From: farenebt@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Bri Farenell ("Droopy"))
Subject: REPOST: Calder Cup Playoff Review (very long)
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 04:50:27 GMT

1992 AHL PLAYOFF RESULTS

DIVISIONAL SEMIFINALS
Adirondack def. New Haven, 4-1.
Springfield def. Cap District, 4-3.
Rochester def. Hershey, 4-2.
Binghamton def. Utica, 4-0.
Moncton def. Fredericton, 4-3.
St John's def. Cape Breton, 4-1.

        COMMENTS
        Adirondack shut down NH's top line of Paul Willet, Stan Drulia and
MVP John Anderson. Springfield was stretched to the full 7 gms before
brushing aside a pesky CDI team; in that series, Indians' goalie Paul Cohen
scored into an empty-net to clinch Game 7. Cohen became the second goalie in
AHL history to score a goal (Rochester's Darcy Wakaluk was the first).
Rochester took a 3-0 lead before Hershey made it interesting. Binghamton had no
trouble crushing the Devils. St John's won twice in Sydney (where the Oilers
were 26-9-5) to beat Cape Breton in 5. The big story of the first round was the
untimely demise of the regular season league champion Fredericton Canadiens.
Moncton beat the Baby Habs in double-OT of Game 7 on the road. This upset
surprised many people but the Sherbrooke/Fredericton Canadiens have won the
AHL regular season title in 4 of the last 5 seasons but didn't even get to the
Calder Cup Finals.
 

DIVISIONAL FINALS
Adirondack def. Springfield, 4-0.
Rochester def. Binghamton, 4-3.
St John's def. Moncton, 4-0.

        COMMENTS
        The St John's sweep was absolutely expected. The Leafs were a
dominating team on a roll while Moncton had slid by in a grueling series with
Fredericton. St John's won a pair in Moncton raising its playoff road record to
4-0. The Adirondack sweep of Springfield was a total shocker. Many thought the
Wings had a good shot against Springfield considering the sensational play of
Wings' goalie Allan Bester and the Indians' 7-game first round series, but no
one thought the Wings would sweep. They just were too physical for the finesse
Indians. Binghamton took a 3-1 lead on the Americans before Rochester came
back, winning Game 5 in Bingo and Game 6 at home. Rochester totally dominated
Game 7 and won it, 5-2 behind the solid goaltending of Dave Littman.


SEMIFINALS (Rochester vs Adirondack)
        In the first ever qualifying round for the Finals, Rochester and
Adirondack faced off in a short best-of-3 semifinal round. Adirondack won a
tight Game 1 at home. They trailed 3-0 in the second period before taking a 4-3
lead en route to the victory. Rochester won Game 2 setting up the pivotal Game
3 in Rochester. The Wings won the game and a trip to the finals as Allan Bester
came up big yet again while continuing to exorcise the War Memorial demons (the
Wings were winless in Rochester from April 1981-April 1988 but have a winning
record since then).


CALDER CUP FINALS

GAME 1 IN ST JOHN'S:
The Leafs get on the board with a pair of power play tallies (by Andrew McKim
and Kent Manderville) early in the 1st to send the 3910 partisans into a
frenzy.  The key point was the Leafs' failure to get that 3 goal lead. Dennis
Vial turned the tide with a late tally for the Wings. Then, the Wings scored
both second period goals as Quinney and Loach give the Wings a 3-2 lead. In the
3rd, the Leafs were given a power play but Mike Sillinger scored a shorthanded
goal to give the Wings a big two goal lead (Sillinger had a league-leading 8
SHG in the regular season). Bruce Bell fired a shot by Bester to make it 4-3
Wings but Sheldon Kennedy scored with 5:00 to reclaim a 2 goal cushion for the

red and white. Sillinger scored an odd emptynetter to seal the 6-3 win. There
was a faceoff deep in the Wings' zone and Sillinger just slapped at the puck
and hit it in midair (much like Adam Oates' OT goal in the Buffalo-Boston
series) and it went all the way down (about 180 feet) into the unguarded net.
The Leafs were clearly affected by the 19 day layoff before this series (they
swept Moncton and had to wait for the Rochester-Adirondack series to end). Once
that initial surge of momentum wore off (in the 1st), the Wings were clearly
the sharper team.

