AHL Morning Skate: May 25, 2025

A1-Hershey Bears vs. A2-Charlotte Checkers
(Charlotte wins series, 3-0)

Game 1 – Fri., May 16 – CHARLOTTE 3, Hershey 2 | Recap
Game 2 – Sat., May 17 – CHARLOTTE 2, Hershey 1 (OT) | Recap
Game 3 – Wed., May 21 – Charlotte 6, HERSHEY 3 | Recap

A2-Charlotte Checkers vs. LAV-ROC winner
Game 1 – Wednesday, 7:00 ET,

GAME NOTES:
A date with the Charlotte Checkers awaits the winner of today’s Game 5 between Laval and Rochester to decide the North Division Finals... Josh Dunne (3-4-7) had a career night on Friday, recording two goals and two assists, to lift the Amerks to a 5-1 victory... It was the first career four-point game for the fourth-year pro, who has 94 points in 202 career regular-season games but is up to 10-8-18 in 21 Calder Cup Playoff outings... Tyson Kozak (1-3-4), Isak Rosén (5-1-6) and Konsta Helenius (3-3-6) also scored for Rochester, which converted twice on the power play and once while shorthanded in Game 4... Lukáš Rousek (2-6-8) and Kale Clague (5-6-11) each picked up two assists in the win... Rousek leads all scorers with seven points (2-5-7) in the series... After allowing 12 goals over the first three games of the series, Devon Levi (5-2, 2.16, .920) stopped 22 of 23 shots in Game 4... Joshua Roy (2-3-5) scored the only Rocket goal on Friday, his second in as many games... Jacob Fowler (3-2, 2.46, .903) got the start in Game 4 and allowed four goals on 14 shots before giving way midway through the second period to Cayden Primeau (2-1, 2.62, .902), who stopped six of seven shots the rest of the way... Rochester is now 5-for-16 (31.3 percent) on the power play in the series; Laval is 2-for-11 (18.2 percent)... Rochester has won five straight times when facing elimination on the road, going back to 2022... The Amerks are playing in a winner-take-all game for the fourth consecutive spring; they are 12-7 all-time in such contests, including 6-2 on the road... This is the Rocket’s third winner-take-all game, and the first ever at Place Bell; they defeated Syracuse and lost to Springfield in 2022... Excluding shootouts, Laval has not lost consecutive games in more than three months (Feb. 17 and 19).

GAME NOTES:
It’s déjà vu in Milwaukee, where the Admirals and Stars meet in a winner-take-all Game 5 for the third year in a row... Milwaukee, which won the decisive games against Texas in 2023 and 2024, is looking to become the first team to reach three consecutive conference finals since the Providence Bruins from 1999-2001... The Admirals successfully staved off elimination for the fourth time this spring – and the 14th time over the last four postseasons – when Ryder Rolston (1-1-2) scored his first career Calder Cup Playoff goal 12:11 into overtime on Friday night... Milwaukee was 6:06 away from seeing its season end before Joakim Kemell (3-4-7) scored the tying goal in Game 4... Matt Murray (5-4, 3.22, .876) shut out Texas over the final 71:42 of the contest after allowing a Justin Hryckowian goal just 29 seconds in... Hryckowian, the AHL rookie of the year in the regular season, is averaging two points a game (6-8-14) during the playoffs, including 5-3-8 in four games this series... Remi Poirier (3-1, 1.85, .928) made 22 saves in Game 4 but took his first loss of the postseason... Texas is 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) on the power play in the series; Milwaukee is 1-for-10 (10.0 percent)... Entering tonight, these teams have played each other 38 times since the start of the 2022-23 season; Milwaukee has won 21 of the 38, but Texas has the edge in goals (122-116)... Texas is 3-3 all-time in winner-take-all games, but has not won one since defeating Toronto in the 2014 conference finals... Milwaukee is 9-5 in winner-take-all games, including 6-1 (winning the last six) under head coach Karl Taylor.

