AHL Morning Skate: May 7

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

Tonight’s Previews

nor  stj
Game 2 – 6:00 ET, AHL Live (NOR leads series, 1-0)
Nic Kerdiles scored twice and John Gibson made 42 saves as Norfolk opened its Eastern Conference semifinal series with a 3-1 win over St. John’s at Mile One Centre last night… The IceCaps look to gain a split in Game 2 tonight before the series heads to Virginia for the next three games… Kerdiles, a 2012 second-round draft pick by Anaheim who joined the Admirals last month following his sophomore season at the University of Wisconsin, got Norfolk on the board first 10:14 into the game, converting an Andre Petersson feed off an IceCaps turnover in the corner… After a scoreless second period in which the IceCaps owned an 18-5 edge in shots, St. John’s finally pulled even at 3:20 of the third when Andrew Gordon deflected a point shot from Josh Morrissey past Gibson just as an IceCaps power play was expiring… Norfolk regained the lead less than four minutes later when John Kurtz scored at the 7:00 mark, and then sealed the victory on Kerdiles’s empty-net goal with 13.8 seconds to play… Gibson (4-1, 1.34, .955) has now allowed just seven goals on 157 shots during the postseason for the Admirals… Michael Hutchinson (3-2, 1.62, .946) stopped 23 of 25 shots in the loss… Morrissey, a first-round pick (13th overall) by Winnipeg in the 2013 NHL draft, has two assists and a plus-3 rating in his last two games for St. John’s… Norfolk was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill in Game 1 and has allowed one power-play goal in 22 chances (95.5 percent) on the postseason… The Admirals have now won 14 of their last 15 playoff games… St. John’s is 0-4 all-time in Game 2’s.

Eastern Conference Semifinals – Series “I” (best-of-7)
4-St. John’s IceCaps vs. 8-Norfolk Admirals

Game 1 – Tue., May 6 – Norfolk 3, ST. JOHN’S 1
Game 2 – Wed., May 7 – Norfolk at St. John’s, 6:00
Game 3 – Sat., May 10 – St. John’s at Norfolk, 8:00
Game 4 – Mon., May 12 – St. John’s at Norfolk, 7:15
*Game 5 – Tue., May 13 – St. John’s at Norfolk, 7:15
*Game 6 – Fri., May 16 – Norfolk at St. John’s, 6:00
*Game 7 – Sat., May 17 – Norfolk at St. John’s, 6:00
   *if necessary… All times Eastern

Alumni Watch
In last night’s Stanley Cup Playoff action, former AHL All-Stars Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban and Lars Eller scored and 2007 Calder Cup Playoffs MVP Carey Price made 26 saves in Montreal’s 4-2 win over Boston… Another former AHL All-Star, Patrice Bergeron, scored for the Bruins… Mikael Granlund scored twice and Erik Haula — who played 31 games this season with the AHL’s Iowa Wild — potted the game-winner as Minnesota blanked Chicago, 4-0… Earlier today, the Philadelphia Flyers named former AHL rookie of the year Ron Hextall as the team’s general manager; Hextall had previously served as general manager of the Adirondack Phantoms and, before that, the Manchester Monarchs.

Working Overtime
There have been 10 overtime games played in the 2014 Calder Cup Playoffs so far… Road teams are 7-3 this year, and 27-9 in the last 36 playoff OT games overall:

Apr. 23 – Springfield 3, PROVIDENCE 2 (Andrew Joudrey, 2:21)
Apr. 23 – Texas 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (Mike Hedden, 5:35)
Apr. 25 – Providence 2, SPRINGFIELD 1 (Matt Fraser, 3:54)
Apr. 25 – W-B/Scranton 3, BINGHAMTON 2 (Anton Zlobin, 8:40)
Apr. 25 – Chicago 4, ROCHESTER 3 (Dmitrij Jaskin, 1:06)
Apr. 25 – Grand Rapids 2, ABBOTSFORD 1 (Ryan Sproul, 39:26)
Apr. 26 – BINGHAMTON 4, W-B/Scranton 3 (Stephane Da Costa, 11:07)
Apr. 26 – Texas 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (Brendan Ranford, 15:04)
Apr. 30 – W-B/SCRANTON 3, Binghamton 2 (Chuck Kobasew, 7:32)
Apr. 30 – NORFOLK 1, Manchester 0 (Maxime Sauve, 14:51)

Comeback Central
Half of the 32 games played in the first round of this year’s Calder Cup Playoffs were come-from-behind victories, with five teams erasing two-goal deficits to win:

Game 2 – Norfolk 3, MANCHESTER 2 (trailed 0-2)

Game 1 – Springfield 3, PROVIDENCE 2 (OT; trailed 0-1)
Game 3 – SPRINGFIELD 3, Providence 2 (trailed 0-1)
Game 5 – Providence 6, SPRINGFIELD 3 (trailed 0-1, 1-3)

Game 1 – W-B/Scranton 3, BINGHAMTON 2 (OT; trailed 0-1, 1-2)
Game 2 – BINGHAMTON 4, W-B/Scranton 3 (OT; trailed 0-1, 1-3)

Game 2 – ALBANY 4, St. John’s 2 (trailed 0-1)

Game 1 – Texas 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (OT; trailed 0-2)
Game 2 – Texas 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (OT; trailed 0-1, 1-2)

Game 1 – Chicago 4, ROCHESTER 3 (OT; trailed 0-2, 1-3)
Game 2 – ROCHESTER 3, Chicago 2 (trailed 0-1)
Game 5 – CHICAGO 4, Rochester 2 (trailed 1-2)

Game 1 – Grand Rapids 2, ABBOTSFORD 1 (2OT; trailed 0-1)
Game 2 – Grand Rapids 7, ABBOTSFORD 2 (trailed 0-1, 1-2)
Game 3 – Abbotsford 2, GRAND RAPIDS 1 (trailed 0-1)
Game 4 – GRAND RAPIDS 5, Abbotsford 3 (trailed 0-1)

AHL Live
Don’t miss a second on the road to the 2014 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.