AHL Morning Skate: April 25, 2025

GAME NOTES
Springfield heads home tonight with a chance to knock out Providence as they host Game 2 of their first-round series at the MassMutual Center... The Thunderbirds went into the Bruins’ den on Wednesday and came away with a 2-1 victory on the strength of 39 saves from Colten Ellis in his Calder Cup Playoff debut... Ellis, who was 5-1-0 with a 2.18 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage in six starts against Providence during the regular season, preserved the win as the Bruins held an 18-2 advantage in shots during the final period and a 40-15 edge for the game... Zach Dean and Matt Luff staked Springfield to a 2-0 lead with goals at 6:32 and 10:32 of the opening period... Oliver Wahlstrom scored the only goal for the Bruins in Game 1, a power-play marker 3:44 into the second... Michael DiPietro also made his Calder Cup Playoffs debut on Wednesday and finished with 13 saves... Springfield snapped a six-game postseason losing streak with the victory, its first playoff win since Game 1 of the 2022 Calder Cup Finals at Chicago... The Thunderbirds had been outscored 31-6 in those six losses... The Bruins, meanwhile, have lost 18 of their last 22 playoff games going back to 2017, and are 0-12 in one-goal decisions during that stretch... Springfield lost seven of its last nine home games to close out the regular season.

GAME NOTES
The best-of-three Keystone State battle between the Penguins and Phantoms shifts to PPL Center in Allentown for Game 2 tonight... Lehigh Valley had just three regulation wins in its last 25 tries against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before Wednesday’s convincing 5-2 victory in the series opener... In their professional playoff debuts, Alex Bump – a 2022 draft pick by Philadelphia who won a national championship at Western Michigan University less than two weeks ago – scored two goals for the Phantoms in Game 1 and Jett Luchanko – the Flyers’ first-round pick in 2024 – had two assists... Olle Lycksell had a goal and an assist and Rodrigo Ābols and Anthony Richard also scored for Lehigh Valley also scored for Lehigh Valley, which built a 5-0 lead before the Penguins scored twice late... Parker Gahagen shut out the Pens for more than 55 minutes in his Calder Cup Playoffs debut and finished with 28 saves on the night... Joel Blomqvist allowed three goals on 26 shots over the first two periods in net for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton; Taylor Gauthier stopped five of seven shots in the third... The Penguins were a combined 16-3-3-2 against the Phantoms during 2023-24 and 2024-25 regular seasons, but Lehigh Valley has now won all three games between the teams over the last two postseasons.

GAME NOTES
The first game of the division semifinal round takes place tonight as Rochester hosts Syracuse in the opener of their best-of-five series... This is the third year in a row in which the Amerks and Crunch have squared off in the playoffs as the second- and third-place teams in the North Division; Rochester won a five-game battle as the lower seed in 2023, and Syracuse returned the favor with a Game 5 road win in 2024... The Amerks are making their 50th trip to the postseason all-time; the six-time Calder Cup champions have made 16 Finals appearances, but none since 2000... Rochester’s Devon Levi (25-13-4, 2.20, .919) and Syracuse’s Brandon Halverson (22-11-8, 2.22, .915) were both among the league’s top goaltenders this season... Rochester won seven of the 12 meetings between the teams during the 2024-25 regular season... Amerks rookie Noah Östlund led all scorers with 7-5-12 in nine games against the Crunch, while Isak Rosén added 7-4-11 in 10 contests... Conor Sheary was Syracuse’s top point-getter in the regular season with 20-41-61, including 5-3-8 in 11 games vs. Rochester... Syracuse tied for the league lead allowing 178 goals (2.47 per game); Rochester ranked seventh on offense (3.31 goals scored per game).

GAME NOTES
Artyom Levshunov’s overtime heroics on Wednesday night have set Rockford up with two chances to close out their series with Chicago on home ice this weekend, beginning with Game 2 at BMO Center tonight... Levshunov scored on a power play 11:00 into OT, sending a wrister past Spencer Martin (34 saves) to give the IceHogs a 2-1 victory in the opener in Rosemont... The teams traded goals in the second period of Game 1, with Juha Jääskä breaking a scoreless tie for the Wolves at the 6:53 mark of the middle frame and IceHogs All-Star defenseman Kevin Korchinski answering with 2:38 to go before intermission... Drew Commesso, who was 1-3-2 (3.33, .888) in six starts against Chicago in the regular season, stopped 32 of 33 shots to earn the win for Rockford... Chicago is 20-11 all-time when facing elimination in the Calder Cup Playoffs, including 8-4 on the road... The Wolves have also won five of their six visits to Rockford this season... Game 3, if necessary, would be Sunday afternoon... The winner of this series moves on to face Milwaukee in the Central Division semifinals.