Milwaukee, Hershey to battle for Calder Cup
May 31, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ... After knocking off the top two teams in the AHL in the conference finals, the Milwaukee Admirals and the Hershey Bears are set to collide for the 70th Calder Cup championship beginning Friday night.
Milwaukee won the Robert W. Clarke Trophy and the Western Conference title with an impressive four-game sweep of the league-leading Grand Rapids Griffins. The Admirals' second consecutive sweep extended their winning streak to nine games heading into the Finals. Hershey captured the Richard F. Canning Trophy and the Eastern Conference crown by prevailing in an epic seven-game clash with the Portland Pirates, capped by a memorable overtime win in Tuesday night's Game 7.
The teams have identical 12-3 postseason records entering the Finals, getting this far with a combination of potent offense and stellar defense. They are the top two scoring clubs during the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs, and Hershey's Frederic Cassivi has anchored the league's best defensive team this postseason while Pekka Rinne has won all eight of his playoff starts for Milwaukee.
Darren Haydar brings a 10-game scoring streak into the Finals for the Admirals, tallying 12 goals and eight assists in that span. Tomas Fleischmann recorded a point in each of Hershey's seven games in the last round (6g, 8a), as did Kris Beech, who played 48 games for Milwaukee this season before being acquired in a deal between parent clubs Washington and Nashville.
Under head coach Claude Noel, who played on Hershey's 1980 Calder Cup championship squad, Milwaukee is seeking its second Calder Cup title in the last three years. The Bears, meanwhile, are looking to tie the original Cleveland Barons' AHL record with their ninth championship (and first since 1997). Bruce Boudreau has his club in the Calder Cup Finals in his first year behind the Hershey bench.
The best-of-seven 2006 Calder Cup Finals series gets underway on Friday and Saturday at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, which will also host Games 6 and 7, if necessary. The middle three games of the series are scheduled for the Giant Center in Hershey. Stay connected to caldercup.com, the official Web site of the Calder Cup Playoffs, for live scores, broadcast information and the latest news from the 2006 Calder Cup Finals.
ETC. ... For the fifth year in a row, the Western Conference champion has come out of the West Division; the Eastern Conference champion is from the East Division for the fourth time in five years... Since 2000, the Eastern Conference Finals have been decided in overtime of a Game 7 three times, while the Western Conference Finals have been decided in a sweep four times... Eric Fehr on Tuesday became the first player in Hershey Bears history to score a Game 7 overtime goal... Hershey is trying to join Chicago (2002) and Houston (2003) as the only teams to defeat three division champions in one postseason... Milwaukee has already set an AHL record with seven shorthanded goals this postseason... Nine players on the Admirals' playoff roster are left from their 2004 Calder Cup-winning team... Milwaukee defenseman Steve Lingren played on Hershey's 1997 championship club.
2006 Calder Cup Finals - Series "O"
Game 1 - Fri., June 2 - Hershey at Milwaukee, 8:00 ET
Game 2 - Sat., June 3 - Hershey at Milwaukee, 8:00 ET
Game 3 - Sat., June 10 - Milwaukee at Hershey, 7:00 ET
Game 4 - Sun., June 11 - Milwaukee at Hershey, 6:00 ET
*Game 5 - Tue., June 13 - Milwaukee at Hershey, 7:00 ET
*Game 6 - Thu., June 15 - Hershey at Milwaukee, 8:00 ET
*Game 7 - Sat., June 17 - Hershey at Milwaukee, 8:00 ET
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