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AHL Quick Hits, Calder Cup Final Edition

June 1, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release


Dateline: Milwaukee, where the 68th Calder Cup Final gets underway at the Bradley Center tonight (7:00 CT, 8:00 ET) as the hometown Milwaukee Admirals take on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series... Milwaukee won the Western Conference by defeating Cincinnati, Chicago and Rochester in the playoffs, while Wilkes-Barre captured the Eastern Conference crown by ousting Bridgeport, Philadelphia and Hartford.

Wilkes-Barre advanced to the Calder Cup 2004 Final with a 2-1 overtime win at Hartford in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference title series on Saturday... The Penguins joined the 2003 Houston Aeros as the only clubs in AHL history to win two Game Sevens on the road in the same postseason... Wilkes-Barre has already knocked off the fourth-, third- and second-place teams in the overall regular-season standings; only first-place Milwaukee remains... Penguins captain Tom Kostopoulos leads the AHL in playoff scoring with 20 points in 20 games... Matt Murley scored the series-winning goal against Hartford, and now has five goals in his last eight games... Michel Ouellet, who led all AHL rookies with 30 goals in the regular season, hasn't lit the lamp in his last 10 contests... Quick starts are key for goalie Andy Chiodo, who is 8-1 this postseason when not allowing a first-period goal... This is Wilkes-Barre's first game outside of the Eastern time zone this season.

Milwaukee has been off since knocking off Rochester six days ago... The Western Conference champions have won 10 of their last 13 games since facing elimination themselves in the first round against Cincinnati... Darren Haydar leads the Admirals with eight goals and 18 points in 18 postseason matches... Timofei Shishkanov, who finished fourth among AHL rookies with 23 goals in the regular season, has scored just twice in the Calder Cup Playoffs... Wade Flaherty stopped 119 of 123 shots (.967) over the final three games of Milwaukee's conference final series... This is the sixth time in the last seven years that the AHL's regular-season points champion has reached the Calder Cup Final... A team with more than 100 regular-season points has won the Calder Cup in seven of the last nine seasons; Milwaukee racked up 102 in 2003-04.


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SERIES SCHEDULE
CALDER CUP 2004 FINAL
W1-Milwaukee vs. E3-Wilkes-Barre
Game 1 – Tue 6/1 at Milwaukee, 8:00
Game 2 – Wed 6/2 at Milwaukee, 8:00
Game 3 – Fri 6/4 at Wilkes-Barre, 7:05
Game 4 – Sun 6/6 at Wilkes-Barre, 5:05
*Game 5 – Mon 6/7 at Wilkes-Barre, 7:05
*Game 6 – Fri 6/11 at Milwaukee, 8:00
*Game 7 – Sat 6/12 at Milwaukee, 8:00

*if necessary... All times Eastern

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FROM CALDER TO STANLEY:
Nikolai Khabibulin made 29 saves as Tampa Bay posted a 1-0 win at Calgary in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final last night... The series is now even at two wins apiece.


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BY THE NUMBERS:
51-16 -- In Calder Cup Finals history, the team that wins Game 1 has gone on to win the championship 51 of 67 times (76.1%), including nine times in the last 10 years... The only Game 1 winner not to hoist the Cup since 1994: the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2001.


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ON THIS DATE (June 1):
1999 – Rochester advances to its 15th Calder Cup Final with a 4-2 win in Philadelphia in Game 6 of their conference final... 1996 – In the first AHL game ever played in the month of June, Rochester downs Portland, 5-3, in Game 1 of the Calder Cup Final.

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