Calder Cup Playoffs: Toronto Marlies vs OKC Barons
11 years ago
Unlike the NHL post-season, the AHL Western Conference hasn’t brought a lot of surprises to the table so far. The teams who made it to the Calder Cup semifinals finished fittingly first and second in the regular season – the Oklahoma City Barons and Toronto Marlies.
They split the regular season series and even the scoring was tied as each team managed to score 3 goals. Interestingly enough, the Marlies and Barons are the only two teams in the AHL playoffs that haven’t lost a game on the road. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know about the series.
Regular Season Series
08/11/2011 Toronto 1-3 Oklahoma City
06/01/2012 Oklahoma City 0 – 2 Toronto
Series Schedule
- Game 1 – Thurs., May 17 – Toronto at Oklahoma City, 8:00
- Game 2 – Fri., May 18 – Toronto at Oklahoma City, 8:00
- Game 3 – Mon., May 21 – Oklahoma City at Toronto, 3:00
- Game 4 – Wed., May 23 – Oklahoma City at Toronto, 7:00
- *Game 5 – Fri., May 25 – Oklahoma City at Toronto, 7:00
- *Game 6 – Mon., May 28 – Toronto at Oklahoma City, 8:00
- *Game 7 – Wed., May 30 – Toronto at Oklahoma City, 8:00
*if necessary
What do you need to know about the Oklahoma City Barons?
– The Barons finished the regular season 1st in the AHL Western Conference with 99 points and 45 wins in 76 games. The Marlies were 3 points behind them.
– In the first round the Barons defeated the Houston Aeros in four games (3-1). After that they downed the San Antonio Rampage in five games (4-1). Their record is an impressive 7-2 so far.
– Oklahoma City won 3 games in overtime this post-season
– Chris VandeVelde scored game-winning goals in games 3 and 4 in the series against the Rampage, thus becoming 8th player in the league’s history to score overtime goals in the same series. He is also the only AHL player to score game-winning goals in overtime in two play-off games in a row.
– Barons’ goalie Yann Danis is currently third in the league in GAA with 2.02
– Mark Arcobello is the Barons’ best scorer with 4 goals and 7 assists. That’s good enough for fifth in the league.
– Right winger Tyler Pitlick is second in the league among rookies in assists with 5 and 4th in scoring with 7 points.
– Oklahoma City scored 7 times in 37 powerplay attempts this post-season and they are 7th in league in this department with 18.9%.
– Barons are 10th in the league in penalty-killing with 78.8%. They killed off 7 shorthanded situations out of 33.
– Former 10th overall pick in 2009, Magnus Paajarvi, who played 121 games in the NHL (17+25=42 points), has just a single goal and five assists in 9 games.
What do you need to know about the Toronto Marlies?
– Toronto has a clear advantage in penalty-killing in this series. In fact, they are currently tops in the league having allowed only one marker in 36 shorthanded situations (97.2%)
– In contrast, the Marlies powerplay is only 12th in the league in the post-season at 11.1%. They have scored 4 goals on 36 attempts.
– Mike Zigomanis is tied for 2nd in the league with 3 powerplay goals
– The Marlies record in the post-season is 7-1. Toronto is the only team in the play-offs with only a single loss.
– Matt Frattin and Jerry D’Amigo are tied for 1st in the league with 2 game-winning goals each.
– Jerry D’Amigo is tied for 1st in the play-offs in goals (6) with Alexandre Picard of the Norfolk Admirals and Colin McDonald of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. However, he has played just 8 games while Picard and McDonald have seen 10 and 12 games respectively.
– Marlies goalie Ben Scrivens is 1st in the league with 94.4 save percentage.
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