CHICAGO, Ill. – All three games on Saturday night’s set closed the season for three teams as the Portland Pirates, Binghamton Senators, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins all advance to the second round in the American Hockey Leagues Calder Cup Championship. One pairing has already been set as the Senators will travel to Portland to start the series on Wednesday.
Sunday’s plate could see the two-time defending champion Hershey Bears go home with a loss to the Charlotte Checkers. The Hamilton Bulldogs and the Lake Erie Monsters can also advance with a win.
FIRST ROUND Atlantic Division Semifinals PORTLAND vs. CONNECTICUT Portland wins series 4 – 2
The Portland Pirates eliminated the Connecticut Whale four games to two with a victory on Saturday night by the score of 6-4. This game marked the first and last game in the series that the road team won.
The Whale started out strong again in the first with two goals scored on the power play. Right wings Jeremy Williams and Dale Weise both scored at the 3:45 and 18:42 marks respectively.
Portland then took control scoring four goals in the second with three coming in the first half of the period. Center Paul Byron scored his first on the man-advantage 2 minutes. Byron later scored in the third as he led the score sheet with two goals and an assist. The two Marks in Parrish and Mancari both scored before the Whale’s Carl Hagelin tied the score at three 10:47 in. Portland then took the lead back as defenseman Alex Biega, who tied in the game with a plus-5, scored late in the period.
Portland extended the lead in the third from Byron and Corey Tropp who notch the sixth goal at 14:14. Tropp got a penalty with 39 seconds left and Connecticut took advantage of the opportunity when center Chad Kolarik scored his third goal of the series. But it was too little to late for the Whale.
The Pirates will now face the Binghamton Senators in the Division Finals.
Game 1 – Thu Apr 14 7:00 PM PORTLAND 3, Connecticut 2 Game 2 – Sat Apr 16 7:00 PM PORTLAND 3, Connecticut 2 OT Game 3 – Sun Apr 17 6:00 PM CONNECTICUT 3, Portland 1 Game 4 – Tue Apr 19 7:00 PM CONNECTICUT 3, Portland 1 Game 5 – Thu Apr 21 7:00 PM PORTLAND 5, Connecticut 4 Game 6 – Sat Apr 23 7:00 PM Portland 6, CONNECTICUT 4 Atlantic Division Semifinals MANCHESTER vs. BINGHAMTON Binghamton wins series 4 – 3
It looked like the Manchester Monarchs had this series all wrapped up with a three games to one lead in the series but the Binghamton Senators pulled off an epic comeback with a game seven overtime win as playoff scoring leader Ryan Potulny did it again scoring at the 3:07 mark of the extra frame by the score of 6-5. The Binghamton center had a goal and four assist as he has a total of 14 points on 8 goals in the playoffs.
The Senator captain Ryan Kelly scored the first two goals in the second half of the first to get the game started. Right wing Erik Condra added to the lead in the second short-handed. The Monarch’s then got on the board as Bud Holloway tallied his fourth of the post-season on the power play but Binghamton got that one back with a shot from Bobby Butler.
Then the Monarchs got it rolling as they reeled off four straight goals with three coming late in the period by Jake Muzzin, Brandon Kozun, and John Zeiler. Dwight King gave the Monarchs the lead on the power play as he scored at the 10:19 mark. Manchester was a minute and 45 seconds away from the seires win until it was Condra scoring his second to send the game to overtime.
Only two games of the seven were decided in regulation as the rest went into the extra frame with one going into a second.
Game 1 – Thu Apr 14 7:00 PM MANCHESTER 2, Binghamton 1 Game 2 – Fri Apr 15 7:00 PM Binghamton 4, MANCHESTER 3 OT Game 3 – Sun Apr 17 5:05 PM Manchester 5, BINGHAMTON 4 OT Game 4 – Tue Apr 19 7:05 PM Manchester 6, BINGHAMTON 3 Game 5 – Wed Apr 20 7:05 PM BINGHAMTON 5, Manchester 4 OT Game 6 – Fri Apr 22 7:00 PM Binghamton 2, MANCHESTER 1 OT2 Game 7 – Sat Apr 23 7:00 PM Binghamton 6, MANCHESTER 5 OT East Division Semifinals W-B/SCRANTON vs. NORFOLK W-B/Scranton wins series 4 – 2
Defenseman Steve Wagner paced his team to a 6-3 win as he had the natural hat trick in the first period for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as the Penguins came back down two games to start the series by winning four in a row to advance to the East Division Finals.
Two of Wagner’s goals were on the power play, but the Norfolk Admirals scored the only two goals in the second late in the period. Goals from centers Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Blair Jones brought the Admirals within one.
The two teams exchanged goals to start the first half of the third as Joe Vitale scored for the Penguins on the power play and James Wright for the Admirals. Norfolk was now down by one again as they pulled netminder Dustin Tokarski. The Admirals couldn’t make anything happen as the Penguins put it out of reach with two empty net goals from Tim Wallace and Zach Sill.
