CHICAGO, Ill. – The Binghamton Senators now have the home-ice advantage as they took the first two games in Portland in winning 5-3 to take back to back games. The Charlotte Checkers are turning into the Cinderella team in these playoffs as center Jon Matsumoto scored two goals to pace his team to a 3-2 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. In the All-Canada series, the defense and the goaltending of Drew MacIntyre lead the Hamilton Bulldogs over the Manitoba moose with a 4-1 victory.
There is only one game on tap Friday night as the Houston Aeros finally hit the ice after sweeping Peoria out of the playoffs. The will travel to Milwaukee to start the series.
SECOND ROUND Atlantic Division Finals PORTLAND vs. BINGHAMTON Binghamton leads series 2 – 0
The Binghamton Senators took it to the Pirates again on consecutive nights with a 5-3 victory to take the home-ice advantage away from Portland as the teams now travel to lower New York.
A three-goal outburst in the second paced the way for the Senators with goals from Kaspars Daugavins short-handed, Zack Smith, and Bobby Butler who scored his sixth goal of the playoffs on the power play.
This followed the two goals scored by Portland to start the game as Derek Whitmore scored the only goal in the first at the 13:08 mark and Mark Mancari scored early 1:27 into the second.
Mancari tied the game in the third with his second of the game halfway through the period. But defenseman Bob Raymond, who had an assist on the Smith goal, got one of his own for the game-winner. Daugavins wrapped up the scoring with also his second of the game on the empty-net with four second left.
Portland way outshot Binghamton by almost a 2 to 1 margin as Robin Lehner got the win facing 46 shots while Jhonas Enroth deflected 25.
Game 1 – Wed Apr 27 7:00 PM Binghamton 3, PORTLAND 2 Game 2 – Thu Apr 28 7:00 PM Binghamton 5, PORTLAND 3 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 East Division Finals W-B/SCRANTON vs. CHARLOTTE Charlotte leads series 1 – 0
The Charlotte Checkers are doing a number on their opponents in their first year in the AHL and tonight was no different for what people can call the Cinderella team of the playoffs. First they eliminated the two-time defending Calder Cup Champions in the Hershey Bears and now they have a first game victory over the league’s regular season points champion in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by the score of 3-2.
The win was paced by a two-goal performance by center Jon Matsumoto who had no goals in the first round at all. Both goals tonight came on the power play as his second in the third was the eventual game-winner 3:03 into the final frame.
The Checkers started the scoring as AHL All-Rookie scored his fourth goal of the playoffs at the 15:10 mark of the first. In the middle period, the Penguins Geoff Walker started the first of four straight power play goals which was followed up by Matsumoto’s two. Penguin’s left wing Brett Sterling got his first of the playoffs at 6:26 to bring his team to within one. But that is all that that was wrote as losing goaltender Brad Thiessen allowed three quality shots on the 19 he faced all night. For Mike Murphy it was a walk in the park with 28 saves.
Game 1 – Thu Apr 28 7:05 PM Charlotte 3, W-B/SCRANTON 2 Game 2 – Sat Apr 30 7:05 PM Charlotte at W-B/Scranton Game 3 – Mon May 2 7:00 PM W-B/Scranton at Charlotte Game 4 – Wed May 4 7:00 PM W-B/Scranton at Charlotte Game 5 – Fri May 6 7:00 PM * W-B/Scranton at Charlotte Game 6 – Sat May 7 7:05 PM * Charlotte at W-B/Scranton Game 7 – Mon May 9 7:05 PM * Charlotte at W-B/Scranton North Division Finals HAMILTON vs. MANITOBA Hamilton leads series 1 – 0
After allowing 11 shots and one goal in the first to the Manitoba Moose, the Hamilton Bulldogs totally shut down the their opponent allowing only a total of 9 shots in the final two periods of the game to take Game 1 by the score of 4-1.
Bulldog’s goaltender Drew MacIntyre only fault in the game was a first period tally as Moose center Alexandre Bolduc scored 5:10 in with assists from Travis Ramsey and Mark Flood. Hamilton tied up the game at the 9:27 mark as Ryan Russell tacked one on the board.
Then it was all Hamilton in the second where the special teams shined. It started with two goals on the power play being scored just under three minutes apart. Aaron Palushaj scored at 13:34 with a helper from Mathieu Carle which was followed by Nigel Dawes who scored with the man-advantage with his sixth goal of the playoffs. With a minute and one second left, right wing J.T. Wyman scored shorthanded to bring the scoring to a close.
MacIntyre face only 20 shots for the win as Eddie Lack saved 33 of 37 in a penalty filled game. A total of 64 minutes were called on 22 penalties with Manitoba sitting for 42 of those minutes.
Game 1 – Thu Apr 28 7:30 PM HAMILTON 4, Manitoba 1 Game 2 – Sun May 1 4:00 PM Manitoba at Hamilton Game 3 – Tue May 3 7:30 PM Hamilton at Manitoba Game 4 – Wed May 4 7:30 PM Hamilton at Manitoba Game 5 – Fri May 6 7:30 PM * Hamilton at Manitoba Game 6 – Sun May 8 7:30 PM * Manitoba at Hamilton Game 7 – Mon May 9 7:30 PM * Manitoba at Hamilton West Division Finals MILWAUKEE vs. HOUSTON Not yet started
Slow going will be the name of the game for these series as the two teams are coming off a fairly good amount of time off between games. Houston had almost three times as many days off with nine compared to Milwaukee’s three.
Milwaukee has the leg up between these two old rivals as they won four of the six games played during the regular season. Houston kept them all close as all but one of the game were won by one goal with three needing the extra session to be decided.
Game 1 – Fri Apr 29 7:00 PM Houston at Milwaukee Game 2 – Sun May 1 5:00 PM Houston at Milwaukee Game 3 – Tue May 3 7:05 PM Milwaukee at Houston Game 4 – Thu May 5 7:05 PM Milwaukee at Houston Game 5 – Fri May 6 7:35 PM * Milwaukee at Houston Game 6 – Sun May 8 5:00 PM * Houston at Milwaukee Game 7 – Tue May 10 7:00 PM * Houston at Milwaukee FIRST ROUND RESULTS Atlantic Division Semifinals PORTLAND vs. CONNECTICUT Portland wins series 4 – 2
Atlantic Division Semifinals MANCHESTER vs. BINGHAMTON Binghamton wins series 4 – 3 East Division Semifinals W-B/SCRANTON vs. NORFOLK W-B/Scranton wins series 4 – 2
East Division Semifinals HERSHEY vs. CHARLOTTE Charlotte wins series 4 – 2 North Division Semifinals HAMILTON vs. OKLAHOMA CITY Hamilton wins series 4 – 2 North Division Semifinals LAKE ERIE vs. MANITOBA Manitoba wins series 4 – 3 West Division Semifinals MILWAUKEE vs. TEXAS Milwaukee wins series 4 – 2 West Division Semifinals HOUSTON vs. PEORIA Houston wins series 4 – 0 (* if necessary)
Contact the writer at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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