AHL Morning Skate: 5.16.22 | TheAHL.com

“That’s going to hurt for a while,” Manitoba Moose head coach Mark Morrison said after his club’s promising season ended Sunday afternoon.

Up against the Milwaukee Admirals in the teams’ Central Division semifinal series, the Moose had come away winless in Games 1 and 2 despite dominating play. But back on Winnipeg ice, the they had rallied to take Games 3 and 4 and push the Admirals themselves into an elimination game.

But a 2-1 loss in Game 5 closed out a season in which the Moose had earned a second-place finish in the tough Central Division and impressed Morrison with a strong and cohesive team-oriented approach that felt a long playoff run was possible.

“This is a disappointing loss just because everybody did feel like that,” Morrison said. “I think the players, the organization, everybody felt like that. It’s hard to put together a group that was that tight to get along and wanted to win.”

After finishing eighth overall in the AHL during the regular season with a 41-24-5-2 record and outshooting Milwaukee in the series 193-106, the Moose perhaps did not seem like a team that would exit the postseason early. But this week the Moose will be packing their bags at their Bell MTS Iceplex practice facility before scattering across the globe.

“That’s why it’s so hard to deal with right now,” said captain Jimmy Oligny, a former Admiral. “We were just so close, everybody, and that’s why it’s so hard to take right now.

“We were such a tight group. We believed we could go so much further than that.”

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins can relate to Manitoba’s feelings.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s season also ended Sunday afternoon in a hectic 7-6 loss to the Springfield Thunderbirds in Game 3 of the teams’ Atlantic Division semifinal series. The Penguins saw Springfield undo their 4-1 lead with five unanswered goals.

The loss capped an eventful week for the Penguins, who had fended off the archrival Hershey Bears in overtime of Game 3 of their best-of-three opening-round series last Monday. After two road losses in Springfield, Wilkes-Barre found new life Sunday with a four-goal first period against Charlie Lindgren, one of the top goaltenders in the AHL and someone who had frustrated them with 50 saves in Game 1.

Though the Penguins’ playoff time was somewhat short, head coach J.D. Forrest believes that they can take lessons from the experience.

“It’s a razor-sharp wire that you’re dancing on in the playoffs,” Forrest said. “You know, from the first game into this game, everything’s tight, magnified. Where we were in December and how we finished up… I think that says volumes about the growth of our young players, about the leadership of our veterans, just in general the way that the team adapted and evolved and continued to get better.

“I think when you look back on the season that some of the guys went through a rough patch to get [to the postseason]. But hopefully they understand that they came out of this better players, better people, more experienced pros, and that’ll take us further in the next playoff push.”

Rochester Americans hero Arttu Ruotsalainen sent the Blue Cross Arena into a frenzy Sunday night, pounding a right-circle one-timer past Utica Comets goaltender Akira Schmid for a 4-3 overtime win in Game 3 of the teams’ North Division semifinal series.

Ruotsalainen’s league-leading sixth playoff goal ― and second OT winner ― gave the Amerks a 2-1 series lead and put the Comets up against elimination going into Tuesday’s Game 4 showdown in Rochester.

But what was Ruotsalainen’s view of his power-play goal?

“[Peyton] Krebs made an incredible pass,” Ruotsalainen said. “I closed my eyes, made a shot, hoped for the best, and it went in.”

The Chicago Wolves received some opposing support for the remainder of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Rockford IceHogs captain Garrett Mitchell was generous in his praise of the Wolves after Chicago completed a three-game sweep in the teams’ Central Division semifinal series Sunday. The Wolves will face the Milwaukee Admirals in the Central Division Finals.

“They’ve got a pretty good team,” Mitchell said via IceHogs TV after the season-ending loss. “With the season they had, they’ve proved that, and hopefully they make a run.”

Of course, Mitchell’s well wishes for the Wolves will be short-lived. The veteran defenseman signed a contract extension with the IceHogs that will keep him in Rockford through at least next season.

― Patrick Williams