Devils and Jackals to meet in round one

VOORHEES, NJ – After a year’s absence, the Trenton Devils are back in the Kelly Cup Playoffs. The T-Devils rebounded from a slow start to become one of the ECHL’s hottest teams, finishing in second place in the American Conference’s very competitive North Division. As a result, the T-Devils will open up the best of seven Division semifinal on Friday April 10 against the Elmira Jackals at Sovereign Bank Arena.  
 
THE MATCHUP
  Trenton and Elmira met 13 times during the regular season with the Jackals taking the series 7-5-1 (6-6-1 for Trenton).   Nine of the games were settled by one goal, of the four that were not three of them were in Trenton’s favor. Trenton outscored the Jackals 38-34 in the 13 games. Eight of the games during the season were played on Elmira’s home ice with the Jackals going 5-2-1 while Trenton was 3-2-0 at the SBA.

 
Trenton was led by Eric Castonguay, the ECHL’s 10^th leading scorer in the 2008-09 season with 70 points (29 goals, 41 assists).   In addition to Castonguay, Jeff Prough (34, 32 with Trenton), Jim Henkel (23), Brad Snetsinger (21) and Trevor Kell (20) all surpassed the 20-goal plateau for Trenton. Defenseman Ryan Gunderson finished second in the league in assists (53).   Gerald Coleman was excell ent in net after being acquired early in the season from the Phoenix Roadrunners. Coleman won 29 games (second in the league) while finishing third with a 2.29 goals against average.  
 
Elmira was led by Pierre-Luc Faubert with 57 points on 24 goals and 33 assists. Steve Yetman finished a point behind and led the Jackals with 25 goals. G Michael Teslak had a solid season between the pipes with a 2.87 GAA
 
STATISTICS
  Power Play
Trenton – 21.7% (4^th)
Elmira – 15.2% (16^th)
 
Penalty Killing
Trenton – 84.1% (7^th)
Elmira – 83. 5 (9^th)
 
Goals Per Game
Trenton – 3.28 (6^th)
Elmira – 3.26 (7^th)
 
Goals Against Per Game
Trenton – 2.86 (8^th)
Elmira – 3.22 (12^th)
 
INTANGIBLES
Where Elmira could have an edge is that they were in last season’s playoffs, losing a tough six-game series to the Reading Royals, a series in which three of their losses were in overtime. Trenton’s squad is relatively young and inexperienced in the postseason with Henkel being the Devils most experienced post season participant.   Elmira’s Faubert, Benoit Doucet and Chaz Johnson all played last season against the Royals. Trenton coach Rick Kowalsky was a part of Trenton’s Kelly Cup champs in=2 02005.
 
PREDICTION
  These teams were very evenly matched during the season and this should lead to some very tight games throughout the series. Trenton has the better guns and goaltending but the Jackals have more recent post season experience to draw from.   The T-Devils will grow up real fast in the post season and will come out on top of what will be a long series.
 
Trenton in seven.
 
Contact tom.hoffman@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer at brian.mechling@prohockeynews.com.