AHL Morning Skate: May 3, 2024

A1-Hershey Bears vs. A6-Lehigh Valley Phantoms
Game 2 – Saturday, 7:00 ET,
(Hershey leads series, 1-0)

Game 1 – Wed., May 1 – HERSHEY 2, Lehigh Valley 1 | Recap
Game 2 – Sat., May 4 – Lehigh Valley at Hershey, 7:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – Hershey at Lehigh Valley, 7:05
*Game 4 – Sat., May 11 – Hershey at Lehigh Valley, 7:05
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Lehigh Valley at Hershey, 7:00
*if necessary... All times Eastern

A2-Providence Bruins vs. A5-Hartford Wolf Pack
Game 2 – Tonight, 7:05 ET,
(Hartford leads series, 1-0)

Game 1 – Wed., May 1 – Hartford 4, PROVIDENCE 3 | Recap
Game 2 – Fri., May 3 – Hartford at Providence, 7:05
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – Providence at Hartford, 7:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Providence at Hartford, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Hartford at Providence, 3:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern

GAME NOTES
Providence looks to even up its Atlantic Division semifinal series tonight as Hartford visits Amica Mutual Pavilion for Game 2... The Wolf Pack took the opener on Wednesday, 4-3, for their third win in a row... Tyler Pitlick, who had totaled no goals and one assist in his previous 19 games, notched a goal and two assists for Hartford on Wednesday night... Jake Leschyshyn notched a goal and an assist, his first points of the postseason, and Rhode Island native and Providence College product Brett Berard recorded two assists for the Wolf Pack... Berard leads Hartford in playoff scoring with 1-4-5 in four games... Former Bruin Anton Blidh scored what would hold up as the winning goal with 1:28 gone in the third period of Game 1, and Dylan Garand (3-1, 1.95, .945) finished with 32 saves... Jimmy Lambert scored twice in his Calder Cup Playoff debut for Providence; the second-year pro has two goals in 43 career regular-season games in the AHL... In his first Calder Cup Playoff game since captaining Charlotte to the championship in 2019, Patrick Brown netted the other goal for Providence... The Wolf Pack are 5-1 in their last six playoff games at Providence... The Bruins have lost six consecutive Game 1’s; they went on to drop each of the previous five series.

N1-Cleveland Monsters vs. N4-Belleville Senators
Game 2 – Tonight, 7:00 ET,
(Belleville leads series, 1-0)

Game 1 – Wed., May 1 – BELLEVILLE 2, Cleveland 1 | Recap
Game 2 – Fri., May 3 – Cleveland at Belleville, 7:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – Belleville at Cleveland, 7:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Belleville at Cleveland, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Belleville at Cleveland, 3:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern

GAME NOTES
A 2-1 victory on Wednesday gave Belleville a 1-0 series lead over Cleveland heading into Game 2 at CAA Arena tonight... The Senators have won seven straight games on home ice, including each of their first three this postseason... Egor Sokolov and Angus Crookshank each scored their first career Calder Cup Playoff goal in Game 1, and Garrett Pilon (3-2-5) picked up an assist to give him points in each of Belleville’s four playoff games to date... Mads Sogaard (3-1, 2.24, .909) stopped 31 shots in the Game 1 win, including all 16 he faced in the third period... Josh Dunne, making his postseason debut, scored the only Cleveland goal on a second-period power play... Second Team AHL All-Star Trey Fix-Wolansky earned an assist on Dunne’s goal... Jet Greaves turned aside 24 of 26 shots in his first career playoff start... The Monsters had been 5-1 all-time in Game 1’s before Wednesday’s loss; they are 5-2 in Game 2’s.

N2-Rochester Americans vs. N3-Syracuse Crunch
Game 4 – Saturday, 7:00 ET,
(Syracuse leads series, 2-1)

Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 26 – ROCHESTER 3, Syracuse 2 | Recap
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 28 – Syracuse 4, ROCHESTER 3 (OT) | Recap
Game 3 – Thu., May 2 – SYRACUSE 2, Rochester 1 (2OT) | Recap
Game 4 – Sat., May 4 – Rochester at Syracuse, 7:00
*Game 5 – Fri., May 10 – Syracuse at Rochester, 7:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern

C1-Milwaukee Admirals vs. C4-Texas Stars
Game 2 – Saturday, 8:00 ET,
(Texas leads series, 1-0)

Game 1 – Thu., May 2 – TEXAS 6, Milwaukee 3 | Recap
Game 2 – Sat., May 4 – Milwaukee at Texas, 8:00
Game 3 –Wed., May 8 – Texas at Milwaukee, 8:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Texas at Milwaukee, 8:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Texas at Milwaukee, 6:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern

C2-Grand Rapids Griffins vs. C3-Rockford IceHogs
Game 3 – Tonight, 7:00 ET,
(Series tied, 1-1)

Game 1 – Sat., Apr. 27 – Grand Rapids 3, ROCKFORD 2 (OT) | Recap
Game 2 – Wed., May 1 – Rockford 5, GRAND RAPIDS 1 | Recap
Game 3 – Fri., May 3 – Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7:00
Game 4 – Sun., May 5 – Grand Rapids at Rockford, 5:00
*Game 5 – Fri., May 10 – Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern

GAME NOTES
Rockford’s 5-1 win in Grand Rapids on Wednesday evened the teams’ best-of-five series heading into tonight’s Game 3 at Van Andel Arena... Mike Hardman led the IceHogs with two goals and an assist in Game 2 as Rockford spotted their hosts a 1-0 lead before firing off the final five goals of the night... Luke Philp tallied a goal and an assist and Rem Pitlick notched a pair of assists to help the IceHogs win a Game 2 for first time ever after having dropped Game 1 of a series (1-8)... Rookie Drew Commesso stopped 27 of 28 shots in his pro playoff debut for Rockford... Austin Czarnik scored the Griffins’ only goal in Game 2; Czarnik has 11-16-27 in 32 career postseason games in the AHL... Rockford was 2-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill on Wednesday... The IceHogs have won five of their seven trips into Grand Rapids this season, and are responsible for two of the three games in which the Griffins have allowed at least five goals on home ice... In Calder Cup Playoff history, when a best-of-five series has been tied at 1-1, the Game 3 winner has gone on to take the series 76.5 percent of the time (65 of 85).

