AHL Morning Skate: 5.12.22 | TheAHL.com

Admittedly for the Manitoba Moose, going down 2-0 in an elimination game provoked some concern.

The Milwaukee Admirals had built a 2-0 series lead on the Moose in the teams’ Central Division Semifinals going into Game 3 last night in Winnipeg. Then the visitors went up two goals on tallies by Cody Glass and Jimmy Huntington. Manitoba had already been frustrated twice by Admirals netminder Devin Cooley in the two contests at Milwaukee, where he stopped 83 of 86 Moose shots.

Moose head coach Mark Morrison managed to settle down his players in the first intermission. A good American Hockey League head coach always knows when to prod and when to encourage.

“Confidence is huge, especially with a group that doesn’t have a lot of playoff experience,” Morrison explained.

From there the Moose rattled off three second-period goals on their way to a 5-2 win that sets up Game 4 on Friday night at Canada Life Centre.

“I think when we came in to regroup in the intermission, the focus was just on relaxing, knowing that there [was] a lot of hockey left,” said Moose forward Jeff Malott, whose second-period goal evened the score at 2-2.

“[Morrison] had a great pulse. He came in and saw the frustration. He saw how tense everybody was with that period. He just said, ‘Guys, relax. We’ve had plenty of games [where] we’ve been down before.’”

Said Morrison after the win, “I hope we’re over that hump now, and we’ll see how the next one goes. But I feel like the confidence has come back.”

If the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are to be believed, then Springfield Thunderbirds goaltender Charlie Lindgren can expect plenty of rubber again tonight. Lindgren shut down the Penguins with 50 saves and dealt them a 4-1 loss in Game 1 of the teams’ Atlantic Division Semifinals series Wednesday.

“Put pucks on him and make him work,” said Penguins head coach J.D. Forrest, who came away happy with the process rather than the result.

Plenty of traffic, too.

“Put a lot more traffic in front of the net,” said Felix Robert, the only Penguin to dent Lindgren in that defeat. “Put some screens to a pretty hot goalie out there. We have to do something to be in front of his eyes.

“Keep shooting, but a little more traffic. I think we played a really good hockey game. It would have been fun to come out on top, but it’s a good thing we play [tonight]. We’ll have a chance to redeem ourselves.”

Despite having played four playoff games in six nights, Forrest felt his team looked fresh against an opponent that had been off since April 29.

“It’s hard to be disappointed with any effort that we put out there,” Forrest said. “As far as energy, we had the energy, we had the legs. It wasn’t for lack of that, that’s for sure.”

The Rockford IceHogs are clear-eyed as they prepare for their Central Division Semifinals series with the powerhouse Chicago Wolves.

“It’s going to be fun, but it’s going to be hard,” rookie standout forward Lukas Reichel told the team website following practice Wednesday.

At 50-16-5-5 (.724), the Wolves claimed the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy for posting the top regular-season record in the AHL.

But the IceHogs, who finished fourth in the Central Division before sweeping their opening-round series with the Texas Stars, feel that they can play with the league’s best. Rockford, after all, took four of the final five regular-season match-ups between the clubs.

After finishing the Texas series, the IceHogs have used their time to rest, recover, and prepare for the potent Wolves offense that finished fourth overall in goals per game (3.43) as well as first overall with just 2.55 goals-against per game during the regular season.

But that was the regular season. This is the Calder Cup Playoffs.

“I think it was a good recovery,” Reichel said. “The boys are excited. We’re ready to go.”

Hershey Bears captain Matt Moulson came to Hershey before the 2019-20 season looking for a Calder Cup following an NHL career that spanned 13 seasons and featured 650 games and 369 points (176 goals, 193 assists).

Nearly three years later, Moulson still does not have a ring, but he does have questions about his future at age 38 after the Bears fell in three games of their opening-round best-of-three series to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The COVID-19 pandemic cut short a promising 2019-20 season for the Bears. They went on to capture the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s top regular-season club last season but there was again no Calder Cup at stake. This season Hershey had a promising 13-9-2-1 start when Moulson was injured Dec. 27 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and underwent back surgery three days later. With Moulson and several other key figures in their line-up injured, the Bears went 21-23-4-3 the rest of the season and landed a challenging playoff match-up with their archrival.

Given his age and the recovery process from back surgery, Moulson was non-committal about his playing future while meeting with Hershey media at Giant Center on Wednesday.

“We’ll see,” Moulson said. “I think after the season [you] take time to think and figure out the next chapter, whether that’s playing again or not playing. This back surgery might have made my decision easier, but we’ll see.”

― Patrick Williams