AHL News

AHL Playoffs: Second Round Recap
By Tricia McMillan, AHL Correspondent

During the regular season, I saw a lot more of the Southern Conference than I did of the Northern Conference and it showed, as I called the Southern perfectly but didn't do so hot with the North.

Rochester v. Albany

Game 1 was in the home of the defending champion Rochester Americans but you wouldn't know it - the War Memorial put in new ice but forgot to put in the Calder Cup champions logo. Hopefully not an omen for the Amerks, but they did lose the game in overtime, 3-2, as Rats defenseman Sheldon Souray launched a shot from the blue line which deflected past Amerks goalie Frederic Deschenes for the game-winner. Adirondack fans can take heart, however, as the Rats' Krysztof Oliwa was flattened by an Amerk. Game 2 also went in favor of the Rats, 4-2.
But the road team also won Game 3, as Rochester stormed back with a 5-2 win in Albany. This game was nearly a complete reversal of the Game 1 result, as the Rats went up 2-0 early on 20 shots in the first period and then gave up five unanswered goals, four of them in the second period. The Amerks had four different goalscorers that period, and Dane Jackson added his second and the team's fifth and final goal early in the third period. Sidorkiewicz allowed eight goals on 30 shots between games 1 and 3. But Sidorkiewicz got himself back into form by stopping 32 of 34 shots and Albany took a 3-1 lead in the series as they defeated Rochester in Game 4, 3-2 in overtime.
Not so fast for the Rats though; Rochester hauled themselves back into it with consecutive wins, picking up Game 5 by a 4-2 score at home and then notching a very convincing 6-2 win at Albany. Rochester credited the victories to the return of the Amerks' godawful American flag uniforms; the mere sight of which would not only immediately quell any thoughts of a flag-protecting Amendment to the Constitution but might make flag-burning mandatory. Game 5's big newsmaker was the Amerks' Dan Frawley, who started the day by becoming the proud papa of an 11½ pound baby boy (no truth to the rumor the Flyers have already drafted the kid) and followed up by getting his face smashed during the game for 22 stitches, an event which earned the Rats' Sheldon Souray a game misconduct. Busy day for Frawley. Busy day for all tough guys actually, as the third period was marred by numerous fights and brawls, but nothing to alter the end result. Game 6 saw the Amerks pepper Sidorkiewicz with 15 shots each in the first two periods and leave the first with a lead they would never give up. Terry Yake had a goal and an assist on the way to the 6-2 road win.
The teams had a few extra people come home for Game 7, as the elimination of Buffalo from the playoffs gave the Amerks Wayne Primeau and Jay McKee, while Albany reacquired Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias from the likewise eliminated Devils. Didn't help, as once again the defending Calder Cup champions will not be defending the Cup. Albany reversed course just in time to defeat the Amerks, 6-2, to win the series. Bobby House, Zdenek Skorepa and Rob Pattison scored goals during a 3:16 stretch in the second period and the Rats badly outshot the Amerks 13-5 in the first and 17-4 in the second. Still, the Rats' lead was only 4-2 when the Amerks pulled Frederic Deschenes and the Rats' last two goals were both into an empty net.
Notes: The Amerks' Dane Jackson and Craig Charron are the only players to notch points in all games played by their team so far...Amerks goalie Frederic Deschenes has not only started every game in the playoffs, he also started the last 18 of the regular season...the Amerks have the league's best penalty kill in the playoffs, succeeding at 90%...the River Rats have a home power-play success rate of 46.7%.

