Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
The calendar flips to March this week. Greater than 4 months of the 2024-25 season have handed, and the common season’s stretch drive is upon us.
Let’s break down some storylines throughout the AHL to observe because the Calder Cup Playoff races intensify.
➡ Can the Hershey Bears three-peat?
Main scorer Ethen Frank made his NHL debut in early January and has remained with the Washington Capitals since. Head coach Todd Nelson has taken his staff to activity after quite a lot of house losses this season. Accidents, illness, and the wear-and-tear of back-to-back journeys to the Calder Cup Finals for some gamers have been challenges to handle. And but by way of all of it, the Bears are in first place within the Atlantic Division with a file of 31-14-5-0.
A ten-game street journey – the longest within the storied franchise’s historical past – begins March 7. However the Bears have been stellar away from house this season with a 16-3-4-0 file (.783).
This season hasn’t at all times made sense in Hershey, however they’re as soon as once more proper among the many AHL’s very high groups. They nonetheless have a protracted technique to go if they’re to grow to be the primary staff to win three consecutive Calder Cup championships for the reason that Springfield Indians did so in 1962, however they’ve no less than given themselves a shot.
➡ How far can goaltender Devon Levi take the Rochester Individuals?
Like Hershey, the Amerks have a protracted and storied historical past. However will probably be 29 years this spring since Rochester has carried the Calder Cup, they usually haven’t reached the Calder Cup Finals since 2000.
Can this yr carry one other title so as to add to the six that the Amerks have already got? It might if Devon Levi continues to play the best way he has.
Levi, who earned Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Participant of the Week honors with back-to-back shutouts final week, is 19-6-2 on the season with a 2.16 goals-against common (third-best within the AHL) and a .919 save proportion (sixth). His 5 shutouts tie him for the league lead.
Levi’s arrival from Buffalo has propelled the Amerks to the highest of the league standings. Rochester is 26-7-0-1 since U.S. Thanksgiving and enters the weekend having received 11 of 13. The second-year professional is poised to be a key a part of the Sabres’ future, and a long term within the Calder Cup Playoffs – even perhaps all the best way – could be one other step towards that.
➡ Will Andrew Poturalski take one other league scoring title?
Andrew Poturalski is a postseason fixture, however his regular-season efforts have lengthy merited loads of consideration as nicely.
The winner of the John B. Sollenberger Trophy because the AHL’s main scorer in 2020-21 and once more in 2021-22, Poturalski sits on high of the leaderboard once more this season with 51 factors in 47 video games for San Jose, one level forward of Rochester’s Isak Rosén.
Solely two gamers in AHL historical past have received three scoring titles: Invoice Sweeney (1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63) and Peter White (1994-95, 1996-97, 1997-98).
➡ How about these Utica Comets?
Beginning the season with a 13-game winless streak seemingly buried the Comets’ playoff probabilities by mid-November.
Not so quick. Since that begin, Utica has gone 19-14-3-0 to creep to inside 11 factors of fifth-place Syracuse for a North Division playoff spot. What’s extra is that they’ve seven conferences remaining with the Crunch. These proverbial four-point video games might swing the North Division image rapidly.
➡ How will the highest half of the Central Division shake out?
NHL recollects have hit the Milwaukee Admirals maybe as considerably as any staff within the AHL this season.
However an energetic entrance workplace has introduced within the likes of Anders Bjork, Chase De Leo, Grigori Denisenko, Mark Friedman and, most just lately, Jesse Ylonen to patch these holes. And so the Admirals maintain the Central Division lead.
However they yield 4 video games in hand to the second-place Texas Stars, who’re simply two factors behind. Grand Rapids is even with Texas at 59 factors and likewise ended a skid this previous weekend in choosing up three of 4 factors.
➡ Can the San Diego Gulls attain the Calder Cup Playoffs?
A month in the past it appeared just like the San Diego Gulls had been on their technique to lacking the Calder Cup Playoffs for a 3rd straight season.
However the AHL is a league of streaks, and the Gulls received their seventh recreation in a row on Wednesday evening, enhancing to 8-1-1-0 for the reason that All-Star break. San Diego is simply 5 factors behind Tucson for the ultimate playoff place within the Pacific Division.
Acquired from Detroit earlier within the week, Ville Husso made his Gulls debut on Wednesday and stopped 34 pictures in a 4-0 shutout of Calgary.
➡ How a lot roster upheaval may very well be in retailer?
The NHL commerce deadline is about for Mar. 7, with the AHL commerce/mortgage roster deadline following on Mar. 14. There may even be the customary late-season circulation of prospects from the NCAA, CHL and Europe to the AHL.
How will the NHL commerce deadline influence AHL rosters this yr? Does a high prospect depart in a commerce to profit the NHL dad or mum staff? Does that very same high prospect land with one other AHL staff? A transfer or two can alter the league’s energy steadiness rapidly.
And can AHL groups make their very own strikes? Altering up an AHL roster – even after the NHL is completed with its strikes – is an possibility for AHL basic managers till the 14th.
➡ Why is a first-place end so advantageous?
Ask any AHL head coach: a best-of-three playoff collection scares them.
Something can occur in such a brief collection, and playoff hopes can disappear rapidly. Coachella Valley’s run to the 2023 Calder Cup Finals almost didn’t occur; the Firebirds had been pushed to a winner-take-all Sport 3 towards Tucson – a staff that had completed 34 factors behind them – within the first spherical. Final yr, the Roadrunners’ second-place end led to a best-of-three sweep by seventh-place Calgary.
Ending in first place ensures a bye to the best-of-five division semifinals. Whereas groups chasing a playoff spot have their very own battles, the highest half of the division can also depend on a livid race to the top of the AHL common season to lock down that first-place spot.
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
