with files from Patrick Williams
Day 7 of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs is an off day as the remaining 16 teams gear up for a busy week ahead.
Three teams won their best-of-three first-round series after losing Game 1. That had happened only twice previously in the first four years of the current Calder Cup Playoff format.
Manitoba and Coachella Valley both won Games 2 and 3 at home. Springfield, however, completed the comeback on the road – and after being blown out, 8-1, in Game 1.
The Thunderbirds became the first team in Calder Cup Playoff history to lose a Game 1 by such a large margin and come back to win the series. And they came from behind in both Game 2 and Game 3 against a Checkers team that was 37-5-2-0 in the regular season when scoring the game’s first goal.
“At times we might have bent a little bit, but we never broke,” Springfield head coach Steve Ott said after Saturday’s Game 2 victory. “That’s just the sign of a resilient team.”
Manitoba squeezed out its second straight 2-1 victory on Sunday to put away the Milwaukee Admirals. Walker Duehr and Samuel Fagemo provided the offense while Domenic DiVincentiis made 31 saves.
DiVincentiis stopped 50 of the 52 shots he faced in his two starts (1.00, .962).
“He was excellent both games,” head coach Mark Morrison said of his second-year netminder. “They (Milwaukee) are a team that plays a lot of net-front hockey and they’re big in front of him, and I thought he did a real good job of fighting through traffic and killing plays where they didn’t get second and third opportunities off rebounds.”
Morrison also credited his leadership core with navigating the emotions of a tight playoff series.
“[They] have all experienced this before,” Morrison said. “They were a calming influence on the younger guys. It’s an emotional game, and we have enough guys in there now that just calm everybody down and make sure that were focused on what we’re trying to do.”
Like Springfield, Coachella Valley was on the wrong end of a lopsided Game 1 score. But unlike Springfield, the Firebirds had the advantage of returning home as they tried to turn the series back in their favor.
A 6-2 win over Bakersfield last night sent Coachella Valley into the Pacific Division semifinals.
“We got better and better as the series went along,” Firebirds head coach Derek Laxdal said. “Game 1, they took advantage of their building. It wasn’t a 6-1 game, and that’s what we sold to our guys. [Game 2] we found a way to win. It was 4-2, they got back to 4-4, we scored right away to win the game. That little bit of adversity galvanized us.”
Laxdal stayed with Nikke Kokko in Game 3 – despite his .737 save percentage in the first two games – and the move paid off as the second-year pro stopped 31 shots, including all 15 he faced in a first period that the Condors controlled.
“They had a great push in the first period, outshot us 15-5, out-chanced us 11-1… What do you say about Nikke Kokko? He was outstanding.”
“When we won [Game 2], I knew we would win today,” Kokko said after Game 3. “For myself, I’m always best when I need to be the best.”
Back home for Game 3 on Sunday, Toronto forced Rochester to play from behind all game and eventually pulled out a 4-2 win to advance to the North Division semifinals against Laval.
“We set the tone early,” head coach John Gruden said. “We were doing a lot of the right things to give us success. I thought we did an outstanding job doing exactly what we wanted.”
Ryan Tverberg scored 2:12 into the contest, Logan Shaw added a pair of second-period goals, and Dennis Hildeby made 29 saves to keep the Amerks from completing the comeback.
“We’ve got some younger guys that are playing like veterans right now,” Gruden said. “To win at any level, you need some good old players and some good younger players to mix and match. Our guys played with a lot of poise. I thought we were good in the third period and if we weren’t, Dennis was outstanding.”
The Rochester Americans’ series-ending loss in Toronto on Sunday also brought the curtain down on Don Stevens’ 40-year career as the team’s play-by-play broadcaster.
Stevens, who spent 58 years in broadcasting all together, had announced in the fall that this would be his final season behind the mic.
“I thank you all,” Stevens said in signing off Sunday. “I am so blessed, in this life and this career, that I’ve had what I’ve had. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
“And forever in the future: Go, Amerks.”