Philadelphia v. Hershey

Home ice, Schome ice. The Phantoms' near-legendary home-ice advantage took a flying leap out the window as the Bears, known for their defense, allowed 38 shots on goal and outscored the Phantoms, known for their offense, 5-3 to win the first game. Hershey was down 2-0 midway through the game when Kurt Miller, who wasn't even supposed to play in this one, scored a pair to even things up. The Phantoms went back up 3-2 but a three-goal, third-period onslaught by the Bears was too much. Christian Matte scored a pair for the Bears in the third, both goals assisted by Doug Friedman.
The Phantoms returned to a more typical form for Game 2, with a 7-2 victory over the Bears. The teams combined for an AHL record 337 penalty minutes in the game, including one bout involving all players on the ice, even the goaltenders. The Bears' Wade Belak and the Phantoms' Frank 'The Animal' Bialowas were both suspended for two games as a result of their actions in the game and both teams were fined several thousand dollars each for their respective shenanigans. When the game was actually being played, the Phantoms took a 5-0 lead and the Bears lifted JF Labbe, who had evidently pulled a groin muscle earlier in the game.
With the game 6-1 in favor of the Phantoms, Bialowas and Belak got something started and all ten skaters squared off. Those are familiar with Sinuhe Wallenheimo - and those familiar with Neil Little - can guess what came next. Wally skated down the ice to take on Little. Both goalies were ejected from the game and with Labbe already injured, the Bears put in their emergency goalie, Sylvain Rodrigue. Within 17 seconds the teams went at it again, leaving eight players available to each team, and now the coaches started at it with each other. When the dust cleared, the Phantoms had 171 penalty minutes to Hershey's 169 and Rodrigue was arguably the most effective goaltender for either team, yielding one goal on 12 shots.
The series moved to Hershey the next evening, where the Bears returned to their form and defeated the Phantoms 4-2. After the previous evening, this game was remarkably anti-climatic, although Belak and Bialowas watched from the stands as did the Bears' Roger Maxwell and the Phantoms' Jeff Staples. Still, the penalty totals dropped from 337 to 34, all minors. The Phantoms took an early lead in the first but allowed Hershey four of the next five goals. Game 4 saw the Phantoms take a 2-0 lead on the Bears and blow it, sending the game into overtime, when rookie Colin Forbes took a shot which bounced and dribbled and eventually spilled over JF Labbe's glove into the net to draw the series even at two games apiece. Four of the game's five goals were scored on the power play, and the one that wasn't - Hershey's tying goal - came three seconds after a power play had expired. This is not to say the power-play units were good or the penalty killers were bad for either team - special-team opportunities were in double digits for both teams and precious few of those opportunities lasted a full two minutes.
Game 5 was all Phantoms, as they shut out the Bears in Philly 3-0 to put the Bears on the brink of extinction. The Bears managed only 18 shots on Neil Little, while usual suspects Patrik Juhlin and Shawn McCosh along with Paul Healey put a few past Labbe. And the Phantoms, ever true to form, drew 14,208 to the game, the third largest playoff crowd ever. But never count the Bears out...and never count out overtime in Hersheypark Arena either. Game 6 required THREE overtimes before the Bears came out victorious, 3-2. JF Labbe faced 64 shots, while Little saw 57. Although the game was chippy, no major antics arose and Hershey had only five power plays in nearly two games. Blair Atcheynum (you were expecting someone else?) beat Little 42 seconds into the third overtime to finally finish the game, although the Phantoms may have finished themselves by shortening their bench for most of the night. The Avalanche finished their own series the same night, and with no games until the following weekend the Avs returned Josef Marha to Hershey for Game 7...and that made all the difference in the world.
Game 7 marked the fall of the AHL's 800-pound gorilla, as the Phantoms' superb regular season numbers fell to the Bears' superb defense, MVP goaltender - and. Josef Marha. Marha scored two goals for Hershey in their 3-2 win which eliminated the Phantoms from the playoffs. He scored his first goal five minutes into the game, then added his second eight minutes into the third. The Phantoms pulled within one goal with 1:34 left in the game when regular season scoring leader Peter White notched his sixth goal of the playoffs, and the Phantoms pulled Neil Little to try to get the equalizer. Instead the Bears' Mike McHugh scored into the open net with 22 seconds left with what would be the gamewinner. The Phantoms left Little on the bench and Colin Forbes scored again with 18 seconds remaining, but the Bears made McHugh's goal stand up. Whatta finish eh?
Notes: Games 1 and 2 drew a combined 16,039 in Philadelphia...Peter White is second in scoring with 11 points in six games...Rodrigue stuck around to back up Labbe directly in Game 4...Christian Matte was ejected from Game 4 for slashing Darren Rumble, but Frantisek Kucera was not ejected for sticking Mike McHugh in the face, prompting the fans to litter the ice with trash...The triple OT was the first such game in the AHL in 11 years, but it wasn't the longest AHL game. That game, in 1982, went into four OTs...

