Deep Dive: Ten days later, Cleveland embarks on quest for city’s 11th Calder Cup
May 1, 2024IMPEACHING THE SENATORS
Despite a ten-day layoff following the Monsters’ North Division-clinching victory in Toronto last Sunday, the long-awaited day has arrived. For the first time in five years, a playoff game-day looms for Cleveland hockey fans – savor it, but more importantly, ENJOY IT! There’s nothing more entertaining in sports than playoff hockey, full stop.
Cleveland’s opponent in the North Division Semi-Final this year? The Belleville Senators, who enter Wednesday’s first game riding high in the wake of the club’s first AHL playoff series win, a 2-1 outlasting of the offensively potent Toronto Marlies in a best-of-three first-round series. Belleville was led by former Hershey Bears forward Garrett Pilon who posted 3-1-4 in the series and currently ranks tied for the AHL’s playoff lead in points (T1st), goals (T1st), and power-play goals (2, T1st).
Belleville’s net-minder for all three games was Mads Sogaard, the so-called “Great Dane” (compliments to B-Sens broadcaster David Foot on that one), who compiled a 2-1 record in the first round with a 2.64 goals-against average (GAA) and an .881 save percentage (S%). Sogaard’s best playoff performance so far was his first – a 17-save showing (on 18 shots faced) in the Sens’ game-one home win.
He’s been out since April 10th and has yet to play in the postseason for the Sens, but a former Monsters great, Calder Cup Champion, and past teammate of Cleveland Head Coach Trent Vogelhuber, Belleville captain Dillon Heatherington remains a powerful force on the back-end in the AHL and he’ll lead the Sens’ quest for an upset over the Division champion Monsters one way or another.
EMPIRE STATE ENEMIES
While the Monsters are just getting started on their postseason journey, should Cleveland advance past Belleville, they’d face the winner of the other North Division Semi-Final – either Syracuse or Rochester – in the best-of-five North Division Final. That series is currently knotted at one game apiece following a 3-2 home win for the Amerks in Friday’s game one and a 4-3 road overtime victory for the Crunch in Sunday’s game two.
Rochester is led in playoff scoring by the club’s leading scorer in the regular season, Mason Jobst (2 GP, 1-1-2), while defenseman Ethan Prow (2 GP, 0-2-2) and RW Lukas Rousek (2 GP, 0-2-2) are close behind. In net, the Amerks turned to Devon Levi in the first two games with the former Florida Panthers draft pick posting 35 and 30-save performances thus far in the series.
As the best-of-five competition shifts to Syracuse for games three and four this Thursday and Saturday, the Crunch have been staked in net by ECHL call-up Brandon Halverson who split time between Syracuse and ECHL Orlando this season. Through two games, Halverson is 1-1 with a 2.81 GAA and .887 S% while the Crunch offense has been buoyed by midseason acquisition and former Lehigh Valley Phantom Jordy Bellerive’s two goals. Meanwhile, Gabriel Fortier, brother of former Monster Max Fortier, has 1-1-2 to his credit in two games, as does veteran leader Daniel Walcott, who’s playing an outsized role for the Crunch in the playoffs with Syracuse captain Gabriel Dumont out for the season due to injury.
REINFORCEMENTS ON THE HORIZON
As the Monsters take their first step towards another Championship, they remain without the services of key forwards Brendan Gaunce and Carson Meyer, who played major roles for Cleveland this season as the club’s captain and one of the team’s top goal scorers, respectively. Injured during late-season NHL recalls, the official line on their returns remains “week-to-week,” and this time of year, don’t expect much elaboration on their status until they’re cleared and, presumably, Cleveland-bound.
He won’t be in the lineup right away for the Monsters, but Cleveland welcomed OHL standout Luca Pinelli last week as the Ottawa 67’s captain signed an NHL deal with Columbus that begins next season, and an amateur tryout (ATO) contract with the Monsters that allows him to participate in the AHL playoffs. A 5’9” 168 lb. left-handed scorer, Pinelli, the Blue Jackets’ fourth-round pick (114th overall) last year, tore up the OHL this season posting an eye-popping 48-34-82 with 44 penalty minutes in 68 regular-season games for Ottawa and added 5-2-7 in 10 playoff appearances. Posting 181 career points in 194 career OHL games, The Stoney Creek, ON native has also registered 29 career playoff points in 25 postseason appearances for the 67’s.
MONSTERS PLAYOFF MEMORIES…
It’s easy to rattle off the headlining memories from the magical year in Cleveland sports that was 2016, but there are some treasured granular recollections as well – one of which makes me chuckle every time it registers. No one would question the oversized impact that beloved enforcer and all-time Monsters penalty minute leader Brett Gallant has had on Cleveland hockey, but in the 2016 playoffs he appeared in only one game – the lone Calder Cup Playoff appearance of his career – but made the most of it.
Game three of the Calder Cup Finals versus Hershey saw the Monsters prevail in overtime on home ice by a 3-2 final score, setting the table for the Monsters’ storied sweep of the Bears five days later. Oliver Bjorkstrand netted two goals in the penultimate game of that historic playoff campaign, including his fifth (of ultimately six) game-winning goals of the postseason for the eventual AHL Playoff MVP. His first-period goal, however, was assisted by Lukas Sedlak and – Gallant – who heretofore has been correctly noted as a point-per-game player in the playoffs in his career!