Syracuse isn’t the farm club of the Devils, but it posted the number of the beast in the first round: Three straight six-goal games, and the Crunch swept Rochester. Three assists for Carter Verhaeghe as the Crunch move on to face a team to be determined, as Utica prevented a Toronto sweep. (Tough night for the Leafs all around.) Out west, Tucson smoked San Jose to take a 2-1 series lead, and Manitoba grabbed the same lead on Grand Rapids; the Moose can finish that off Thursday, while Charlotte and Rockford will be aiming to complete sweeps of the Penguins and the Wolves. (Things got messy in the first period of Manitoba-GR, so when I glanced over to the right, at first I thought Eric Tangradi had 14 penalty minutes. Nope: 14 shots on goal.)
On the carousel, we have a chart, unfortunately, with word that Troy Mann won’t be back in Hershey:
| TEAM | Old | New |
| LAV | Sylvain Lefebvre (4/17) | — |
| HER | Troy Mann (4/25) | — |
(Colorado, moving affiliations from San Antonio to Colorado, will not retain Eric Veilleux. Traditionally we don’t put that on the chart until San Antonio names someone else.)
Big one in the ECHL: Idaho came back from a 3-0 series deficit to Allen and won the next four to move on. A 4-1 win tonight capped it.
And a couple of familiar names headed to the World Championships to officiate. Latvia plays another exhibition game on Thursday, at Riga against Switzerland, and the national team is retiring Arturs Irbe’s number; Kristers Gudlevskis is supposed to be at the press conference.