with files from Patrick Williams
Day 2 of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs sees a five-game series opener as the best-of-three opener flies into the air after Hershey kicked things off with a 2-0 win in Bridgeport last night.
Another Atlantic Division first-round tilt begins at Bojangles Coliseum tonight, as the defending Eastern Conference champion Charlotte Checkers take on the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Checkers finished 21 points clear of the T’birds in the regular season.
This is Springfield’s first visit to the Queen City since back-to-back 8-2 losses on Jan. 13 and 14 Jan. Steve Ott took over as head coach on Jan. 19, and the Thunderbirds went 19-13-2-0 all the way to capture the sixth and final Atlantic playoff spot.
The teams have met in the postseason before, a three-game sweep of Springfield in the division finals in 2022.
Toronto hosts Rochester in Game 1 of the North Division first round series at the Coca-Cola Coliseum tonight. The home team has won all six regular-season meetings between the clubs in 2025-26.
The Americans qualified for the postseason on Sunday, scoring a third-period goal Carson Meyer to force overtime at Hershey and get the final point they needed to get in.
“These are the meaningful games that you dream of as a child,” goalkeeper Amerks Devon Levy he said after the contest, which Rochester ended up losing 5-4 in OT. “This was Game Seven of our season.”
Rochester finished the regular season with a five-game skid (0-4-1-0), while the Marlies closed with two wins over division champion Laval.
Each of the past four playoff series between Toronto and Rochester has ended in three games, with the Marlies winning in 2012, 2013 and 2019 and the Americans winning in 2023.
Manitoba and Milwaukee square off at the Canada Life Center in Game 1 of the Central Division first round series tonight. The Moose dropped a 7-0 decision to the Admirals on home ice on April 8, but went 3-0-0-2 the rest of the way to finish seven points ahead of Milwaukee.
The Ads, on the other hand, lost their last three regular season games by a combined score of 16-1.
Manitoba finished 30th in the 32-team league in scoring and ranked last on the power play, but the Moose were ninth in goals allowed and 11th in penalty kill. Milwaukee’s special teams were both top-notch in the regular season, ranking third on the power play and second on the penalty kill. In eight head-to-head meetings, the Admirals have killed Moose on 25 of 26 power plays (96.2 percent).
The Moose are looking for their first series win since 2018. The Admirals have won six series in the last four years, each of them by the distance.
San Diego is at Colorado in Game 1 of their first round Pacific Division series tonight. The Gulls are back for the first time since 2022, when they were swept by Ontario in the first round.
The Gulls tied Tucson for seventh place but clinched the final playoff spot in the Pacific thanks to a more roadrunners victory (27-21). San Diego had 12 different players hit double digits in goals including a 2024 first-round draft pick Stian Solbergwho led all AHL rookie defensemen with 12 goals.
Tristen Nielsen led the Eagles with 28 goals in the regular season; the fifth-year champion had a breakout year offensively after winning the Calder Cup with Abbotsford last season.’
The final Game 1 of the night sees San Jose visit Henderson, where the Silver Knights finished the regular season on a seven-game winning streak at home – including 9-6 and 4-1 victories over the Barracuda on April 10-11.
Henderson had the best record in the AHL after the All-Star break, going 21-4-1-3 to climb from eighth place in the Pacific Division to third. They scored 129 goals in those 29 games (4.45 per game), led by Trevor Connelly (11-28-39 in 29gp), Raphael Lavoie (21-17-38 in 28gp) and Kai Uchacz (14-16-30 at 28gp) all averaged better than a point per game during that stretch.
On the other side of the ice, Carl Lindbom went 18-0-2 with a 2.22 GAA and a .924 save percentage after the All-Star break. He hasn’t lost a game in regulation since Jan. 18.
San Jose finished six points behind Henderson in the strong Pacific Division. Filip Bystedt, the 27th pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, led the Barracuda in scoring with 22-38-60 in 65 regular season games.
Tonight marks the Silver Knights’ first playoff game at Lee’s Family Forum since it opened in 2022.
