On a Wednesday off day, some notes from around the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs, where just six teams remain in the hunt for the American Hockey League’s 70th Calder Cup championship:
The Cincinnati Mighty Ducks may be no more, but their legacy certainly lives on.
Joffrey Lupul, who led Cincinnati with 30 goals and 56 points in 2004-05, scored all four goals in Anaheim’s 4-3 overtime win over Colorado on Tuesday night, giving the Ducks a 3-0 lead in their conference semifinal series.
Ilya Bryzgalov, 17-13-1 with Cincinnati a year ago, finally allowed a goal on Tuesday, ending his shutout streak at 249:15, the second longest in Stanley Cup Playoff history.
The other half of Cincinnati’s goaltending tandem in 2004-05, Frederic Cassivi, led Hershey to its second straight series sweep with a shutout of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Tuesday (see below)… Bryzgalov and Cassivi are a combined 13-1 in the 2006 postseason.
Dustin Penner assisted on three of Lupul’s goals on Tuesday night… Penner, who put up modest numbers in Cincinnati last year, erupted for 39 goals, 84 points and a plus-41 rating in Portland this season, earning Second Team AHL All-Star honors… He has four assists and a plus-7 rating in seven playoff games for Anaheim.
Anaheim forwards Chris Kunitz and Ryan Getzlaf also skated in Cincinnati last season.
Several more of last year’s AHL Ducks are leading Portland in its quest for a Calder Cup title… Zenon Konopka, who finished second on Cincinnati in scoring last year, has 16 points in 10 playoff games for the Pirates this spring, and has recorded a point in 22 straight games going back to the regular season… Shane O’Brien leads all AHL defensemen in playoff scoring… Pierre Parenteau is averaging a point per game with 10 points for Portland.
Hershey advanced to the Eastern Conference final with a 1-0 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Tuesday night, completing a four-game sweep of the Penguins.
After his Game 4 shutout, Frederic Cassivi is 15-3 with a 1.75 goals-against average and three shutouts in 19 career Calder Cup Playoff appearances in a Bears uniform… For his AHL career, Cassivi is 24-18 in the postseason, and helped Chicago win a Calder Cup in 2002.
Hershey allowed just one goal over the final 186:52 of the series, and has given up just three even-strength goals in eight playoff games.
The last team before the 2006 Bears to sweep back-to-back best-of-seven series was the 1988 Bears, en route to a perfect 12-0 postseason.
Hershey is among the AHL’s final four in the quest for the Calder Cup for the 37th time in franchise history.
The Bears now have a 7-3 record all-time in 1-0 playoff games.
Milwaukee closed out the West Division final with a 4-2 win in Houston on Tuesday, finishing off the Aeros in four straight.
Darren Haydar recorded a hat trick and Simon Gamache tallied three assists in Game 4… Both finished the series with nine points in four games.
Milwaukee scored four shorthanded goals over the last two games of the series… The AHL record for an entire postseason in six, held by Philadelphia (1998).
Haydar leads the AHL in postseason scoring with 10 goals, 11 assists and 21 points… Gamache is tied for second with seven goals and 16 points.
Haydar and Gamache are tied for 23rd place on the AHL’s all-time list with 59 career Calder Cup Playoff points each… Haydar has 25 goals and 34 assists in 46 games; Gamache has 26 goals and 33 assists in 49 games… Gamache finished second to Haydar in postseason scoring when Milwaukee won the Calder Cup in 2004.
Houston became just the fourth team in AHL history to sweep and then be swept in consecutive best-of-seven series.
Aeros forward Patrick O’Sullivan, who won the Dudley “Red” Garrett Award as the AHL’s outstanding rookie in 2005-06, scored four of Houston’s 10 goals in the series.
In Winnipeg on Tuesday night, Grand Rapids scored three times in the first 4:48 of the game, but needed Eric Manlow’s goal 6:38 into overtime to defeat Manitoba, 5-4.
The Griffins are 3-0 in overtime and 4-0 on the road this postseason… The Moose are now 2-2 in overtime and 3-1 at home.
It was the 18th overtime game of the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs… The single-season record is 27, set in 2004.
Jiri Hudler recorded a goal and an assist for Grand Rapids, his fifth two-point game of the postseason.
Jason Jaffray, who scored 12 goals in 73 regular-season games for Manitoba, has five goals in the Moose’s last seven contests.
Grand Rapids defenseman Terry Virtue played his 98th career Calder Cup Playoff game on Tuesday, moving into sole possession of ninth place all-time.
Attendance at the MTS Centre for Game 3 was 6,546… The Moose lead the AHL in average postseason attendance at 7,074 fans per game.
QUOTABLE:
"You can see I’ve got a few ice bags on. That’s playoff hockey. You’ve got to pay the price to win. You look at every guy around here, they gave it all they had. None of us thought we were going to sweep them going into this series. To be able to knock them out in four games, it’s unbelievable." — Hershey defenseman Dean Arsene following the Bears’ sweep of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the regular-season East Division champions. (Harrisburg Patriot-News)
ON THIS DATE:
May 10, 2004 — Andy Chiodo makes 32 saves for his third consecutive home shutout, improving to 5-0 on the postseason and giving Wilkes-Barre/Scranton a 3-1 series lead with a 2-0 victory over Philadelphia.
May 10, 2002 — Houston runs its winning streak to seven games with a 6-4 win over Chicago in Game 1 of the Western Conference final, while Bridgeport makes it six wins in a row with a 3-2 win over Hamilton in the opener of the Eastern Conference final.
May 10, 1999 — John Grahame stops 32 shots as Providence completes a four-game sweep of Hartford with a 2-1 victory.
May 10, 1986 — Brian Dobbin‘s goal 11:57 into the second overtime period gives Hershey a 5-4 win over Adirondack in Game 1 of the Calder Cup Final.
May 10, 1982 — The New Brunswick Hawks win the Calder Cup with a 4-2 win over the Binghamton Whalers in Game 5.
May 10, 1966 — At Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Mike Walton’s hat trick sparks Rochester to a 7-0 win over Cleveland for a 3-2 series lead in the Calder Cup Final.
Calder Cup Playoff schedules and results
Calder Cup Playoff brackets
