Before the conference finals begin on Tuesday night, we wrap up a memorable round with four lower seeds advancing.
Springfield’s historic upset of Providence in the Atlantic Division semifinals is still reverberating to this day as the Thunderbirds prepare for their next challenge.
The Thunderbirds are the first AHL team since the 2001 Hershey Bears to win two playoff series after the regular season with a record of .500 or lower. Next up is the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with 101 points.
“Obviously, we’re facing another great team,” Springfield head coach Steve Ott explain. “It’s not an easy road, especially when you accomplish what we accomplished. We’re playing against great hockey teams.”
Ott hands over to Springfield crease Georgi Romanov After an 8-1 loss to Charlotte, the playoffs began. Romanov responded by stopping 186 of 195 shots he faced in six games (5-1, 1.42, .954), including 37 saves in a series win over the Bruins.
“When you have good goaltending, you give yourself a chance,” Ott said.
When Ott first stood behind the Springfield bench on Jan. 23, his team was last in the Atlantic Division. Under his leadership, they finished the regular season with a 19-13-2-0 record and defeated the defending Eastern Conference champions from Charlotte and the 2025-26 regular season champion from Providence to reach the conference finals.
“This team is…warriors,” Romanov said. “We fight for everyone.”
During the regular season, only eight points separated first and fourth in the North Division, so while it’s not a shock that Cleveland and Toronto reached the conference finals, their paths to get here were both impressive.
Cleveland overcame the crunch by beating Syracuse three games to one and winning two overtime games on the road. Zach Aston-Reese A score at the 7:53 mark of triple overtime on May 3 ended the series and ended the longest game in the history of either team.
“You spend all year developing the habits, the details, the ways you want your team to be successful,” Monsters head coach Trent Vogelhuber explain. “Throughout the two games (at Syracuse) … I felt good overall about where we were. You can bend (but) don’t break. We scored in both games and then we came back and found a way. There’s a lot of really good stuff to build on.”
Toronto went into hostile Bell Plaza on Saturday and defeated Laval 3-2, giving the Marlies their first road win in a winner-take-all contest. After being eliminated in Game 4, Toronto trailed by a goal twice in Game 5 Vinny Lettieri The victory came with 9 minutes and 38 seconds left in the game.
“We showed a lot of resilience,” Lettieri said. “It was a total team effort.”
Seventh year professional player Rhys Johnson Scored his first career playoff goal and became a rookie defender Blake Smith – Scored one goal in 62 regular season games – Scored in playoff debut.
“We stuck with it. We didn’t deviate from the process,” Marris head coach John Gruden explain.
Coachella Valley becomes third team to defeat conference champion this postseason JR Avon A score in double overtime in Game 5 gave the Firebirds a win over Ontario on Saturday night.
For Evan, who had 10 goals in 45 regular-season games, it was his fourth goal of the series and fifth in eight playoff games.
With Ontario, Laval and Providence all eliminated in the conference semifinals, it was the first time since 2014 in the postseason that the three regular-season conference champions failed to win at least one playoff series.
The Firebirds have won four elimination games this postseason, rallying from 1-0 down to defeat Bakersfield in the best-of-three first round before winning their final two games against the Reign.
The win sets up a conference finals showdown between Coachella Valley and Colorado. The Eagles stifled Henderson’s potent offense, allowing just six goals and 103 shots in four wins. Alex Barre-Bright (3-4-7), TJ Tynan (1-5-6) and Tristan Nelson (4-1-5) leads Colorado’s offense in the series while Trent Miner has a .942 save percentage with two shutouts.
