AHL American Hockey League

Calder Cup 2004 Playoffs set to begin

April 12, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ... Another exciting, down-to-the-wire regular season has concluded, setting the stage for the Calder Cup 2004 Playoffs to begin this week.

The storylines were ripe in Hershey on Sunday, with the Bears needing a win over arch-rival Philadelphia to qualify for the postseason for an 11th consecutive spring. The Phantoms, meanwhile, were looking to play spoiler and achieve a clean 12-game sweep of the season series. Hershey erased a pair of one-goal deficits to force overtime, and were given a golden opportunity when Freddy Meyer was whistled for a holding penalty 48 seconds into the extra period.

But the ending was bittersweet in Chocolatetown. No sooner had Bears head coach Paul Fixter pulled goaltender Philippe Sauve for an extra attacker late in the power play than an errant puck sailed down the ice off the stick of Hershey's Shane Willis and into the vacant net, giving the Phantoms the 3-2 win and allowing Norfolk to sneak into the fifth and final playoff spot in the East Division. Philadelphia goaltender Antero Niittymaki, who had 32 saves on the night, was the last Phantom to play the puck, and therefore became the seventh goalie in AHL history to be credited with scoring a goal.

Thirteen of the 20 participants in the 2004 postseason are vying for their first Calder Cup championship, while Houston is trying to become the first team since the 1990-91 Springfield Indians to successfully defend their title. Toronto is looking to join six other clubs in league history who won the Calder Cup in their first season in the AHL, and Cleveland is out to return the Calder Cup to the Ohio lakeshore for the first time since the original Barons' ninth championship in 1964.

The AHL's championship trophy is named after Hockey Hall of Famer Frank Calder, who served as the first president of the National Hockey League from 1917-43. During the 1920s, Calder was instrumental in guiding professional hockey into the mainstream of the United States' major cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit, while also helping in the formation of the American Hockey League in 1936.

A total of 86 former Calder Cup champions representing 15 different championship squads skated in the NHL during the 2003-04 regular season, including Rickard Wallin (2003), Pasi Nurminen (2002), Steve Begin (2001), Derek Armstrong (2000), Randy Robitaille (1999), Brian Boucher (1998), Marc Denis (1997), Vaclav Varada (1996), Steve Sullivan (1995), Sergei Gonchar (1994), Kirk Maltby (1993), Keith Primeau (1992), Marc Bergevin (1990, 1991) and Adam Oates (1986).

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2003-04 BY THE NUMBERS ... A grand total of 210 shutouts were posted during the regular season, shattering the previous all-time high of 136... Hartford (17), Portland (17) and Bridgeport (16) all broke the individual team shutout record of 13... There were also eight scoreless ties... In the AHL's first 67 seasons, a total of five goaltenders posted goals-against averages below 2.00; eight goalies did it in 2003-04 alone, with Wade Dubielewicz (1.38) and Jason LaBarbera (1.59) bettering Frank Brimsek's 66-year-old record of 1.79... Seven teams, including league-leading Bridgeport (90.66%) for the second year in a row, surpassed the previous AHL record for penalty killing efficiency (87.46%), which was first tracked in 1985... Milwaukee's Curtis Murphy is the first AHL defenseman to finish a season with a plus-40 rating since Darren Rumble (+45) in 1994-95... Travis Scott made 1,903 saves during the season for San Antonio, the fourth-highest total since the AHL began recording saves in 1973... Chicago led the league in power-play goals for the second straight year... For the fifth straight season, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton led the league in sellouts (40); Manchester recorded 19 sellouts, while Binghamton had 18... There were 45 penalty shots attempted, surpassing the previous league record of 32; shooters were 16-for-45.

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FOLLOW THE LEADERS ... Some of the statistical leaders for the 2003-04 AHL season:

Points 88 Pavel Rosa, MCH
Goals 43 Jeff Hamilton, BRI
Assists 57 Domenic Pittis, ROC
Games Played 82 Jeff Woywitka, PHI/TOR
Penalty Minutes 398 Peter Vandermeer, PHI
Power Play Goals 22 Jason Pominville, ROC
Shorthanded Goals 4 Several players tied
Game-Winning Goals 15 Jeff Hamilton, BRI
Overtime Goals 3 Several players tied
Plus/Minus +40 Curtis Murphy, MIL
GAA 1.38 Wade Dubielewicz, BRI
Save Percentage .946 Wade Dubielewicz, BRI
Wins 34 Jason LaBarbera, HFD
Shutouts 13 Jason LaBarbera, HFD
Saves 1903 Travis Scott, SAN
Minutes 3748 Ilya Bryzgalov, CIN

Points (rookie) 55 Kyle Wellwood, STJ
Goals (rookie) 30 Michel Ouellet, WBS
Assists (rookie 35 Kyle Wellwood, STJ
Points (defenseman) 53 Curtis Murphy, MIL
Goals (defenseman) 19 John Slaney, PHI
Assists (defenseman) 37 Bryan Muir, MCH
Chris Armstrong, CIN
Power Play % 18.11 Rochester
Penalty Killing % 90.66 Bridgeport
Power Play Goals 76 Chicago
Shorthanded Goals 18 Hartford
Goals For 269 Milwaukee
Goals Against 140 Bridgeport
Shots For 2708 Hamilton
Shots Against 1978 Norfolk
Attendance 365,636 Manchester (9,140 avg.)

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ETC. ... Syracuse's Dan Fritsche, 18, recorded two goals in four games with the Crunch to close out the regular season... Petr Kanko, a 20-year-old forward out of Kitchener (OHL), has a goal and three assists in his first six pro games with Manchester... Hamilton goaltender Yann Danis was one of the Hat Trick Finalists for the 2004 Hobey Baker Award... Norfolk's Marty Wilford and Grand Rapids' Dave Van Drunen are the only AHL players to skate in all 80 games each of the last two seasons... Bridgeport's team-record shutout streak of 204:45 was ended on Sunday by former Sound Tiger Alain Nasreddine of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton... The Penguins finished the year with 86 points, the highest total in their five-year history... St. John's rookie Kyle Wellwood was assessed just three minor penalties in 76 games this season, but it was one more than he picked up in his last two years of junior hockey combined... Portland finished the regular season on a nine-game points streak (7-0-1-1)... Manitoba won the last-ever game at Winnipeg Arena, defeating Hamilton on Saturday, 6-3... The Calder Cup 2004 Playoffs begin on Wednesday night when Norfolk visits Binghamton in Game 1 of the East Division qualifying series... The AHL's official Web site, theahl.com, received over 627,000 page views last week, an all-time high... Hartford's Chad Wiseman will chat live on the official site of the Calder Cup Playoffs, caldercup.com, Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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