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 look at 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 group to activity after a variety of dwelling 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 via all of it, the Bears are in first place within the Atlantic Division with a file of 31-14-5-0.
A ten-game highway journey – the longest within the storied franchise’s historical past – begins March 7. However the Bears have been stellar away from dwelling this season with a 16-3-4-0 file (.783).
This season hasn’t all the time made sense in Hershey, however they’re as soon as once more proper among the many AHL’s very prime groups. They nonetheless have a protracted method to go if they’re to change into the primary group to win three consecutive Calder Cup championships because the Springfield Indians did so in 1962, however they’ve not less than given themselves a shot.
➡ How far can goaltender Devon Levi take the Rochester People?
Like Hershey, the Amerks have a protracted and storied historical past. However it is going to be 29 years this spring since Rochester has carried the Calder Cup, and so they haven’t reached the Calder Cup Finals since 2000.
Can this 12 months deliver 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 way in which 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 share (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 gained 11 of 13. The second-year professional is poised to be a key a part of the Sabres’ future, and a future within the Calder Cup Playoffs – maybe even all the way in which – 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 prime 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 gained 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 possibilities 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 remembers have hit the Milwaukee Admirals maybe as considerably as any group within the AHL this season.
However an lively entrance workplace has introduced within the likes of Anders Bjork, Chase De Leo, Grigori Denisenko, Mark Friedman and, most not too long ago, 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 in addition ended a skid this previous weekend in selecting up three of 4 factors.
➡ Can the San Diego Gulls attain the Calder Cup Playoffs?
A month in the past it seemed just like the San Diego Gulls have been on their method to lacking the Calder Cup Playoffs for a 3rd straight season.
However the AHL is a league of streaks, and the Gulls gained their seventh sport in a row on Wednesday night time, bettering to 8-1-1-0 because the 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 move of prospects from the NCAA, CHL and Europe to the AHL.
How will the NHL commerce deadline influence AHL rosters this 12 months? Does a prime prospect depart in a commerce to learn the NHL father or mother group? Does that very same prime prospect land with one other AHL group? A transfer or two can alter the league’s energy stability 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 normal 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 have been pushed to a winner-take-all Sport 3 towards Tucson – a group that had completed 34 factors behind them – within the first spherical. Final 12 months, 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 rely 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 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily 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.