St. John's v. Hamilton

The one series I called completely wrong, which was fortunate because it was much more interesting than it might have been. This series was flip-flopped in terms of home and away games, but the balance was tipped back in St. John's favor when the Oilers recalled Bryan Muir and Joe Hulbig from the Bulldogs. Didn't seem to help the Leafs much as Kimbi Daniels scored two goals and Steve Passmore survived numerous crease crashes to lead the 'dogs to a Game 1 win. But St. John's came back to win Game 2, also in Hamilton, by a 4-2 mark and went on to win again at home in St. John's 3-1.
Hamilton wasn't done yet, however, taking Game 4 in St. John's and evening the series. Marko Tuomainen was the star of the game, scoring two goals including the game-winner and adding as assist. Yuri Khymylev also had a goal and an assist as the Bulldogs came from behind.
Games 5 and 6 were also split a game each by the teams. Game 5 went the Leafs' way 5-2, as Shayne Toporowski potted a pair and Scott Pearson, Zdenek Nedved and still-hot rookie Daniil Markov also chipped in. In Game 6, St. John's spotted Hamilton a 3-0 lead after the first period but came back to tie the game on a pair of goals by Scott Pearson and one from Brian Wiseman, who had missed a week due to a hand injury. But Hamilton came back to win the game in overtime on a goal from Georges Laraque. For Game 7, the eliminated Oilers returned Bryan Muir, Joe Hulbig and Steve Kelly to Hamilton, which created quite a problem for St. John's as Kelly and Hulbig accounted for two of the three goals scored by the Bulldogs (Tuomainen had the third). And in the end, it was Passmore who proved tricky for St. John's, turning away 30 shots for his first playoff shutout and giving the ever-tenacious Bulldogs and the series.
Notes: St. John's Jason Podollan tied a playoff high by taking nine shots in Game 2...the Leafs have the best power play in the playoffs, connecting at 32.3%...Yannick Tremblay tops all defensemen in playoff scoring with nine points...the Bulldogs, who had attendance problems during the season, didn't have any problems in the first two games with a combined attendance of 14,342...Steve Passmore tops the goaltenders list for minutes played (477) and saves made (244) in the playoffs to date...

Springfield v. Providence

The good news is I picked this series perfectly. The bad news is nobody heard about it. Box scores were hard to come by in this series, apparently the league didn't receive too many notes from it, and if there are any Springfield or Providence fans out there they weren't public about it. Oh well.
Game 1 was not exactly old friends night, as some serious ugliness broke out between the two teams in the second period and stick fouls predominated. But Springfield also dominated, winning that game 4-1 and proceeding onward to win Game 2 as well, shutting out the Bruins by a 2-0 score. While I had correctly assessed that Providence didn't have another upset in them, it nearly developed they didn't have another win left in them either. Upon their return to home ice the Bruins managed to at least make the Falcons work overtime, but again lost. The baby Bruins staved off a sweep in Game 4 by finally defeating the Falcons 3-1, but Springfield ended that little uprising in Game 5, earning themselves a long rest while they watched Philadelphia and Hershey rip each other to shreds.
Notes: The Falcons' Juha Ylonen is tied for first in scoring with 12 points in seven games...Springfield's Kevin Brown has the longest goal-scoring streak in the playoffs ever, at four games...Manny Legace allowed one goal in three games...the Bruins' John Gruden is second to Tremblay in defense scoring, with eight points...Defenseman Barry Richter, demoted by Boston for the playoffs, has scored three goals, and two were game-winners