GAME 2 IN ST JOHN'S
Once again, the Leafs got out to a 2-0 lead as Yanic Perreault and Rob Pearson
got the tallies for St John's. Once again, the Wings score late in the period
on a Sillinger goal. Bobby Dollas ties the game 52 seconds into the 2nd period
but McKim gives the Leafs a 3-2 lead less than a minute later. Dollas re-ties
the game at 4:58 as he fired a point shot past Felix Potvin. Sillinger gave the
Wings a lead about 5 minutes later. Stew Malgunas took a pass from Keith
Primeau and blasted it by Potvin to give the Wings a 5-3 lead. Then, Leafs'
coach Marc Crawford made a pivotal move and pulled Potvin in favor of Damian
Rhodes (it didn't affect this game but it had an impact later in the series).
McKim cut the deficit in half less than 5 mintues into the 3rd.  The Leafs were
swarming around the net but Bester continued to make huge save after huge save.
Following a big penalty kill by the Wings, Lonnie Loach took a pass from Chris
Tancil and beat Rhodes on a 2 on 1 with only 2:30 left in the game.  Crawford
then asked for a measurement of Marc Potvin's stick. The stick turned out to be
legal and the Leafs got a delay of game minor. Loach scored a empty-netter to
sinch the 7-4 win.  That goal gave Loach his 14th of the playoffs, tying a team
record.

GAME 3 IN GLENS FALLS
The Wings returned home with a pair of huge wins in the St John's Memorial
Stadium. Crawford decided to start Damian Rhodes in the nets over Potvin. Once
again, the home team took a 2-0 lead as the Wings got the early advantage. St
John's made it 2-1 before the 1st intermission. The period was delayed for
nearly 30 minutes as the maintenance crew had to replace a piece of plexiglass.
The Wings made it 3-1 in the second (as you might guess, I don't have a box
score for this game).  The Wings took that 2-goal advantage with the knowledge
that they had won 9 in a row at home and had gone nearly two months without
blowing a lead after 2 periods. In the 3rd period, the Wings just stopped
skating, plain and simple.  The played the whole period like they were a man
down. The Leafs were held scoreless for the first ten minutes solely by the
play of Allan Bester who made a number of marvelous saves. Then, the floodgates
opened. The Leafs scored 3 straight goals, including the clincher with just
over a minute left to take an exciting 4-3 win. Really, there was no reason the
Wings should have lost this game. MON. MORNING QUARTERBACKING ALERT: I feel
coach Barry Melrose should have called a time-out following the Leafs' 3rd goal
once he saw the momentum clearly in St John's hands (or gloves if you prefer)
but he chose not to (NOTE: second-guessing is now over...although I did
question it at the time also).

GAME 4 IN GLENS FALLS
	[Murphy is my god. I went to get a ticket the day before this game and
	the person directly in front of me got the last single solitary seat.
	If I had gotten there 30 seconds earlier...] 
      	
The Wings scored the first goal as Ken Quinney took a centering pass and fired
it by Rhodes. St John's Mark Ferner tied it up on the power play late just a
minute later. Rob Pearson gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead 8:49 into the second...also
on a man-up situation.  The Wings dominated the last 10 minutes of the period
and had literally tons of good opportunites but were unable to beat Rhodes.
Several times they tried too often to make that little extra pass instead of
shooting.  Also, they seemed to have trouble with Rhodes' style (standup) which
was different than Potvin's (reflex). The Wings were able to beat Potvin with
good shots from the wing but Rhodes played the angles to perfection. The Wings
were unable to jump on the big rebounds given up by Rhodes. 6 minutes into the
3rd, McKim scored his 9th of the playoffs beating Bester on a rebound. Then,
the Leafs gave a lesson in playoff with a lead (were any Wings' forwards taking
notes?). Instead of playing back on their heels and ceasing their forechecking,
the Leafs forwards kept constant pressure on Wings defensemen forcing them to
pass to wingers and any wingers that got through were stymied by Rhodes. The
Leafs did not play "dump and go for a line change" or "dump and skate
backwards" like the Wings did in Game 3.  Pearson got a goal with just under
5:00 left to seal the 4-1 win. Surprisingly, Bester (23 saves on 27 shots)
played almost as well as Rhodes (37 saves on 38 shots); many of those 27 shots
were very tough chances including several breakaways. After the game, Wings'
coach Barry Melrose blasted the Civic Center crowd for being "fair-weather
fans" and that there were only 700 "real" fans.  Melrose was upset that a dozen
or two fans booed the Wings as they left the ice. Melrose said, "We'll put
forth the effort to win this thing, but it's not for the people in the building
-- it's for us." PERSONAL OPINION TIME AGAIN: Melrose can go to hell as far as
I'm concerned (after all, that's where he, in effect, told the fans to go). He
took the action of 0.2% of the fans and made an insulting generalization about
his own supporters. He criticized the (few) fans for ignoring the Wings past
sucess and dwelling on this one negative incident (a loss). What does he do, he
ignores that positive contributions made in the (recent) past by the Wings'
fans and focuses in on this one negative incident (the booing)...by a small
group of people. He's never come out and said anything positive about the
contributions the fans make. Does he think we make no positive impact on the
team's sucess? Sounds pretty hypocritical to me! [BTW- I would never boo my own
team and I don't respect those who do but to make a hypocritical and broad
generalization...]


