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Posts tagged 'Playoffs'

Posts Tagged ‘Playoffs’

AHL Alignment and Playoff Format for 2011-2012 Season

July 5, 2011 - By
AHL Alignment and Playoff Format for 2011-2012 Season

For Amerks fans, there’s no real change except for the Abbotsford Heat being in a different division.  The Rochester Americans are still in the Western Conference and still in the North Division.  As AHL President Dave Andrews said at the Sabres press conference, the Amerks were in the Eastern Conference for about three weeks before the Manitoba Moose were moved to St Johns.  Someday they’ll be back in the East.. someday.  All we can hope for at this point is that the schedule brings more variety.  Speaking of the schedule, it’s usually released shortly after the NBA schedule is finalized as many teams share buildings but with the NBA in a lockout that could create havoc for that process.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

One thing that is different which should make things more competitive is the playoff format.  The first round will be a best of five which can be discussed from both sides. In the AHL most teams have poor attendance in the first round which would be one way to explain the change. It’ll also help save on travel costs with fewer games.  Another change is that the Division winners all earn a spot [...]Read More

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Amerks Comeback from 1960 Making Headlines

May 24, 2011 - By
Amerks Comeback from 1960 Making Headlines

The Hamilton Bulldogs are already in the record books for the American Hockey League by becoming only the third team in the league’s 75 year history to win three games after losing the first three.  The Bulldogs play game 7 on Tuesday night against the Houston Aero’s, winner moves on to play the Binghamton Senators for the Calder Cup.

The other two teams to make such comebacks?  The 1959/1960 Rochester Americans and 1988/1989 Adirondack Red Wings.  Both teams won game seven and advanced to the finals, the Bulldogs are hoping to do the same.

The Red Wings won the Calder Cup during their season, unfortunately the Amerks lost in five games in 1960.

From TheAHL.com:

In 1960, the Rochester Americans were still a fledgling franchise, in their fourth season of play in the AHL. Only four clubs in the seven-team league qualified for the playoffs that spring, so the Amerks’ first-round meeting with the Cleveland Barons amounted to a league semifinal series.

After leading the league in both offense and defense in the 1959-60 regular season, Rochester was considered a heavy favorite to win the series. But the Barons stunned the Americans in the first two games of the [...]Read More

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AHL Playoff Format for 2010-2011 Season

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July 8, 2010 - By

Now that the American Hockey League has a 30 teams in the league and all of the divisions are unbalanced, there’ll now be a crossover rule in both the East and West Conferences.  There will still be 16 teams total making the playoffs.

Updated: I had originally said only the Eastern Conference had the crossover rule.

The Eastern Division will have eight teams and the Atlantic will only have seven this coming season.  What the cross over rule means is that the fifth place team in the East would make the playoffs if it has more points than the fourth place team in the Atlantic.  That means that five teams could make the playoffs in the East and only three in the Atlantic.

The same thing applies for the West and North Divisions. If the fifth place team in the North has more points than the fourth place team in the West Division the fifth place team will make the playoffs.

Now that the league has 30 teams the ideal scenario would be for the top eight teams in each conference to make the playoff no matter what division they are in.  Unfortunately this is the American Hockey League though and what would seem [...]Read More

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Calder Cup Finals are Set, Hershey vs Texas

May 26, 2010 - By

At the start of the season it was easy to predict that the Hershey Bears would be in the Calder Cup finals, predicting the Texas Stars would be there opponent would not have been a prediction.  The Stars defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs in game 7 to advance to the finals.  All eyes are on the Stanley Cup finals at this point, but this should be a decent series for the Calder Cup.

Here’s the NHL.com recap of the Stars win:

The first-year Texas Stars rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-2 on Wednesday night to win Game 7 of the AHL Western Conference Finals and a berth in the Calder Cup Finals.

