The Lehigh Valley Phantoms will allow themselves to savor this one, but only briefly.
The Phantoms fought off elimination against the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears last night, taking a 2-0 win in Game 3 of the teams’ best-of-five Atlantic Division semifinal series at PPL Center. The series resumes Friday with Hershey still up two games to one.
Speaking to reporters about the Bears after the game, Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere said, “They’re never out of it. You’re never comfortable when you coach against them.”
While Hershey had their Calder Cup Playoff berth clinched six weeks before the end of the regular season, Lehigh Valley had to scramble until the final weekend before finally securing their ticket with a sixth-place finish in the Atlantic Division. The Phantoms then eliminated third-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in a two-game sweep.
A series win over the Bears would be the biggest upset in Calder Cup Playoff history in terms of regular-season records. The Phantoms finished 38 points behind Hershey in the standings.
“We have no pressure,” Laperriere emphasized. “Yes, we want to win. Don’t mistake [that]. We do want to win. But there’s no pressure.”
The Cleveland Monsters have built a certain level of comfort playing tight games, and that familiarity has allowed them to take back-to-back overtime decisions in their North Division semifinal against Belleville. Last night’s 3-2 win in double overtime gives the Monsters an opportunity to close out the series in Game 4 on Friday.
Cleveland was 21-4-5-3 in one-goal contests during the regular season.
“Just finding ways,” Monsters head coach Trent Vogelhuber said to reporters after Owen Sillinger’s goal secured last night’s win. “I think that’s what we’ve done all year. We’ve been in tight one-goal games all year and more often than not have found ways to win. They’re comfortable in these situations, and now having a couple of overtime winners just helps grow that confidence.”
The Providence Bruins received a crucial piece of their lineup back this morning as the Boston Bruins returned veteran forward Patrick Brown.
Brown played the first two games of Providence’s division semifinal series with Hartford, totaling a goal and two assists, before being recalled by Boston on Monday and skating in the NHL club’s Game 1 win at Florida.
Brown, who captained Charlotte to the 2019 Calder Cup championship, split this season between Boston and…
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