GAME 5 IN ST JOHN'S
Home ice advantage? HA! The Wings dominated Game 5. Once again, the home team
fell victim to the first-goal curse when Leafs' defenseman Kent Maderville fed
Mike Eastwood for a goal 3:09 in the 2nd.  At 4:48, Chris Tancill tied the game
as Primeau centered it to Tancill who put it by Damian Rhodes.  Martin LaPointe
got his first professional goal at 10:44 of the second as he knocked in a
Tancill rebound.  Ken Quinney iced the game at 8:04 as he put in a rebound of
Primeau's shot.  Quinney extended his point scoring streak to 9 games (4 goals,
7 assists). Then Mark Ferner speared Gary Shuchuk in the face.  Ferner was
given a minor for cross-checking (which was the original penalty drawing his
ire), five for spearing and was thrown out of the game. Ref Mick McGeough did
not see the play but neither linesmen could miss it as one was holding Shuchuk
and the other was holding Ferner. This was a stupid penalty by the veteran as
his team trailed by two with 9 minutes left and Ferner proceeded to take a 7
minute penalty.  Shortly after Ferner's penalty ended, Rob Cimetta took a
foolish cross-checking penalty resigning the Leafs to finish the game a man
down. Allan Bester set an AHL record with his 13th win in one playoff season by
stopping 25 of 26 shots.  Damian Rhodes did all he could stopping 36 of 39
shots in the game and single-handedly keeping the game close.  The teams are a
combined 14-2 road record during this playoff year.  This series reminds me of
the 1990 Finals between Rochester and Springfield where the road team won the
first 5 games before Springfield clinched at home on Game 6 (I certainly hope
that the home team wins Game 6 in this series too).  Some fights broke out
after the final buzzer of the game. In fact, Wings' trainer Dave Casey was
picking up some gloves in front of the Leafs' bench when he was shoved by
Leafs' forward Kevin Maguire. It's nice to know that Maguire is tough enough to
take out the other team's trainer. Leafs' coach Crawford went over and talked
to Casey (presumably apologizing) after the Casey fell to the ice. 
 
 
GAME 6 IN GLENS FALLS				
At least I got a seat for this game...it was announced that the Leafs will play
half of their 1992-93 home games in the Glens Falls Civic Center (just kidding
but it wouldn't be a bad idea for them). Prior to the game, there was a
ceremony honoring Wings' assistant and former star left winger Glenn Merkosky
who will be taking of the reins of the OHL's Sudbury Wolves next season. There
was a petition being circulated to retire his #15 and had over 600 sigs last
time I knew. The big move of the (pre-)game was Leafs' coach Marc Crawford's
decision to start Felix Potvin over Damian Rhodes. Rhodes was sensational in
his two games in GF and kept Game 5 from being a rout. I was actually happy
when Greg Johnston scored just 1:43 in as he fired a shot from the wing that
dribbled through Bester's pads and across the goal line.  This presented an
interesting question, which would end: the home-ice disadvantage or the
first-goal curse? At 14:49, Bobby Dollas fired a screen shot past Potvin to tie
the game but less than 2 minutes later, Ted Crowley fired a shot by a screened
Bester to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead with only 2 shots. St John's scored less
than 3 mintues into the second when Andrew McKim fired in a rebound of a Drake
Berehowsky shot, At 4:25, Dave Tomlinson broke in alone on Bester and beat him
to the high glove side to give the Leafs a comanding 4-1 lead. The Wings were
frustrated after Potvin stymied them time after time but appeared to get some
life when Martin LaPointe gets the goal on a scramble in front with just 15
seconds left in the second. But the Wings fire 18 shots on Potvin in the 3rd
but none get past.  McKim scored an empty-netter to seal the 5-2 Leafs win. A
major brawl took place following that goal, several Leafs' players left the
bench to join in (no Wings did) but nothing extra was called as a result.
Wings' coach Barry Melrose decided not to press the issue to the league
although referee Lance Roberts should have assesed some serious penalties for
that. Several minutes was needed to clear the ice of debris thrown on. Someone
threw an octopus that landed at the skates of referee Roberts; it was one of
several eight-legged creatures hurled onto the frozen pond that evening. The
Wings owned a whopping 52-20 shot advantage and dominated in every facet of the
game but couldn't crack Potvin's armor as Felix redeemed himself for his shaky
outings in Games 1-2.  Bester's 15 saves on 19 shots did not make look
good...the Wings defense was solid except for on those goals. 3 of the four
goals, Bester had no chance.  One was a screen on a power play, one was a
defacto breakaway and the other was an untouched player right in front of the
goal. This sends the series back to St John's for Game 7.