The Austin-based Stars won Games 6 and 7 in Hamilton to earn the opportunity to face the defending AHL champion Hershey Bears, the top farm team of the Washington Capitals, beginning on June 3 at Hershey.

The Stars become the first team since the Chicago Wolves and Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2002 to reach the Calder Cup Finals in their first AHL season. In doing so, Texas won a pair of Game 7s on the road – just the fifth time in AHL [...]Read More

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Audio from 2010 Amerks Locker Cleanout, Vets, Nolan and Staats

April 30, 2010 - By

The Amerks season is over and a few of the players spoke after their exit meetings and they cleaned out their lockers.  Uploading audio is a new feature and this one took me a little while longer as I’m uploading them to YouTube.  This way the audio is easier for people to share outside of this site.

Jamie Johnson was the most outspoken player because he does not plan to come back here next season.  Some people have criticized him for his words but if others were leaving they probably would have shared the same thoughts.  Everything said are valid points about the way he felt he was treated.  Johnson was the team leader in points with 27 goals and 44 assists.  He was also one of only two players that played in all 80 games.  Sure he had a rough stretch but so did everyone else, in the end he was there every day working hard.

Lewis Staats and Ted Nolan talked about hearing the fans loud and clear and said that it’s something that will be brought up during meetings.  The decisions are all made by the Florida Panthers but in meetings everything is brought up and thoughts [...]Read More

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History Was Made, Amerks Squandered a 3-1 Series Lead

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April 28, 2010 - By

Well, at least we witnessed history at Blue Cross Arena on Tuesday night.  For the first time ever in American Hockey League history a team that had a 3-1 lead in the series go on to lose games 6 and 7 at home and blow the series.  The Amerks were not able to get anything going in game seven and it showed on the ice in the 2-0 loss.  It also could very well have been the first time a team has ever blown a 3-1 series lead and the opposing goalie earned a shutout in game seven.

With 9:55 left on the clock in the third period Tyler Plante approached the bench and started yelling at the team to battle hard and keep working to get it done.  No one responded.

The loudest cheer of the night from the crowd was when the Amerks recorded only their seventh shot in goal in the second period followed by the eighth shortly after that.  Pretty sad when the crowd is cheering for simple shots on the net.  The Amerks only had THREE in the first period.

Amerks head coach Benoit Groulx thought it was a great idea to go for speed [...]Read More

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Getting Through a Game 7 and Two Updates

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April 27, 2010 - By

Every hardcore hockey fan in Rochester right now probably has the game on their mind tonight.  There’s a great article linked below that describes the feelings leading up to a game 7, even if it’s only the first round.

Two updates from Kevin Oklobzija at Hockey O-Zone, Rory Fitzpatrick is playing and Kevin says he was told that Graham Mink is not playing.  No real known reason why.  Is he hurt?  Family issues?  Benoit Groulx playing tricks on the Heat?  We’ll have to wait until warmups or even later to find out.

Check out this great article from Paul Kukla on NHL.com about Getting Through a Game 7, here’s an excerpt:

You may be at work or in school right now, but no way are you really at work or at school. Physically your body is there; mentally, you may be thinking how the first 10 minutes of the game will play out. You may be wondering if your team ever will score a key goal or make that one stop that will decide the game. Whatever it is you are doing, chances are they are not work- or school-related, but I understand. How can you think of anything [...]Read More

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Gameday: Time for a Legendary Game 7 for the Amerks

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April 27, 2010 - By

In the words of Barney Stinson, it’s time to suit up and prepare for a legendary night.

It’s all on the line tonight for the Rochester Americans in game seven against the Abbotsford Heat.  The winner starts preparing for the Hamilton Bulldogs, the loser reserves a tee time.  We know the Amerks can defeat this team and they have to do it again tonight.

