with files from Patrick Williams
Day 4 of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs is in full swing, with two teams opening the semifinal round and five more trying to complete a sweep to get there.
As he succeeds in his praise as the head coach of the Rochester Americans Michael Leone ending the regular season, he had a very different message after his team’s 5-0 loss to Toronto in Game 1 on Wednesday.
Earning this trip to the Calder Cup Playoffs requires the Americans to go into overtime for their 72nd and final game of the regular season.
“A lot of guys, especially the seniors, have to look in the mirror,” Leone said Wednesday night after his team dropped its sixth straight decision.
Last season’s Amerks went all the way to the division finals before falling to Laval. But this is a different lineup, and Leone is looking for the experience Rochester has to strengthen himself even more. He said he saw a lot of “self-inflicted wounds” in a strong Marlies team.
“The young kids can only do so much, but we need more from some of the older players, for sure. More effort, more competition. It’s just one game (but) if we don’t compete, and we don’t have good practices and details, we don’t have a chance to win the series. If we think we’re going to outskill that team, we’re playing the wrong series.”
Leone admitted that his team may be emotionally drained after last Sunday’s heavy defeat. But managing those emotions is as much a part of the development process as any other part of the game. And true or not, there is little time to rest at night.
“These are the playoffs. You have to be very competitive and ready to go.”
The Marlies, on the other hand, were on a roll from Game 1. They scored three goals in the first half, and Vinnie Lettieri led the way with three goals and an assist.
Lettieri has been one of the AHL’s most consistent point producers for years. While he has never been in the NHL (he has 155 games at that level), he has been at or near a point-per-game average in an AHL career that began full-time with the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2017. This season, his first in Toronto, he managed to score a solid 42 points (14 goals, 28 assists) in 55 games.
Toronto’s top line, with Lettieri on the right side skating with the captain Logan Shaw again Bo Groulxit can cause damage. The trio led the way with four goals for the Marlies, including two power play goals.
“They set me up for success all year,” Lettieri emphasized. “I can’t say enough about them, how great they are, and how they come to work every day.”
Game 2 tonight in Rochester.
Bojangles Coliseum has been the home of horrors for the Springfield Thunderbirds lately. They will need to turn it around tonight to extend their 2025-26 season.
In mid-January, Springfield traveled to Charlotte and lost 8-2 on back-to-back days. That effectively led to a change in coaching, with Steve Ott instead Steve Konowalchuk on Jan. 19.
Under Ott, the Thunderbirds rode a second-half surge in the playoffs, going 16-8-2-0 after the All-Star break and setting up a first-round series…in Charlotte.
The Checkers rolled in Game 1. In 20 minutes, the score was 4-0 and the shots on goal were 15-2 in favor of Charlotte. It was 7-0 before the end of the second half. At the end of the night, the Thunderbirds were on the wrong end of the finals 8-1.
That’s Charlotte 24, Springfield 5 in their last three visits.
But the Checkers know that this streak is far from over.
“It definitely gives the other guys confidence,” said the striker Noah Gregorwho scored twice in the first period of Game 1. “(But) it’s unlikely that we’ll have many games like this. Everybody’s good in this league, and I’d be shocked if Springfield doesn’t come out and have a better effort on Friday.”
Jack Studnicka He led the charge with two goals and two assists on Wednesday. Cooper Black made 18 saves in his playoff debut.
“Obviously we have to take care of business because there is a team that doesn’t want their season to end,” said Black. “We have to maintain the same level in the next game and make sure we play our game.”
Outscored 16-1 in their last three regular season games, the Milwaukee Admirals quickly turned things around with a 4-1 win on Wednesday night, putting themselves in a position to eliminate Manitoba with another win in Winnipeg tonight.
“The regular season didn’t end the way we wanted,” the Admirals goalkeeper said Matt Murray said.
