CHICAGO — The first and second seeds in the West Division will face each other as the Texas Stars will travel to Chicago to face the Wolves in Games One and Two to start the division finals of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Chicago needed seven games to fight off the Milwaukee Admirals in the first round, but the Texas Stars swept the Rockford IceHogs in four games and are the rested team in this battle.
In the regular season, the Stars went on a tear and jumped out to a big division lead. But the rest of the league caught up, and the Wolves eventually took the division crown by six points over the Texans, who performed more than respectably in their inaugural season.
The teams split their regular season series four games apiece. Chicago goaltenders Peter Mannino and Drew MacIntyre both have a pair of wins, but look for Mannino to continue to be the number one goaltender for the series as he has been the hot hand for the team, taking two shutouts in the first series. On the other side, Texas has Brent Krahn, who only allowed five goals in the four games to start the playoffs. Last season the Dallas Stars loaned Krahn to the Wolves for a stretch during which he went 6-6 in 13 starts. He might know the players, but the Wolves’ system has changed since Don Lever replaced Don Granato behind the bench early in the season.
Rookies loom large in the Stars’ plans. Forwards Travis Morin and Jamie Benn have led the offensive push. Morin scored seven helpers in the four games while Benn had three goals for six points. As for the Wolves, Lever has the ability to scramble his lineup when a change is needed. The Wolves also need Brett Sterling to come fully back from his leg injury and use his tenacity and ability to crash the net.
Defensively, look out for Stars veteran stalwarts Andrew Hutchinson, Garrett Stafford and Maxine Fortunus. But no one can come close as the 48-year old blue liner Chris Chelios. He has had an average playoffs since returning back from a stint with the Atlanta Thrashers, so look for him to pick it up a notch and grab a few points. Lever has placed him back with his defensive pairing with Arturs Kulda who combined for a regular season plus-minus of a plus 81. But also look for Ivan Vishnevskiy to lick his chops as he plays against his old team. The Barnaul, Russia native was moved at the trading deadline in a deal from the Stars in a deal that saw goaltender Kari Lehtonen go to Dallas from Atlanta for the young defenseman.
For the Texas Stars to win they need to continue their defensive prowess and shut down the Wolves. In the regular season both teams were fairly even as the total goals scored was 23-22 in favor of the Stars. As for the Wolves who had an up and down series against Milwaukee, they need to play a consistent 60 minutes of hockey. All it takes is for the team to lose focus for 10 minutes, and the game is lost.
West Division Finals – Series “L” (best-of-7) W1-Chicago Wolves vs. W2-Texas Stars Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 30 – Texas at Chicago, 7:30 Game 2 – Sun., May 2 – Texas at Chicago, 3:00 Game 3 – Tue., May 4 – Chicago at Texas, 7:30 Game 4 – Wed., May 5 – Chicago at Texas, 7:30 *Game 5 – Fri., May 7 – Chicago at Texas, 7:30 *Game 6 – Sun., May 9 – Texas at Chicago, 3:00 *Game 7 – Tue., May 11 – Texas at Chicago, 7:00
* If necessary All times Central
Contact matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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