Before I get to the big news of the day, in my haste to copy and paste yesterday’s Tomas Kana post, I missed the last line: Thanks to @KatyLovesHockey for the original tweet!
Today’s news is the 75th Anniversary season of the American Hockey League has come to a close as the Binghamton Senators won the Calder Cup last night in Houston. The Senators skated away with a hard-fought 3-2 victory to win the series 4-2.
Nineteen year old goaltender, Robin Lehner claimed the Jack Butterfield trophy as playoff MVP. According to @AHLReport, Lehner is the fourth teenaged goalie to win the Calder Cup. The others were: Carey Price (2007), Patrick Roy (1985) and Gordie Bell (1943).
In Game 6, Senators captain Ryan Keller scored the game winning goal on an assist from Andre Benoit at 9:09 of the third period. This was Benoit’s second Calder Cup win. He, along with teammate Corey Locke were both members of the 2007 Hamilton Bulldogs championship team.
Jean-Michel Daoust and Jon DiSalvatore scored power play goals for the Aeros in the second period to give Houston a 2-1 lead after two periods. This was the first time this postseason that the Aeros were not able to hold a lead heading into the third period.
The AHL reminds their fans that over 80% of the men who have played in the AHL, have also played in the NHL. That puts in perspective the fact that of the Senators championship roster, 15 players skated with Ottawa this season, with a total of 232 NHL games.