The East Division over the past decade had provided the AHL with Calder Cups for Norfolk and Binghamton and Philadelphia and, of course Hershey; with finals appearances for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Syracuse.
And it’s now out of business. The AHL’s new alignment cobbles bits of the East, Northeast and Atlantic into a new Atlantic next year, and one of them, Northeast Division champ Hartford, is on to its first conference final in 11 years. It was a big night for firsts: Marek Hrivik scored his first goals of the postseason — he finished a hat trick into an empty net — and Mike Kostka’s first of the playoffs gave the Wolf Pack the lead for good in a 6-3 win over Hershey. Andre Burakovsky was sent back to Hershey after Washington was eliminated, and he scored early, but it wasn’t enough.
So it’s Hartford-Manchester beginning Thursday in ManchVegas. It’s also a Battle of Lower Fairfield County (or at least that’s how I posed it when forwarding the schedule to my boss), Backman vs. Haggerty. Ex-Tiger Backman vs. Ex-Tiger Danis (and Jackson).
Actually, an ex-Sound Tiger is almost guaranteed a Calder Cup for the third time (Trevor Smith, 2012; Brett Skinner, 2013) in four years… as long as you define it the right way. The tricky series is Grand Rapids-Rockford. Chris Bruton is a Griffin, but he hasn’t yet played in the playoffs. The IceHogs, meanwhile, have no one who has ever played for Bridgeport… though both Ville Pokka and Keith Seabrook were technically, briefly, on the roster this year (and Seabrook was in the Sound Tigers’ technical employ for much longer).
A New England team, meanwhile, is guaranteed to play for a Calder Cup for the first time in 13 years. Remember the last time well. Hockey in June. (And only seen hockey in May once since.)
No AHL games Saturday — third time this month, and we’re to the point in the year where we’ve got to start getting used to it — but the NHL conference finals begin at the Garden, and the World Championship semifinals happen, too.
Elsewhere, Michael Dal Colle and Oshawa won the OHL championship in five games against Kevin Putzig, Dylan Strome, Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters.
The Detroit Red Wings announced that the championship trophy for the Traverse City prospects tournament will be named for CapGeek’s Matthew Wuest.
Alan Sepinwall on “Mad Men” first-season episode “Nixon vs. Kennedy” and the series’ surprises. Very excited to see what they pull out for the finale.
And RIP, B.B. King.