[I would like to remind everyone that I predicted that St John's would make it
to the Calder Cup Finals and lose in 7 gms...granted, I predicted that they'd
play Binghamton and that home-ice advantage would be the deciding factor
but...]

This sets up only the second Game 7 in the Calder Cup Finals in 30 years (the
other was the 1987 Finals between Springfield and Rochester).

GAME 7 IN ST JOHN'S
'Incredible!' is the only way to describe this game. Mike Sillinger opened up
the scoring with a controversial goal. The crease was filled with two players
who bowled over Potvin well before Sillinger shot the puck into the net but for
some reason ref Paul Devorski (already despised by St John's fans) allowed the
goal. The game was tight but St John's got momentum when Mark Ferner scored
with only 12 seconds left in the 1st. Yanic Perreault got the second period's
only goal as he stole the puck from a Wings' defenseman and beat Bester. The
key point was the Leafs' failure to get that third goal (much like in Games 1
and 2). In fact, Mario (?) Chitaroni scored what appeared to be the 3rd Leafs'
tally but Devorski waved off the goal because he'd apparently blown a quick
whistle; this would turn out to be a key call. The Leafs started out the 3rd
period with a 2-1 lead and a 4 minute power play resulting from a late 2nd pd
high-sticking call.  But Bester made save after wonderful save to prevent the
Leafs from scoring.  Keith Primeau fed a centering pass to Chris Tancill who
fired a shot by Potvin tying the game.  Less than 5 minutes later, Sheldon
Kennedy gave the Wings a 3-2 lead as he fired in a rebound of a Sillinger shot.
The last 10 minutes of the game were tense as Bester and Potvin exchanged key
saves. Then, Sillinger fed Gary Shuchuk on a breakaway and he beat Potvin low
to the glove side giving the Wings a big 4-2 lead with a little over 2 minutes
left in the game. The Wings pressured and kept Potvin in the net much longer
than he wanted until the Wings got called for icing and the resulting faceoff
in the Leafs' zone enabled Potvin to be pulled.  With only 9 seconds left,
though, Micah Aivazoff fired it into the empty-net clinching a 5-2 Wings'
victory and the franchise's 4th Calder Cup in its 13th year of existence.

CALDER CUP FINALS BOX SCORES
GAME 1 (St John's Memorial Stadium -- May 18, 1992)

        ADIRONDACK      1       2       3       =6
        ST JOHN'S       2       0       1       =3

        STJ     1st-5:26        Manderville 5 (Serowick, Pearson)
        STJ     1-15:52         McKim 5 (Johnston, Bell)        PPG
        ADR     1-19:04         Vial 1 (Primeau, Tancill)
        ADR     2-2:53          Quinney 5 (Sillinger, Loach)
        ADR     2-15:59         Loach 10 (UA)
        ADR     3-3:39          Sillinger (Quinney, Dollas)     SHG
        STJ     3-14:34         Eastwood 5 (Bell, Pearson)
        ADR     3-16:14         Dollas 3 (Kennedy)
        ADR     3-18:52         Sillinger 7 (UA)                ENG

                SHOTS ON GOAL   POWER PLAYS     GOALIE/SAVES
        ADR     12-11-12=35     0 for 8         Bester, 28
        STJ     10-10-11=31     1 for 6         Potvin, 29