The game on Sunday was not something to be proud of but it’s in the past.  It’s time to get excited again.  The Amerks have home ice advantage and get to play the last game of the series in their barn, on their rink.  Tell your family, friends, neighbors and keep the kids out late on a school night and get to the game.  To steal the line from the NHL commercials, history will be made.  Time to send the Heat home packing and start preparing for the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Of course for that to happen the Amerks need a hero.  It could be someone who’s done it before, a Chris Taylor, Jamie Johnson, Jeff Taffe, Graham Mink or Mike York.  Keaton Ellerby could step up and make everyone forget about his past mistakes.  Jordan Henry [...]Read More

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Amerks Feel the Heat and are Forced to a Game 7

April 26, 2010 - By

Before everyone starts writing a eulogy for this Amerks team just remember that it’s not over yet.  When a playoff series is on the line every team wants home ice advantage, something the Amerks earned.  It’s up to them to use it to their advantage.  It’s their building.  This team has done a lot this season, the last they they want is this season to be considered one big choke.

The only other time in Amerks history that they had a 3-1 series lead that eventually went to a game seven they won the series on their way to a Calder Cup in 1983.

That’s what we have to hope at least.  On to the game….

The Abbotsford Heat scored three goals in a span of two minutes and nine seconds that turned out to be too big of a hole for the Amerks to climb out of.  The Heat won the game thanks to speed, passing, bad giveaways and poor defensive coverage by the Amerks.

Evgeny Dadonov gave up the puck after being chased down by Mikael Backlund in the Amerks zone which led to a goal by Jason Jaffray.  It only took 41 seconds for the Heat to [...]Read More

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Gameday: Amerks in Control to End the Series

April 25, 2010 - By

The Rochester Americans have a 3-2 lead in the best of seven series with the Abbotsford Heat and should be in control of ending the series with a home game today at 5:05pm in downtown Rochester.  The Amerks won two out of three on the left coast of North America against the Heat and have home ice advantage for the end of the series.

If the Amerks can play their game like they did in games 2, 3 and 4 they’ll have no problems winning.  They should not be overconfident about wrapping up the series but also confident that they will have no problems.

Goalies Tyler Plante and David Shantz will be the keys to winning.  Plante needs to continue playing a strong game and the Amerks need to find a way to keep David Shantz guessing to score goals.  Graham Mink needs to create movement in front of the net and players like Mike York and Shawn Matthias need to find ways to keep the puck moving.

The D&C had a much better writeup about todays game and the series up until this point, check out the article here.

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Video: Amerks at Heat Game Five Scoring

April 24, 2010 - By

Thanks to the Abbotsford Heat for supplying scoring highlights pretty quickly to the media after games.  Here’s the four goals scored during the game and the Jason Jaffray penalty shot.

1. ABB Rheault, (2) (Spurgeon, Sutter), 7:45
1. ABB Murray, (1) (Lammers, Cunning), 10:27
1. RCH York, (2) (Matthias), 13:04
3. ABB Van der Gulik, (1) , 9:48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRFyzROShHM

Here’s hoping for some better highlights on Sunday!

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Heat Defeat the Amerks to Force Game Six Sunday in Rochester

April 24, 2010 - By

The Abbotsford Heat were down 3-1 in the series heading into Friday nights game and scored two first period goals on their way to a 3-1 win over the Amerks to force a game six on Sunday in Rochester.  Don Stevens said on the broadcast that the team has to be up at 4am to begin their travel back home, based on how tired the teams looked tonight let’s hope they drink some red bulls for the game on Sunday.

The game was more like game one in Rochester than the previous four.  The Heat took an early lead and were able to limit the quality scoring chances for the Amerks.  There was not a lot of scoring and definitely not a lot of hitting.  That can easily be contributed to the third game in five nights after traveling across the country.

It did appear the Jeff Taffe had scored a goal late in the third period that would have made it a 3-2 game but it was called no goal by referee Frederic L’Ecuyer.  Every Amerk player on the ice at the time celebrated and even David Shantz looked for the puck but it was waved off.  Benoit Groulx [...]Read More

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