After cruising through the first round of the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs, the Eagles will face the Henderson Silver Knights (VGK) in round two. There are five playoff rounds in the AHL, with round two being best-of-five. As the higher seed, the Eagles have the choice of either starting at home or finishing at home. They’ve chosen the latter. That means games one and two will be played in Henderson on May 1 and May 4. All remaining games will be played in Loveland. Game Three will be on May 6. Games four and five will be on May 9 and 10 if needed. The winner of this series will go on to the Pacific Division Championship.
Colorado went 6–2–0–0 against Henderson this season.
Henderson Silver Knights
Not counting the final two games of their regular season (which meant nothing for either team because seeding had already been decided), Henderson went undefeated in April. From the first of March to the end of the season, the Silver Knights leapfrogged their way from sixth place to third place in the Pacific Division. Their overall record for the year was 39–21–7–5. In the first round of the playoffs, they swept the San Jose Barracuda (SJS), winning the first game in overtime, then pummeling them 5–1 in game two.
Leading Henderson in points is Tanner Laczynski, who had 22 goals and 42 assists in the regular season. Raphael Lavoie is their top goal scorer with 30 in only 45 games. Kai Uchacz and Ben Hemmerling are also formidable threats for the Silver Knights. Defensemen Jeremy Davies and Lukas Cormier are ranked fourth and fifth in the AHL among defensemen for points.
Henderson is a big team. Only three players on their entire roster are under six feet tall. By comparison, Colorado has 13 skaters under six feet. (About half of them are solid starters guaranteed to be in the lineup. The other half may or may not play, depending.) Henderson loves using their size to thwart Colorado’s speed. If that fails, they’ll likely resort to straight-up goonery. We may see a lot of this:
An image from the last time the Eagles played the Knights at home. (Photo courtesy of the Colorado Eagles.)
Colorado Eagles
In my preview for the first-round series, I talked about how Colorado started the season strong but looked vulnerable down the stretch. They suddenly couldn’t hang onto leads and often looked out of sync. Luckily, none of that was on display as they swept the San Diego Gulls. The team seemed to click on every level. Gavin Brindley and T.J. Hughes look like they’ve been playing together for months or even years rather than only a handful of games. Whether paired with T.J. Tynan or Taylor Makar, they have a chemistry on the ice that’s easy to see. The farther they go in the playoffs, the better these guys are going to get.
In the two playoff games played so far, Ivan Ivan leads the team in points with one goal and two assists. Makar, Jayson Megna, and Tristen Nielsen each have one goal and one assist. Surprisingly, Alex Barré-Boulet had zero points in those two games, but don’t expect him to be held off the scoresheet for long.
Ivan Ivan against the Henderson Silver Knights. (Photo courtesy of Colorado Eagles.)
Trent Miner has been outstanding so far in the playoffs. He earned his first career playoff shutout in Game One. He allowed only one goal in the entire series for a GAA of 0.5 and a .978 save percentage.
Despite special teams struggles late in the season, the Eagles went two for seven on the power play against the Gulls. They were also perfect on the penalty kill, although two kills per game is a relatively small sample size. Henderson ranks near the bottom of the league on the kill. Their power play, on the other hand, is lethal, finishing in first place in the AHL at 26 percent. The Eagles need to do everything they can to stay out of the penalty box. That means not being goaded into fights or taking penalties for retaliatory hits. The Knights will do everything they can to make this game ugly and dirty. The Eagles will need to play clean and disciplined to get to round three.
Conclusion
This is guaranteed to be a hard-hitting series. A lot may depend on how the refs decide to call the games. If they attempt to keep the games even halfway civil, the Eagles will use their speed and skill to outmaneuver the Knights. However, if the refs let things devolve into a brawl, the Eagles may find themselves outmatched.