Game 1 – Fri Apr 15 7:05 PM Norfolk 2, W-B/SCRANTON 1 Game 2 – Sat Apr 16 7:05 PM Norfolk 2, W-B/SCRANTON 0 Game 3 – Tue Apr 19 7:15 PM W-B/Scranton 2, NORFOLK 1 Game 4 – Wed Apr 20 7:15 PM W-B/Scranton 4, NORFOLK 2 Game 5 – Fri Apr 22 7:30 PM W-B/Scranton 2, NORFOLK 1 Game 6 – Sat Apr 23 7:05 PM W-B/SCRANTON 6, Norfolk 3 East Division Semifinals HERSHEY vs. CHARLOTTE Charlotte leads series 3 – 2 Game 1 – Thu Apr 14 7:00 PM Charlotte 5, HERSHEY 4 Game 2 – Sun Apr 17 5:00 PM HERSHEY 4, Charlotte 2 Game 3 – Tue Apr 19 7:00 PM Hershey 3, CHARLOTTE 2 Game 4 – Wed Apr 20 7:00 PM CHARLOTTE 3, Hershey 2 Game 5 – Fri Apr 22 7:00 PM CHARLOTTE 5, Hershey 3 Game 6 – Sun Apr 24 5:00 PM Charlotte at Hershey Game 7 – Mon Apr 25 7:00 PM * Charlotte at Hershey North Division Semifinals HAMILTON vs. OKLAHOMA CITY Hamilton leads series 3 – 2
Hamilton has two chances to put this series away at home with the first starting on Sunday.
Game 1 – Thu Apr 14 7:30 PM HAMILTON 5, Oklahoma City 2 Game 2 – Sat Apr 16 4:00 PM HAMILTON 2, Oklahoma City 1 Game 3 – Tue Apr 19 7:05 PM OKLAHOMA CITY 2, Hamilton 0 Game 4 – Wed Apr 20 7:05 PM OKLAHOMA CITY 5, Hamilton 2 Game 5 – Fri Apr 22 7:05 PM Hamilton 2, OKLAHOMA CITY 0 Game 6 – Sun Apr 24 4:00 PM Oklahoma City at Hamilton Game 7 – Mon Apr 25 7:30 PM * Oklahoma City at Hamilton North Division Semifinals LAKE ERIE vs. MANITOBA Lake Erie leads series 3 – 2
Lake Erie also has two chance to put this series away at home on Sunday.
Game 1 – Sat Apr 16 12:00 PM LAKE ERIE 6, Manitoba 4 Game 2 – Sun Apr 17 3:00 PM Manitoba 3, LAKE ERIE 2 OT Game 3 – Tue Apr 19 7:30 PM Lake Erie 2, MANITOBA 1 Game 4 – Thu Apr 21 7:30 PM Lake Erie 6, MANITOBA 3 Game 5 – Fri Apr 22 7:30 PM MANITOBA 2, Lake Erie 0 Game 6 – Sun Apr 24 4:00 PM Manitoba at Lake Erie Game 7 – Tue Apr 26 7:00 PM * Manitoba at Lake Erie West Division Semifinals MILWAUKEE vs. TEXAS Milwaukee leads series 3 – 2
Easter weekend break as the teams return back to Milwaukee on Monday as the Admirals can win at home with a victory in either one of the last two games.
Game 1 – Thu Apr 14 7:00 PM MILWAUKEE 5, Texas 2 Game 2 – Sat Apr 16 7:00 PM Texas 3, MILWAUKEE 1 Game 3 – Tue Apr 19 7:30 PM TEXAS 3, Milwaukee 2 OT Game 4 – Wed Apr 20 7:30 PM Milwaukee 3, TEXAS 2 Game 5 – Fri Apr 22 7:30 PM Milwaukee 2, TEXAS 1 OT Game 6 – Mon Apr 25 7:00 PM Texas at Milwaukee Game 7 – Tue Apr 26 7:00 PM * Texas at Milwaukee West Division Semifinals HOUSTON vs. PEORIA Houston wins series 4 – 0
Houston will have not played a game in a week or more before the figure out who their next opponent is. It is almost time to wake up from the rest and start to prepare afte a long break. Game 1 – Wed Apr 13 7:05 PM HOUSTON 4, Peoria 1 Game 2 – Fri Apr 15 7:35 PM HOUSTON 3, Peoria 2 OT Game 3 – Mon Apr 18 7:05 PM Houston 5, PEORIA 3 Game 4 – Tue Apr 19 7:05 PM Houston 2, PEORIA 1 SECOND ROUND Atlantic Division Finals PORTLAND vs. BINGHAMTON Not yet started Game 1 – Wed Apr 27 7:00 PM Binghamton at Portland Game 2 – Thu Apr 28 7:00 PM Binghamton at Portland Game 3 – Sat Apr 30 7:05 PM Portland at Binghamton Game 4 – Mon May 2 7:05 PM Portland at Binghamton Game 5 – Tue May 3 7:05 PM * Portland at Binghamton Game 6 – Fri May 6 7:00 PM * Binghamton at Portland Game 7 – Sat May 7 7:00 PM * Binghamton at Portland (* if necessary)
Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
