Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Long-term, the consensus among NHL management is that taking on the Calder Cup Playoffs will greatly benefit their prospects.
The elevated standard of play. Game – and series – management. Further establishing deep-rooted bonds for players who have gone through postseason struggles together.
Short-term, though? Lots and lots of stress. Coaches breaking down video for hours, looking for any small detail that can produce some sort of advantage. Days off after a loss to fret. Trying to hold a late-game lead. Attempting to pull off a comeback. It’s the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The Abbotsford Canucks, Calgary Wranglers, Ontario Reign and Tucson Roadrunners all will fight for their seasons tonight as they try to navigate the gauntlet that is the Pacific Division’s opening round. The Pacific has a seven-team playoff field, the largest of any of the AHL’s four divisions. But there is a trade-off: Even the second-place finisher must go through a best-of-three first-round series. Only the first-place team – this year it’s the Colorado Eagles – is able to escape that fate.
Second-seeded Abbotsford tore through the AHL down the stretch, assembling a 13-game winning streak in which they outscored opponents, 53-28. In all, they lost in regulation just once in the final 18 games of their regular season (16-1-0-1).
But after a 4-1 loss Thursday, they find their season in danger with a winner-take-all game against Tucson on tap tonight. After barely escaping with a 4-3 win in Game 1 – helped by Artūrs Šilovs stopping a penalty shot with 34.6 seconds to go in regulation – the Canucks found themselves going up against a different goaltender in Game 2 as Tucson head coach Steve Potvin went with Jaxson Stauber. Stauber turned in 38 saves to help Tucson even the series.
Tucson needed until the final game of the regular season to secure a playoff berth while the Canucks were surging to a second-place finish, 18 points better than the Roadrunners. But now they both find themselves in the same predicament, and one of them will have their season end tonight.
The Roadrunners are all too familiar with this round’s dangers. Last year they had a fully stocked roster and went into the first round as the Pacific Division’s second seed. Two games, two losses to the Calgary Wranglers, and their season had come to a sudden end. But the year before, Tucson was a 7-seed pushing a 103-point Coachella Valley club to a deciding Game 3 before bowing out.
Calgary is in a predicament as well. The Wranglers undid Coachella Valley’s 3-0 lead in Game 1 on Tuesday night, chipping away at the deficit before Rory Kerins scored with 7.0 seconds to go in regulation. One overtime period went, then two, before the Firebirds’ Mitchell Stephens ended the contest two minutes into the third overtime. Four hours and 29 minutes of play, a three-goal comeback, and yet the Wranglers still left Acrisure Arena facing elimination. With four days to sit with that loss, the Wranglers will fight for their season in Game 2 tonight.
And add the Reign to the list of Pacific Division powers with their backs to the wall. After finishing just four points out of first place, Ontario drew a match-up with San Jose in the first round. The Reign have home-ice advantage as the higher seed, but a building conflict forced the club to move Games 1 and 2 of the series to Crypto.com Arena, the home of their NHL parent team, the Los Angeles Kings. The Barracuda, without league MVP Andrew Poturalski and Danil Gushchin in their lineup, stifled the Reign, who had finished sixth in the AHL during the regular season in shots per game. San Jose held Ontario to 17 shots, including just one in the third period. Manage only 17 shots against a goaltender like Yaroslav Askarov, and pulling out a win will be a tall order. It did not happen for the Reign, who dropped a 2-0 decision and now must fight off elimination in Game 2 tonightPacif.
One way or another, win or lose, the Calder Cup Playoffs will yield experience for prospects that they can later take into their NHL careers. It will just be stressful getting that experience. One game in, and these players already know that.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
