AHL American Hockey League

Round of Eight Nearly Set

April 22, 2002 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, MA ... The group of candidates for the Calder Cup 2002 championship will be trimmed down to eight on Tuesday night, as the conference quarterfinals wrap up and the best-of-seven conference semifinal round gets underway later this week.

Lowell and St. John's will face off at the Tsongas Arena on Tuesday in Game 5, the fourth winner-take-all game of the round, and the sixth already league-wide this postseason. The home team has won each of the first four games of the series, with the Maple Leafs rallying from an 0-2 deficit to tie the series with a pair of victories in Newfoundland.

SERIES NOTES:

The Syracuse Crunch notched their first playoff series victory since 1996 with a three-game sweep of Philadelphia... Brad Moran tallied three goals and three assists in the series... Jean-Francois Labbe stopped 75 of 80 shots (.938), and now has 43 career playoff wins to go with his 201 in the regular season... The Crunch, who entered 2001-02 on a 17-game winless streak against the Phantoms, went 5-1-1 on the season vs. Philadelphia.

Ben Simon snapped a 2-2 tie with 6:33 left in regulation as Chicago upset Grand Rapids in Game 5 on Sunday, 4-2, to win the series three games to two... Pasi Nurminen stopped 106 of 112 Griffins shots (.946) in the series, going 3-1... The Wolves are 3-0 when facing elimination this postseason... Grand Rapids' Jason Spezza, the second overall pick in 2001, scored his first goal as a professional in Game 5.

Kelly Fairchild scored 1:14 into the second overtime period on Saturday to give Hershey a 2-1 win and a 3-1 series victory over Norfolk... It was Fairchild's second game-winning goal of the series... Philippe Sauve stopped 87 of 91 shots in the three Hershey wins, and is 11-1-0 in his last 12 home appearances... The Bears won the final three games after losing Game 1; in a conference semifinal last year, the Bears won four in a row after dropping the opener to the Admirals.

Former Grizzlies goaltender Jamie McLennan (1.37, .947) stymied Utah and helped Houston to a five-game series victory... The Aeros got goals from nine different players in the series... Rookie defenseman Nick Schultz, 19, tallied three assists in the five games after spending the entire regular season in Minnesota... Houston, ranked 25th on the penalty kill in the regular season, was 26-for-27 (96.3%) in the series.

Rick DiPietro pitched two shutouts to help Bridgeport to a four-game victory over Manitoba in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal... The Sound Tigers outscored the Moose 11-1 in their three victories... Linemates Trent Hunter (1g, 7a), Jason Krog (3g, 4a) and Juraj Kolnik (2g, 4a) combined for 21 points in the series... Rookie forward Justin Mapletoft added a goal and three assists.

St. John's goaltender Sebastien Centomo made 40 saves in a 2-0 shutout on Saturday to force a deciding fifth game... Game 4 was played in front of a sell-out crowd of 6,247 fans at Mile One Stadium... Lowell's Jeff Heerema (2g, 3a) and Ted Drury (5a) are tied for the series' scoring lead with the Leafs' Bobby House (4g, 1a)... Donald MacLean, the AHL's regular season scoring champion, had two goals and two assists in a 6-4 St. John's win in Game 3, but has been held scoreless in the other three games.

Hamilton finished off its conference quarterfinal on Wednesday when Peter Sarno scored 13:27 into overtime to give the Bulldogs a 6-5 win over Quebec and their first-ever series sweep... Sarno had two goals and three assists in the series, and a team-best 3+12=15 pts. in 10 games against the Citadelles on the year... Quebec has won two division titles in its three-year history ('00, '02), and has been swept from the opening playoff round each time.

Marty Wilford ended the longest game in the 27-year history of the Hartford Civic Center at 9:49 of the second overtime on Saturday, giving Hartford a 3-2 win over Manchester in the fifth and deciding game of their conference quarterfinal... Wolf Pack rookie Scott Meyer made his first career playoff starts in Games 4 and 5, and stopped 96 of 100 shots in three series appearances... Hartford is now 9-3 all-time when facing elimination, including 7-1 under head coach John Paddock... A league-high 26,806 fans attended the series.

ETC. ... There have been seven overtime games this postseason, with four of them needing a second OT period... Hamilton has won at least one series in each of its five Calder Cup Playoff appearances... The crowd of 8,759 fans at the Verizon Wireless Arena for Friday's Manchester-Hartford Game 4 was the largest AHL playoff crowd since Quebec and Saint John played before a crowd of 8,873 at Le Colisee Pepsi last April... Grand Rapids' ouster by Chicago makes it eight consecutive years that a team with at least 42 wins in the regular season has been upset in its first playoff series that spring... Six of the eight participants in the conference semifinals will be gunning for their first Calder Cup championship... Sunday's AHL action propelled the league's total attendance this season over 6.5 million fans (6,504,493).

Western Conference Semifinal - Series "I" 1-Syracuse vs. 7-Chicago
Game 1 - Fri., 4/26 at Syracuse, 7:30 ET
Game 2 - Sat., 4/27 at Syracuse, 7:30 ET
Game 3 - Mon., 4/29 at Chicago, 7:00 CT
Game 4 - Wed., 5/1 at Chicago, 7:00 CT
*Game 5 - Fri., 5/3 at Chicago, 7:30 CT
*Game 6 - Sun., 5/5 at Syracuse, 5:00 ET
*Game 7 - Tue., 5/7 at Syracuse, 7:00 ET

Western Conference Semifinal - Series "J"
4-Houston vs. 6-Hershey
Game 1 - Fri., 4/26 at Houston, 7:30 CT
Game 2 - Sat., 4/27 at Houston, 7:30 CT
Game 3 - Wed., 5/1 at Hershey, 7:30 ET
Game 4 - Fri., 5/3 at Hershey, 7:30 ET
*Game 5 - Sun., 5/5 at Hershey, 6:00 ET
*Game 6 - Tue., 5/7 at Houston, 7:00 CT
*Game 7 - Wed., 5/8 at Houston, 7:00 CT

Eastern Conference Semifinal - Series "K"
1-Bridgeport vs. 6-Hamilton or 7-St. John's

Eastern Conference Semifinal - Series "L"
4-Hartford vs. 2-Lowell or 6-Hamilton

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