The Lehigh Valley Phantoms knew they would have to win at least once in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton if they were to take their Atlantic Division First Round series against the Penguins.
“We played a road game with character,” the head coach Ian Laperriere said via phantomshockey.com after the game.
Indeed they did. They opened the scoring. They scored a goal in the first minute of the second half to lead by two goals. They stymied the Penguins for most of the night, holding them to 22 shots. They stay out of punishment problems, too, just providing a pair of opportunities for human benefit.
For a team that struggled against Wilkes-Barre, going 1-5-1-0 in its last seven games, it was about as good a game as Laperriere could have asked for. Still, there's still plenty of room for improvement for Laperriere to sharpen up heading into Game 2 at the PPL Center on Friday. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's lone goal came on a turnover and missed a layup.
Laperriere, who played 1,083 NHL games, can't relate to that concussion.
“I was like that as a player,” he said. “When everything was going well, I said, 'I'm going to try something different.' But we went back to work, that's why we came out victorious. We have a great team here. Leaders lead.”
Being a part of history has its charms, but the sentiment only goes so far in the postseason.
The Belleville Senators' 3-1 victory in Game 1 of their North Division First Round series marked the first Calder Cup Playoff victory in team history. The B-Sens players saw the importance of that moment for a franchise that had only played two playoff games in six seasons before last night. Belleville had a Calder Cup contender in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic ended that season.
In fact, last night's win came nearly 10 years after the Ottawa Senators AHL affiliate last won a playoff game; the Binghamton Senators beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in overtime, 4-3, on April 26, 2014.
“It's special,” the Belleville forward said Josh Currie said bellevillesenators.com. “Anytime you can be a part of the beginning of something for the organization, it's a really special moment. We certainly hear it there.”
Now they're going after that second win on Friday in Toronto. The last few weeks have been emotional in Belleville as the team won eight of its last nine regular season games to earn its trip to the postseason. They also needed a third-period comeback in their second-to-last regular-season contest to seal their North Division playoff berth. That late-season pressure may be serving the team well now.
“It's been like playoff hockey for us for the last eight or nine years,” Currie continued. “We're in that mindset already, and I think that helps. We feel good, and we've been playing this kind of hockey for a while.”
In the end, a bunch of trades all worked out for the Colorado Eagles before they faced Abbotsford in Game 1 of the teams' Pacific Division First Round series last night.
The Eagles lost an outstanding goalkeeper Ivan Prosvetov in memory of the Colorado Avalanche earlier this week. But after support Alexander Georgiev in Game 2 of the Avs' Stanley Cup Playoff series in Winnipeg, he returned in time for the Eagles' first playoff game.
Prosvetov also returned with two colleagues. He returned to the Eagles and was the captain Brad Hunt and forward Chris Wagner. Hunt was a member of the AHL First All-Star Team and finished second in the league among defensemen with 49 points (16 goals, 33 assists) in 70 games. Wagner returned midseason from an extended injury and contributed 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 21 games for the Eagles.
All three of these players played when the Eagles lost 4-2 to the Canucks. The Eagles will try to avoid the ax on Friday.
After participating in the Big Ten tournament, the NCAA championship game and the Frozen Four during his days at the University of Michigan, the best-of-three streak will not be interrupted. Erik Portillo.
He also competed for Sweden in the IIHF World Junior Championship. Win-or-go hockey is nothing new.
So in his first game last season as a champion last night, it was no surprise that Portillo rose to the challenge, making 30 saves to help Ontario to a 5-1 win over Bakersfield in Game 1 of the Pacific Division. First Round. series.
“I had a good background with this playing a lot of college finals, a lot of one game on the line, so I felt prepared,” Portillo told ontarioreign.com after the win. “I think the team also helped me. We felt free to go to this game.”
Portillo, 23, joined the Los Angeles Kings organization in a March 2023 deal with Buffalo, who selected Portillo in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft. Expectations were high for the 6-foot-6, 224-pound Portillo as he began his professional career with the Dominions, and he lived up to it. His .918 save percentage is tied for sixth in the AHL, and he went 24-11-3 with a 2.50 goals-against average in 39 games.
The Kings originally planned for Portillo to team up with the NHL veteran David Rittich in Ontario, but an early season injury to the Kings goaltender Pheonix Copley it made Rittich remember, and Portillo got a lot of work done.
“The more they trust me, and the better I do, the more successful we will be together,” added Portillo. “I'm happy to keep pushing here.”
― with files from Patrick Williams
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