        ATTENDANCE- 3910


Sorry, Games 2 and 3 boxes are unavailable at the present juncture (in other
words, I lost them)



GAME 4 (Glens Falls Civic Center -- May 23, 1992)

        ST JOHN'S       1       1       2       =4
        ADIRONDACK      1       0       0       =1

        ADR     1st-14:02       Quinney 6 (Tancill, Malgunas)   PPG
        STJ     1-15:24         Ferner 2 (Berehowsky, McKim)    PPG
        STJ     2-8:49          Pearson 4 (Manderville, Ferner) PPG
        STJ     3-6:05          McKim 9 (Hunt)
        STJ     3-15:03         Pearson 5 (Eastwood, Cimetta)

                SHOTS ON GOAL   POWER PLAYS     GOALIE, SAVES
        STJ     14-7-6=27       2 for 6         Rhodes, 37
        ADR     15-16-7=38      1 for 6         Bester, 23

        ATTENDANCE- 5278
        OFFICIALS- Curley, Larry and Moe (aka Devorski, Smith, Galipeau)


GAME 5 (St John's Memorial Stadium -- May 25, 1992)
	
	ADIRONDACK	0	2	1	=3
	ST JOHN'S	0	1	0	=1


	STJ	2nd-3:09	Eastwood 6 (Manderville, Hunt)
	ADR	2-4:48		Tancill 5 (Malgunas, Primeau)
	ADR	2-10:44		LaPointe 1 (Tancill)
	ADR	3-8:04		Quinney 7 (Tancill, Primeau)			
	 
		SHOTS ON GOAL	POWER PLAYS	GOALIE, SAVES
	ADR	16-14-11=41	0 for 6		Bester, 26
	STJ	8-9-9=27	0 for 5		Rhodes, 38

	ATTENDANCE- 3910
	OFFICIALS- McGeough, DeGrace, Morin

						
GAME 6 (Glens Falls Civic Center -- May 27, 1992)

	ST JOHN'S	2	2	1	=5
	ADIRONDACK	1	1	0	=2

	STJ	1st-1:43	Johnston 8 (Gillingham, serowick)
	ADR	1-14:49		Dollas 7 (Primeau, Tancill)	PPG
	STJ	1-16:32		Crowley 3 (UA)			PPG
	STJ	2-2:52		McKim 10 (Berehowsky, Thomlinson)
	STJ 	2-4:26		Thomlinson 4 (Chitaroni)
	ADR	2-19:43		LaPointe 2 (Aivazoff, York)
	STJ	3-19:04		McKim 11 (Berehowsky)		ENG

	
		SHOTS ON GOAL	POWER PLAYS	GOALIE, SAVES
	STJ	2-11-7=20	1 for 3		Potvin, 50
	ADR	15-19-18=52	1 for 6		Bester, 15

	ATTENDANCE- 5804
	OFFICIALS- Roberts, Quigley, ?


GAME 7 (St John's Memorial Stadium -- May 29, 1992)
	
	ADIRONDACK	1	0	4	=5
	ST JOHN'S	1	1	0	=2

	ADR	1st-11:48	Sillinger 9 (Kennedy, Potvin)
	STJ	1-19:48		Eastwood 9 (Ferner, McKim) 	PPG
	STJ	2-7:45		Perreault 7 (Hunt, Serowick)
	ADR	3-5:05		Tancill 7 (UA)
	ADR	3-9:52		Kennedy 5 (Sillinger)		CWG*
	ADR	3-17:52		Shuchuk 4 (Sillinger)
	ADR	3-19:51		Aivazoff 2 (UA)			ENG

		SHOTS ON GOAL 	POWER PLAYS	GOALIE, SAVES
	STJ	17-16-14=47	1 for 5		Potvin, 30	
	ADR	12-13-10=35	0 for 3		Bester, 45
	
	REF- Devorski
	ATT- 3910
	CELEBRATION- still going on
-----
Bri Farenell				CONGRATS TO 1992 CALDER CUP  
Clarkson '95					CHAMPIONS
farenebt@craft.camp.clarkson.edu  	  THE ADIRONDACK RED WINGS
rec.sport.hockey's AHL contact	      ALSO: 1981, 1986 AND 1989 CHAMPS
-----							
"Eleven Israelis were dead. Machine guns were everywhere. Who knew what
would happen next. Going on made sense only if you believed in the idea
of sport as more than a game."	---Dave Kindred, on the 1972 Olympics

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