P1-Colorado Eagles vs. P2-Abbotsford Canucks
Game 5 – Monday, 5:05 ET,
(Series tied, 2-2)

Game 1 – Fri., May 16 – ABBOTSFORD 2, Colorado 0 | Recap
Game 2 – Sun., May 18 – Colorado 5, ABBOTSFORD 3 | Recap
Game 3 – Wed., May 21 – Abbotsford 3, COLORADO 2 (OT) | Recap
Game 4 – Fri., May 23 – COLORADO 3, Abbotsford 1 | Recap
Game 5 – Mon., May 26 – Abbotsford at Colorado, 5:05
*if necessary... All times Eastern

With stalwart defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon out for the Rocket in Game 4 on Friday, head coach Pascal Vincent turned to Noel Hoefenmayer for the first time this postseason.

Hoefenmayer, a fifth-year pro, was acquired by Montreal from Edmonton on Dec. 6, 2024, in a trade for forward Jacob Perreault. He totaled five goals and 16 assists in 43 regular-season games between Laval and Bakersfield this season. The Toronto native also played in the 2023 AHL All-Star Classic, held at Place Bell.

Wotherspoon’s status remains unclear after he left Game 3 with an undisclosed injury. Friday was the first game he has missed all season.

Josh Dunne continues to deliver when it matters most.

His four-point night on Friday kept Rochester’s season alive. Last postseason with Cleveland, he had a goal and an assist in the third period of a series-clinching win over Syracuse, and scored once in Game 4 and twice more in Game 5 with the Monsters facing elimination in the conference finals against Hershey.

“He’s the best,” head coach Michael Leone said of the fourth-year pro out of Clarkson University. “I can’t say enough. I love him, man. I get emotional talking about him. He means everything to our team. He’s been unbelievable for our group. As a coach, you want to get the team to where at the end of the season it’s not a coach-led team, it’s a player-led team. And that’s what this group is. They’re incredible.”

Leone said that he had been wanting to put together a line of Dunne, Tyson Kozak and Riley Fiddler-Schultz. Kozak added a goal and an assist in the Game 4 win.

“They’re just relentless on the puck,” Leone continued. “Every shift. You win with guys like that.”

Admirals head coach Karl Taylor predicted that his team would be playing today.

This will be the fifth time already this postseason that the Admirals have needed a win to extend their season. After tonight, in 11 playoff series under Taylor since 2019, the Admirals will have played 55 of a possible 59 games, including eight winner-take-all matches. They are a remarkable 16-4 in that span when facing elimination.

“What’s new?” Taylor asked rhetorically after Milwaukee’s 2-1 overtime win in Game 4. “Going five games with Texas, it seems like we do that every year.”

Mutual respect exists between the two Central Division rivals that no intense playoff series can dampen. But going through these tough match-ups offers both teams significant opportunity for growth and development as they continue to test each other.

“That was a great hockey game,” Taylor said Friday. “Both teams want to keep doing what we’re doing, and that’s what’s going to make [tonight] such a great game. The lessons learned in playoffs, some people say it’s times two or times three. You’ve got to live these moments to grow as a player.”

Taylor’s Texas counterpart, Neil Graham, expected much the same from this series.

“Mentally, going into this series we prepared that this could be going the distance,” Graham said Friday night. “History would tell us that. They’re a heck of a hockey club, but so are we.”

After Magnus Hellberg surrendered six goals in Game 2, Graham’s decision to turn back to Remi Poirier has paid off. Poirier has a 1.36 GAA and a .945 save percentage in his two appearances in the series.

― with files from Patrick Williams

In the Stanley Cup Playoffs yesterday, Niko Mikkola scored twice and Jesper Boqvist recorded a goal and two assists to help Florida to a 6-2 win over Carolina in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final... Logan Stankoven, the AHL’s rookie of the year in 2023-24, tallied a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes.

In yesterday’s semifinal action at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, Brady Skjei recorded a goal and an assist, Conor Garland and Mikey Eyssimont added goals and Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves as the United States defeated Sweden, 6-2... Team USA will play Sunday for its first men’s World Championship gold medal since 1933... In the other semifinal, Switzerland shut out Denmark, 7-0, getting two goals from 2013 AHL All-Star Nino Niederreiter... The Swiss will play in the gold-medal game for the second consecutive year.