P1-Coachella Valley Firebirds vs. P7-Calgary Wranglers
Game 1 – Tonight, 9:00 ET,

Game 1 – Fri., May 3 – Coachella Valley at Calgary, 9:00
Game 2 – Sun., May 5 – Coachella Valley at Calgary, 6:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – Calgary at Coachella Valley, 10:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Calgary at Coachella Valley, 10:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Calgary at Coachella Valley, 6:00
*if necessary... All times Eastern

GAME NOTES
Calgary hosts Coachella Valley in Game 1 of their Pacific Division semifinal series tonight, beginning the latest chapter of what has quickly become one of the AHL’s most heated rivalries... The Firebirds are the last team to begin their postseason; they have not played in 12 days, since a 4-3 shootout loss to San Diego to wrap up the regular season on Apr. 21... The Wranglers, meanwhile, are fresh off a first-round upset of Tucson, a two-game sweep of the second-place Roadrunners... These teams met in the playoffs last year as well, with Coachella Valley prevailing three games to two on a series-clinching overtime goal by Andrew Poturalski... After finishing second to Calgary in 2022-23, the Firebirds won the Pacific Division this season with a record of 46-15-6-5 (103 points)... Coachella Valley led the AHL in scoring (3.50 goals per game) and finished second in goals allowed (2.53) during the regular season... The Firebirds’ top five scorers during the regular season – Kole Lind (17-48-65), Max McCormick (32-28-60), Cameron Hughes (25-32-57), Poturalski (15-36-51) and Shane Wright (22-25-47) – are all returnees from their run to the Calder Cup Finals last year... Lind totaled 31 points in 26 games last postseason to lead the AHL... Coming off leading the Wranglers in scoring during the regular season, Adam Klapka had a team-high three points (0-3-3) in the first round against Tucson... Six different skaters scored Calgary’s six goals in the series, and Dustin Wolf (2-0, 1.50, .966) stopped 86 of 89 shots over the two games.

P3-Ontario Reign vs. P5-Abbotsford Canucks
Game 2 – Sunday, 6:00 ET,
(Ontario leads series, 1-0)

Game 1 – Wed., May 1 – ONTARIO 3, Abbotsford 1 | Recap
Game 2 – Sun., May 5 – Abbotsford at Ontario, 6:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – Ontario at Abbotsford, 10:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Ontario at Abbotsford, 10:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Ontario at Abbotsford, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern

Anyone who has ever spoken at any length with Texas Stars head coach Neil Graham can vouch for his calm, even-handed approach.

Going down 2-0 in the opening 10:57 to a powerful Milwaukee Admirals club last night did not rattle Graham. It was an unnerving start, but conversely, he wasn’t taking any bows after Texas flipped the game around and rallied to hammer out a 6-3 win.

For those who believe that a hockey team takes on the personality of its coaching staff, the Stars would surely be good evidence of that.

“Take the first one, bank it, and reset very quickly,” Graham told reporters following the victory. “We knew we weren’t playing to our standard. We needed to just take a breath and get back to what we wanted to accomplish.”

Once they found that standard, the results followed. The Stars scored six of the game’s last seven goals, breaking open a 3-3 tie with three goals in the third period.

“I think it was important to show the pushback,” Graham added.

Just back from a stint in Dallas, regular-season AHL MVP and scoring champion Mavrik Bourque returned in time to pocket a goal and three assists in the Game 1 win. And Lian Bichsel, reassigned earlier in the week after finishing his season with Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, stepped into the lineup for his Calder Cup Playoff debut. Bourque (2020) and Bichsel (2022) were both first-round draft picks by Dallas.

It wound up in a losing effort, but Devon Levi’s 60-save performance for the Rochester Americans in a double-overtime defeat at Syracuse last night was nothing new for the rookie netminder.

Levi, who won the Mike Richter Award as the outstanding goaltender in men’s college hockey in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, led the NCAA with a .933 save percentage as a senior at Northeastern University last season. He owns a share of the program record for saves in a game – also 60 – accomplished in a 3-1 win over UConn on Feb. 25, 2022.

Levi owns a .940 save percentage through the first three games of the Amerks’ series with the Crunch. With a .927 mark in the regular season, he ranked second in the league behind only Hershey’s Hunter Shepard.

― with files from Patrick Williams

In Thursday’s Stanley Cup Playoff action, 2023 AHL All-Star Joseph Woll made 22 saves and 2016 AHL All-Star William Nylander scored twice as Toronto avoided elimination with a 2-1 win over Boston in Game 6 of their first-round series... 2019 Calder Cup champion Morgan Geekie scored the only goal for the Bruins in the final second of the third period... AHL alumni Frederik Andersen, Connor Ingram and Oliver Kylington were named the three finalists for the 2023-24 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

Watch the Calder Cup Playoffs on AHLTV
Don’t miss a second on the road to the 2024 Calder Cup championship. AHLTV features live streaming of every AHL game in high definition on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices, as well as OTT platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. A subscription is just $29.99 to watch every game for the entire postseason, or just $8.99 for a day pass. Visit AHLTV.com for details.