Milwaukee wins the cup
Published on June 7, 2004 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release
In case you were wondering if the best team in the American Hockey League this season would in fact win the Calder Cup, the answer is a resounding "yes". After earning the most points by any AHL team in the regular season, the Milwaukee Admirals laid another whipping on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Sunday night 7-2 to win its first league title. After a strong run through the Eastern Conference to advance to the Finals, the Pens were embarrassed by the offensively minded Admirals. Milwaukee was a gaudy 10 for 20 on the power play in the series for a 50.0 percent clip, including 3-3 in the deciding Game 4. Darren Haydar finished the postseason with an amazing 11 goals and 26 points while goaltender Wade Flaherty was named the winner of the Jack Butterfield Trophy as MVP of the 2004 Calder Cup Playoffs. Flaherty won 14 of his last 16 starts and won seven straight games to finish things off. Former BEARS centerman Claude Noel became the 12th man ever to win Calder Cup titles as both a player and a coach. Noel was part of the HERSHEY team that surprised the rest of the AHL in 1979-80 by winning a championship despite a 35-39-6 regular season. The BEARS defeated the New Brunswick Hawks for the title that season.
There can't be a playoff series that involves Pens coach Michel Therrien without some shenanigans. It's good to know that Paul Fixter isn't the only coach that has to endure Therrien's on-bench antics. During Game 2 of the series in Milwaukee according to an article by Jonathan Bombuile in The Citizen's Voice, Therrien stood up on the glass and leaned over to berate Milwaukee head coach Claude Noel. Seems that our man Michel was a little incensed over the fact that the number one power play unit for the Admirals was still on the ice in the second period when a 5 on 3 situation presented itself. The score at the time was 5-1. Therrien seemed to think that the Admirals were running up the score. He said afterwards in the Citizen's Voice "What Claude Noel did, trying to laugh at our team, it's (disrespectful). I'm not going to accept this." Here's my question for all of you: Is anyone else getting tired of this act? My team is down, my team needs an emotional lift, so I'm going to jump on the dasher boards, shake the glass between the benches, yell and scream at the other coach and attack him in the media afterwards? It's all been done, my man. Over and over and over again we've seen this show, and he's only been in the league ONE YEAR! Noel got to see in the Finals what Fixter/Stevens/Cronin and the rest of the East Division coaches got to see all season long. At some point, even Wilkes-Barre players have to get tired of that. Memo to Michel: If you don't want to be shown up, you might want to try not giving up 10 power play goals in a four game series and not get outscored 19-8. Congrats to a former BEAR in Claude Noel who's been there before and who also acts like it.
On to other AHL news, the Norfolk Admirals held a news conference last Wednesday at the Scope to introduce the new ownership group that saved the franchise. The two new faces of the organization are Ken Young and Blake Cullen. Both are noted faces on the Norfolk sports scene. Young is also the president of the Norfolk Tides AAA baseball team, while Cullen founded the Admirals when they entered the ECHL back in 1989.
Also, congratulations to Kurtis Foster of the Chicago Wolves. He was named Thursday as the 2003-04 winner of the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award as the American Specialty/AHL Man of the Year. The award is presented in the name of the former BEARS forward annually to an AHL player for his outstanding contributions to his local community and charitable organizations. HERSHEY'S Brett Clark was also nominated for the award.
NHL tonight, it's as good as it gets with Tampa Bay hosting Calgary for Game 7 at the St. Pete Times Forum. I was watching Game 6 Saturday night at the BEARS Den over at the Lodge, and I didn't need to see the replay more than once to think that Calgary might have been hosed. I thought Martin Gelinas' goal in the third period was in, and I'm surprised it didn't get reviewed. Marty St. Louis' goal was great, but it wasn't a very good effort by Kiprusoff that gave him the opportunity. What a tough call tonight's game is. I think Tampa wins, but it's going to be close (probably even overtime) and at that point it's anyone's game. I've heard Dave Mishkin's call of the game-winner about 14 times now through various national media outlets. Just imagine what he could sound like tonight if they win it all!
Speaking of Dave, I had a great article forwarded to me from a reader that appeared in the Tampa Tribune last week. Check out www.tampatrib.com under the sports page, the article is written by Joey Johnston. It makes for a good read.
American Hockey League Stories from June 7, 2004
- Three Former P-Bruins Win Stanley Cup - Providence Bruins
- First Griffins Alum Hoists Stanley Cup - Grand Rapids Griffins
- Sound Tigers, Boosters Help Raise Over $11,000 - Bridgeport Islanders
- âCats Kick Off At Home On October 16th - Worcester IceCats
- Milwaukee wins the cup - Hershey Bears
- Hockey Sticks Join Chop Sticks at Taste of Hartford - Connecticut Whale
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