As the long break between Games 2 and 3 continues, some notes from around the 2006 Calder Cup Finals, where both teams are three wins away from being crowned the American Hockey League’s 70th Calder Cup champion:
With the possibility of a trophy presentation following Game 5 next Tuesday, the last time the Calder Cup was awarded on Hershey ice was in 1980, when the Bears defeated the New Brunswick Hawks, four games to two, for the championship… In each of Hershey’s last three Finals trips (1986, 1988, 1997), the deciding game was played away from Chocolatetown.
The Bears’ leading scorer in 1979-80 was current Milwaukee head coach Claude Noel, with 62 points in 68 regular-season games… Noel added nine goals and 10 assists in 16 playoff contests, and scored the winning goal in Hershey’s Cup-clinching Game 6 victory.
The Hawks’ leading scorer in 1979-80 was current Hershey head coach Bruce Boudreau, with 90 points in 75 regular-season games… Boudreau added six goals and seven assists in 17 playoff contests.
Boudreau would lose again in the Calder Cup Finals with Baltimore in 1985, when the Skipjacks were defeated by Patrick Roy and the Sherbrooke Canadiens… In 1992, Boudreau closed out his playing career by skating in four playoff games with Adirondack; although he did not appear in the Finals, his name appears on the Calder Cup with the rest of the champion Red Wings.
The 2006 Calder Cup Finals began last Friday night with the Milwaukee Admirals holding on for a 2-1 win over the Hershey Bears at the Bradley Center.
Hershey rebounded in Game 2 on Saturday with a 6-3 victory, evening up the series and ensuring that the Finals will not end in a sweep for the first time since 2003.
The Milwaukee Admirals joined an exclusive group in Game 1, becoming just the sixth team in AHL history to win at least 10 consecutive games in a single postseason.
In Game 2, the Admirals became the fifth of those six teams to fail to extend that streak to 11.
The Hershey Bears are on the list three times, including their still-standing record of 12 straight wins during their perfect 1988 postseason run.
Milwaukee outscored its opponents by a 43-19 margin during the winning streak, the team’s longest since joining the AHL in 2001.
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Longest winning streak
(single postseason)
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|
12
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*Hershey
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1988
|
|
10
|
Milwaukee
|
2006
|
|
10
|
Hershey
|
2006
|
|
10
|
*Cape Breton
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1993
|
|
10
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Rochester
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1991
|
|
10
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*Hershey
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1974
|
|
*won Calder Cup
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Admirals forward Darren Haydar continues to climb the charts with his 12-game scoring streak, four shy of the AHL playoff record set by Bill McDougall for Cape Breton in 1993.
Haydar leads the league with 15 goals and 31 points in the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs, including 23 points (13g, 10a) during the streak.
The AHL’s rookie of the year in 2002-03 and the league’s leading playoff scorer in 2004, Haydar has vaulted into 19th place on the AHL’s career playoff scoring lists with 69 points and 30 goals, and a tie for 20th with 39 assists.
Haydar scored the deciding goal in Game 1, tying an AHL record with his fifth game-winner of the postseason.
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Most game-winning goals,
single postseason
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|
5
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Darren Haydar, Milwaukee
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2006
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|
5
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Stacy Roest, Grand Rapids
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2003
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|
5
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Dan Snyder, Chicago
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2002
|
|
5
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Jim Montgomery, Philadelphia
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1998
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|
5
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Roman Oksiuta, Cape Breton
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1993
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|
5
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Wally Hergesheimer, Cleveland
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1951
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Before Game 2, Milwaukee had trailed for a grand total of 25 minutes and 26 seconds during its 10-game winning streak, and had not been down by two goals since losing Game 6 of its first-round series against Iowa.
Hershey’s 6-3 victory marked the first time that the Admirals had allowed six goals in a home game (shootouts excluded) in more than two years, since a 6-3 loss to Chicago back on Apr. 9, 2004.
Pekka Rinne surrendered the six goals on 32 shots in Game 2, bringing an end to his 9-0 start to the playoffs… It was his first loss since Mar. 26 at Toronto.
Tomas Fleischmann led Hershey with four points in Game 2, scoring two goals and assisting on two others to extend his scoring streak to nine games (8g, 11a).
Fleischmann, a second-round draft pick by Detroit in 2002, was acquired by Washington along with a first-rounder in a trade for Robert Lang two years ago… That first-rounder turned into Mike Green, the Bears’ AHL All-Rookie defenseman who had three assists himself in Game 2.
Former Admiral Kris Beech added a goal and two assists on Saturday night, as did Lawrence Nycholat, who scored for the second night in a row after not picking up a goal in his previous 31 playoff games.
Boyd Kane, who is looking to captain his team to a Calder Cup title for the second year in a row, scored his fourth goal of this postseason and the 10th of his AHL playoff career.
Hershey has scored at least five goals in nine of its 17 games during the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs… They hit that mark 15 times in 80 regular-season games.
Even with their Game 2 loss, the Admirals are a combined 21-4 (.840) in second-, third- and fourth-round games during their runs to the Finals in 2004 and 2006.
The Bears are back up to .500 all-time in Calder Cup Finals games, with 51 wins and 51 losses.
After tying an AHL record with six overtime wins during the 2004 Calder Cup Playoffs, Milwaukee has not yet played a single OT game during the 2006 postseason… The last Calder Cup finalist to go an entire postseason without a trip to overtime was Rochester in 2000; the last team to win a Calder Cup without being tested in OT was Maine in 1978.
ON THIS DATE:
June 7, 2003 — In the final game ever at the Compaq Center, Kyle Wanvig breaks a tie with 2:33 left in regulation and sends Houston to a 6-4 win over Hamilton in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals.
June 7, 1998 — Todd Hlushko scores twice and Martin St. Louis records three assists as Saint John avoids elimination with a 6-1 win over Philadelphia in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals.
June 7, 1997 — Hershey trails 4-2 with less than nine minutes remaining, but Mike McHugh scores twice in the third period and once in overtime as the Bears stun Hamilton, 6-5, to take a 2-0 series lead in the Calder Cup Finals.
Calder Cup Playoff schedules and results
Calder Cup Playoff brackets
