AHL Notebook: Playoff Hockey Begins Wednesday Night in the AHL
Luke Brown for Chocolate Hockey
It is officially playoff time for the AHL as many teams look to battle through the postseason for a chance to do what the Bears did last season, and hoist the AHL’s ultimate prize, the Calder Cup. Sure, a good regular season is always well received in any sport, but now every game matters, and rest assured that every team in the AHL knows just that … especially Hershey. The Bears can act like they’ve been here before, because they have.
“The guys are disappointed, but also the guys got a bit of a scare.”, Bears Head Coach Todd Nelson told Chocolate Hockey’s Andrew Kalista after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Charlotte. “Charlotte’s a good team and Charlotte’s a fast team.”
The rough finish to the season for Hershey is obviously not what anyone in Chocolatetown wanted to see, but it’s an opportunity for the Bears to hit the reset button, which is always good as the team enters the “second season.”
I think anyone involved with the Bears would sign up without hesitation would sign up for a repeat of last year’s playoffs, and the Bears have an opportunity to start just as they did last postseason, with the Charlotte Checkers.
2024 AHL Playoff Bracket (AHL.com)
Hershey is the top seeded team in the Atlantic Division, earning them the right to face the lower seed that comes out of each first round matchup, a guarantee that they won’t see Wilkes-Barre, but could face Lehigh Valley if they can upset Wilkes-Barre in the opening round. The more likely scenario is facing either six seeded Hartford or fourth ranked Charlotte, whom they finished the season with last Saturday night in the disappointing regular season finale.
As previously mentioned, Hershey began last postseason with Charlotte in the division semifinals, a 3-1 sweep for Hershey, a series that started in Charlotte and finished in Hershey, two games in each city. In the series ending win, Hershey allowed two goals in the first period by Charlotte, but came back to tie before the second intermission. Entering the final 20 knotted at two’s, Hershey poured it on, with an unassisted goal one minute in from Dylan McInrath, another goal 1:11 later from Riley Sutter before two more from Aliaksei Protas to polish off the game and the series.
Hershey went on to beat Hartford 3-0 in the division finals, Rochester 4-2 in the conference finals, and Coachella Valley 4-3 in the Calder Cup finals and hoist their twelfth Calder Cup trophy.
This season, Charlotte is the fourteenth best team in the entire AHL, and fourth best in the division. They are just below 40 wins with a 39-26-7 record, finishing with that ugly 4-1 win over Hershey that was closer then the score indicates with two empty net goals late in the third. They’ll need to battle with Hartford, a 34-28-7 squad that went 4-0 down the stretch before a season ending loss to Atlantic division #2 seed Providence.
Lehigh Valley begins their series with Wilkes Barre-Scranton on Wednesday at 7:05 PM. Charlotte hosts Hartford Thursday at 7 PM to begin that 3-game series.
AROUND THE AHL
For two teams, the AHL postseason begins Tuesday night as the Texas Stars host the Manitoba Moose. Both teams reached the Central Division Semifinals last season, and Texas even reached the Central Division Finals, losing to Milwaukee who went on to take Coachella Valley to six games, losing 4-2. Manitoba was the three seed in 2023 and lost to a tough Milwaukee squad in five games of a five game series, 3-2.
This year, the Moose and Stars were only one point apart in the regular season, and the Stars ended up with the slight edge of a four seed, but it’s as close as they come. While the Stars might have the seeding edge, the Moose have some series momentum against Texas, beating them six times this year, and only losing twice in their eight total meetings with the Stars. Not only that, but Manitoba also won the final four meetings with Texas to finish the year.
When you “make the turn” on the golf course and go from back nine to front nine, you don’t want to be coming off a bogey on the ninth, let alone a couple bogeys, some double bogeys and maybe even a shot into the pond. That’s how Manitoba felt at the turn of the regular season on January 26th this season. 11 straight losses, bottom of the AHL standings, and rock bottom. Manitoba quickly turned things around with a 22-12-1-1 to rally in the season’s second half. Kristian Reichel placed among others in eighth in the AHL scoring list, and Manitoba had three others place in top 30 scoring by the end of the regular season in Brad Lambert (T-19), Kyle Capobianco (T-26), and Jeff Malott (T-26).
Brad Lambert’s tie for 19th is also league leading among AHL rookies, a familiar sight for the Moose who get a lot of scoring off younger guys. Lambert led the league in rookie scoring and placed second in points with 55 points off 21 goals and 34 assists, the second most in Moose rookie history. Nikita Chibrikov and Parker Ford, also Manitoba rookies, are part of the Moose scoring frenzy. All three, Lambert, Ford and Chibrikov placed top 20 in rookie scoring this season.
While Manitoba has the freshman, Texas has the sophomores, the sensational stars in their second season. 2020 first round draft pick Mavrik Bourque led the entire AHL in points with 77 off 26 goals, 51 assists in his 71 games played this season. Additionally, Matej Blumel finished fifth in the AHL in goals with 31, and finished second on the Stars in team points with 62. Those two have been the leaders of a Texas squad looking to get past Manitoba swiftly and take on the top seeded Milwaukee Admirals in the next round.
Like Hershey, the Admirals can sit back and relax for the opening round of the playoffs before getting to business in the Division Semifinals. That’s because of a 47 win season, the third best in the league behind Coachella Valley and Hershey.
Perhaps one of the closest matchups in the playoffs is the central division’s two-seed against three-seed matchup of Grand Rapids and Rockford. Both teams get a bye through the first round and will have plenty of time to familiarize themselves before meeting each other in the best of five series. The series will start on Saturday in Rockford. To make matters even closer, the teams split the regular season, each winning six of twelve total matchups.
On the coast, Coachella Valley is still humming along with the AHL’s second best record. On the opposite side of the Bears bracket, the Firebirds are in the same scenario as Hershey. They’ll face the lowest seeded opponent that comes out of the first round, except the Pacific division doesn’t have a set two seed like Providence is in the Atlantic. This means the lowest seed, either Calgary, Ontario, Bakersfield, Colorado or Abbotsford will face the FireBirds, and then the highest seed will face the middle seed.
Finally, in the closet are the Monsters (at least for now). They won’t have to come out and wreak havoc until the first round is over, facing the winner of a three game series between the Belleville Senators and Toronto Marlies. Cleveland is a 40-win squad that won their division and finished the season on a three game win streak against all playoff opponents. They beat the North Division second seed Rochester Americans 3-2 in overtime on April 19, then finished the season in a weekend back-to-back against the fifth seeded and potential division semifinal opponent Toronto Marlies, winning both weekend games 4-3 and 3-1, respectively.
Again, the AHL playoffs begin Tuesday, April 23 as Manitoba Moose and Texas Stars face off at 8 PM.
On Wednesday night, the Toronto Marlies and Belleville Senators face off as well as four other matchups including Lehigh Valley-Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Abbottsford-Colorado, Calgary-Tucson, and Bakersfield-Ontario.
