Bobby Sanguinetti, 23:10)
  *series clincher