The Admirals have been a perennial contender under the head coach Karl Taylorincluding trips to the conference finals in 2023 and 2024. But this was no ordinary Milwaukee season. They finished fifth in the Central Division, and at 32-33-4-3 were under .500 for the first time since their AHL debut in 2001-02.
But the important thing is that the Admirals got into the Calder Cup Playoffs. Now they can make the regular season a path to another playoff game. Milwaukee has won at least one series in each postseason since 2022; they are the only team in the AHL that can claim that.
On Wednesday, the Admirals struck quickly, opening up a 2-0 lead at the 12:09 mark of the first half. Brady Martinthe fifth pick in last year’s NHL Draft, scored his first professional goal. And Murray stopped 42 of 43 shots on the night, a performance that earned him an AHL Second Team All-Star in 2024-25.
He called Game 1 “a statement game for us.”
“We know it, and we’re here to fight.”
Ryan Craig you know what the playoff atmosphere is like, what it looks like and what it sounds like.
Craig captained the Lake Erie Monsters to the 2016 Calder Cup Championship, when they packed 19,665 fans into their home stadium for Game 4 of the Calder Cup Finals, a Cup-clinching 1-0 overtime victory. He was also on the bench as an assistant coach when the parent Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023.
Henderson’s head coach came away impressed Wednesday with the Silver Knights faithful, who cheered his team on to a Game 1 victory in the first-ever playoff game at the Lee Family Forum.
“I thought the atmosphere was great,” Craig said after the 5-4 overtime win. “We’d like to try to build on it. I think it’s part of what makes this a great place to play, which can make it a difficult place for other teams to play.”
Henderson showed solidity throughout the season, and they dominated the floor with a league-best 21-4-1-3 record after the All-Star break. On Wednesday, they overcame a 3-1 deficit, then came back from a 4-3 deficit in the third period to win the rookie. Trevor Connelly‘s goal 38 seconds into OT. Connelly added two assists on a three-point night, too Raphael Lavoie two goals for the Silver Knights. Carl Lindbom he has allowed four goals on 22 shots, but has improved to 19-0-2 in his last 21 decisions.
Oliver Wahlstrom recorded three assists in the loss for the Barracuda.
Colorado defeated San Diego, 3-0, on Wednesday night, putting the Eagles in a position to advance with a win at the Blue Arena tonight.
TJ Tynan, Tristen Nielsen again Taylor Makar gave Colorado the goals in Game 1. Tynan’s goal was his first power play tally all season. Nielsen, who recorded nine points in 24 games during Abbotsford’s Calder Cup postseason run, got help again Wednesday.
Trent Miner made 18 saves in his first Calder Cup Playoff shutout. Miner is 6-4 with a 1.94 GAA and a .929 save percentage in 10 appearances in Colorado’s last two postseasons.
“Colorado played a tough game,” Gulls coach Matt McIlvane said. “There were times in the game when we got to the way we wanted to play. But there is an opportunity for us to play better, definitely without the puck, and that is what we will be looking for.”
Damian Clara stopped 24 of 26 shots on net in San Diego. It was the first finals appearance for 21-year-old Clara, Anaheim’s second-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and an Olympian with Italy at the 2026 games in Milan Cortina.
“He was great,” McIlvane said of his netminder. “He certainly gave us a chance to win.”
While the first round is coming to a close, the divisional semifinals continue tonight as Syracuse visits Cleveland for Game 1 of their best-of-five series. The Monsters will host the first two games before the remainder of the series is played in Syracuse.
The Crunch and Monsters split their four meetings in the regular season, with each team winning twice at home.
Cleveland lost five games in a row to end March – including a back-to-back loss to the Crunch in March. 21-22 – but went 4-1-0-2 to close out the regular season and secure third place in the North Division.
Syracuse ahead Jakob Pelletier won the league title in 2025-26 with 77 points, too Dylan Duke tied for third place with 32 goals on the year. The monsters were offensively led Luca Del Belluz with 58 points in 55 games.
