We’ve reached the goal line.
The 192nd and final day of the American Hockey League’s 2023-24 regular season will feature eight games, and the final pieces of the Calder Cup Playoff puzzle are ready to fall into place after more than six months of regular-season hockey.
The race for positioning among the top three teams in the North Division will not be decided until this evening, as the idle Syracuse Crunch cling to a one-point lead over the Cleveland Monsters and the Rochester Americans. The Amerks visit Utica at 3 ET, while the Monsters are in Toronto for a 4 ET start.
In the Central Division, the Grand Rapids Griffins and Rockford IceHogs will meet in the division semifinals, but home-ice advantage in that best-of-five series will depend on the outcome of their regular-season finales. Rockford, one point behind Grand Rapids, visits Chicago at 4 ET, while the Griffins are home for Milwaukee at 5 ET. The division-winning Admirals will face the winner of the Texas-Manitoba first-round series.
Over in the Pacific Division, the Ontario Reign enter their meeting with Colorado this afternoon (5 ET) one point behind second-place Tucson Roadrunners, while Abbotsford’s 3-2 win over Calgary last night moved the Canucks two points ahead of the Eagles for fourth place and home-ice advantage in the 4-vs-5 first-round series. An Ontario win over Colorado puts the Reign second and the Eagles fifth; a Colorado win would lift the Eagles into fourth and drop the Reign to third. The second-place finisher will take on Calgary, while the third-place finisher will draw Bakersfield.
The Atlantic Division is all set after Wilkes-Barre/Scranton locked up third place last night. The Penguins will take on Lehigh Valley in one best-of-three first-round series, while Charlotte will face Hartford in the other. Hershey and Providence await the winners of those match-ups.
The AHL’s scoring races are also coming down to the wire. Texas forward Mavrik Bourque is in the clubhouse with 77 points after last night’s regular-season finale, leaving him with a four-point lead over Chicago’s Rocco Grimaldi entering the Wolves’ final game today. And Ontario’s Samuel Fagemo (43) is one goal behind Springfield’s Adam Gaudette (44) in the race for the Willie Marshall Award as the league’s top goal-scorer; the Thunderbirds’ season is complete, while the Reign are in action today.
Full playoff schedules will be announced no later than at the conclusion of play tonight. The first round of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs will be a best-of-three series, followed by best-of-five division semifinals and division finals, the best-of-seven conference finals and the best-of-seven Calder Cup Finals. Stay tuned to theahl.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and X for the latest updates all day long.
Don’t get left out — Catch all of today’s climactic action on AHLTV, with coverage beginning with the first puck drop at 3 p.m. ET.