Monday’s Eastern Conference Playoff Picture 4/8/13

We are only two weeks away from the checkered flag for the 2012-13 regular season with only a half dozen games remaining for the Hershey Bears. In previous weeks we have glanced at the overall division and monitored the play of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Syracuse Crunch, Binghamton Senators and Norfolk Admirals. But with Hershey and Norfolk now tied for the final playoff spot, in this week’s edition of Monday’s Eastern Conference Playoff Picture we will break down just those two teams and their remaining schedules.

The Bears and Admirals can both cue Barry Manilow in the coming days, as each team will be spending a “Weekend in New England.” The next three upcoming opponents for Hershey in the New England road trip are the Providence Bruins, Manchester Monarchs and Portland Pirates. For the Admirals, they will open their weekend with back-to-back games over the Worcester Sharks before closing a three-in-three stretch at Providence.

The Bears and P-Bruins met just one other time this season, and it resulted in a 3-2 Hershey win. Nicolas Deschamps and Ryan Potulny tallied two third period goals in a come from behind regulation win over the Atlantic Division leading Bruins. Although Providence already has a playoff spot in their back pocket, one could imagine they will still be fighting hard for a top seed postseason spot.

The next night the Manchester Monarchs will play host to Hershey and look to play the role of spoiler. The Monarchs are only four points behind the Chocolate and White in the standings leading to a possible must win game for Manchester on Saturday to keep their playoff hopes and dreams alive. A low scoring game on February 2nd at Giant Center gave the Bears a 2-1 advantage over the Monarchs. But over a month later on March 23, it was Manchester who won a 6-4 scoring parade over Hershey. Both teams will square off once more for the season finale on April 21 in front of a sold out Giant Center crowd.

Lastly the Bears will close out the weekend in beautiful Portland, Maine for a Sunday matinee against Joel Rechlicz’s former squad. Expect the Portland Pirates to play hard against the Bears, as they will be fighting for a home ice seeding and could possibly, officially punch their ticket to the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs that night.

Now we will travel across the Chesapeake to the Norfolk Admirals’ perspective on the approaching weekend. A weekend after sweeping back-to-back games over the Binghamton Senators, the surging, defending Calder Cup Champions will be making a desperate playoff push beginning in Worcester, Massachusetts on Friday and Saturday.

In two games played in Norfolk already this season between the two sides, the Admirals have escaped both games victoriously, out scoring the Sharks, 8-5. In the short, two game season series, Patrick Maroon and John Mitchell have both tallied two goals each against Worcester, but Devante Smith-Pelly leads his team in punishing the Sharks with a total of three points, all assists.

The Ads will close out their three-in-three stint with a visit to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. Both teams have split two games against one-another in the season series. The P-Bruins only loss to Norfolk this season came in a 3-2 shootout decision on February 23rd.

Very similar to the Bears, in order to qualify for the postseason, Norfolk will need to complete the task at hand on the road. All of Norfolk’s six remaining games are away from Virginia.