Playoff Scenarios

You’re looking for something more specific than “don’t lose” here?

Sure.

Any Reading Royals point eliminates the Trenton Devils. 

Reading must lose in regulation to both Wheeling and Trenton, and Trenton must first beat Elmira and then, obviously, Reading.

Trenton hosts Elmira at 7 PM on Friday night, Reading has to go to Wheeling for a 7:30 game on Friday.

Trenton then has to go to Reading for a 7 PM game on Saturday night…if Trenton beats the Jackals and the Nailers beat the Royals in regulation, Saturday night’s game amounts to a play-in game.  Again, Trenton MUST win that game in regulation if it gets that far.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

They’re STILL NOT DONE

I got a text that Reading won.  That obviously is not true.  Bad job by me to not double check that.  But yes, they’re 3 points behind Reading with two games left…the final game?  Against Reading.  Hmmm…

Devils, Jackals; Cormier, Turner Fined For Pre-Game Scuffle

Somehow, I have a feeling some of those views on that YouTube video I shot came from the league office…

(PR) PRINCETON, N.J. – The ECHL announced that the Elmira Jackals and Trenton Devils organizations have been fined an undisclosed amount as a result of their players’ actions prior to the start of ECHL Game #689, Elmira at Trenton, on March 28.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, player fines collected by the ECHL are given to the PHPA for its ECHL Player’s Hardship Fund.

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(PR) PRINCETON, N.J. – The ECHL announced that Brennan Turner of the Elmira Jackals and Kevin Cormier of the Trenton Devils have been fined an undisclosed amount for their actions prior to the start of ECHL Game #689 on March 28.

Both Turner and Cormier are fined under Rule 29 Supplementary Discipline.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, player fines collected by the ECHL are given to the PHPA for its ECHL Player’s Hardship Fund.

Caruso Named ECHL Goalie Of The Week

(PR) PRINCETON, N.J. – Dave Caruso of the Trenton Devils is the Reebok Hockey ECHL Goaltender of the Week for March 22-28.

He was also named ECHL Goaltender of the Month for February.

The 27 year old went 3-0-0 with a goals-against average of 1.33 and a save percentage of .954 in three consecutive starts against Elmira. Caruso started the week off by recording 22 saves in a 3-2 overtime win at Elmira on March 26 before registering his first shutout of the season in Trenton’s 5-0 win over the Jackals on March 27. Caruso capped the week off by stopping 34 of 36 shots as the Devils went on to beat Elmira 5-2 on March 28.

This season, Caruso is 20-20-2 with a shutout, a 3.06 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in 45 games for Trenton. He is third in the ECHL with 1,313 saves and fourth with 2,590 minutes played.

Caruso began his ECHL career in 2006-07 and has recorded a 56-47-11 record with a goals-against average of 2.95 and a save percentage of .909 in 118 regular-season games with Trenton and Gwinnett while going 1-2-0 with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage in three Kelly Cup Playoff games for Trenton.

The Queens, N.Y. native has spent time in the American Hockey League where he has a 9-19-0 record with a goals-against average of 3.45 and a save percentage of .887 in 33 regular-season games for Chicago and Lowell.

He played four seasons at The Ohio State University compiling a 52-32-9 record with a goals-against average of 2.07 and a save percentage of .919 in 96 appearances for the Buckeyes. Honored as team MVP his junior and senior seasons, Caruso was selected to the 2004 CCHA All-Tournament Team as a sophomore, leading the Buckeyes to victory in the Mason Cup Championship.

Runners Up: Richard Bachman, Idaho (1-1-0, 1.00 GAA, .962 save pct.) and Matt Dalton, Reading (2-0-1, 1.95 GAA, .949 save pct.).

Also Nominated: Billy Sauer (Alaska), Jeremy Smith (Cincinnati), Adrien Lemay (Florida), Ryan Nie (Kalamazoo), Curtis Darling (Ontario), Shane Connelly (South Carolina), Alec Richards (Toledo), Mikko Koskinen (Utah) and Glenn Fisher (Victoria).

Post-Game Stuff (Updated With Audio)

First off, check out my game story in The Trentonian.  It was a fun one to write about.

Secondly, enjoy this fight between Kevin Cormier and Alex Dzielski.  A lot of people asked me how I got the video of the pre-game shenanigans…same reason I got the video of the fight from the start, I could see it coming from a mile away.  Thing is, I expected it to be between Cormier and Spencer, not Dzielski.

As for the pre-game video, feeling like crap all weekend worked in my favor.  I never stay up top in the press box for warmups, but I decided to take it easy yesterday, and it paid off with a nice, exclusive video for everyone to enjoy.

Moving on to the game itself…you see the way these guys have played recently, and it makes you wonder how they aren’t going to make the playoffs.  Elmira is a good team, they really are…probably not as good as last year’s Jackals team, but still good enough to lead the division.  And Trenton absolutely demolished them this weekend.  Demplished them.

But, barring some sort of ridiculous miracle, they’ll be sitting at home once the playoffs start.  And that’s too bad.  Hard as it may be for some of them to believe, I want “my teams” to make the playoffs.  Nobody wants to either be on or cover a bad team, and I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have covered a bunch of playoff and championship teams.

Five of the seven Somerset Patriots teams I’ve covered have made the playoffs — four have won championships, three of the four Trenton Thunder teams I’ve covered have made the playoffs — two have won championships — and the only Trenton Devils team I covered before this made the playoffs as well. 

So all right, enough about all that stuff…

Here’s some downloadable audio from yesterday…

Kevin Cormier’s post-game thoughts

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Rick Kowalsky’s post-game thoughts

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

PRE-GAME ALTERCATION VIDEO

It all started when Kevin Cormier (surprise!) and Maxime Gratchev were chatting at center ice, face to face. Brennan Turner came over to interrupt, and then it started to get nasty…

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Pre-Game (Updated With Goalies)

Not a whole lot going on here.  I got here too late to see it (of course) but one of the Firefighters jumped into the glass after a goal and broke it, so that’s been the talk of the press box before the Jackals-Devils game.

If you listened to Rick Kowalsky’s audio last night, you know that Dave Caruso will most likely be back in goal for Trenton.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Julien Ellis in for the Jackals.

Update: Caruso vs. Ellis is your goalie matchup this afternoon…

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Post-Game Audio, Notes

Here’s my post-game chat with Rick Kowalsky.  Click here to download and listen.

Considering these notes are brought to you by NyQuil, they’ll be brief…

– That’s the best game I’ve seen Dave Caruso play.  He was especially sharp with the glove hand, and he made all the saves he needed to make.  For as hard as he works and for as well-respected as he is, it was nice to see him get the shutout.

– As you know, Toledo came back and beat Wheeling, which is hardly the ideal situation for Trenton.  They remain three points out of the playoffs with now just three games remaining.  Virtually any loss eliminates them, for all intents and purposes.

– In my opinion, I think Matt Vokes turned the momentum of the game in Trenton’s favor.  Yes, Tony Zancanaro scored the first goal of the game — and a nice one at that — but the way Vokes aggressively forechecked, created the turnover and found a cutting Dave Leaderer for the goal was a play that Kowalsky can cut together and show over and over again as an example of what he wants from this team.

– Kevin Cormier scored.  I mean, come on.  You know they’re not going to lose when he gets on the board.  It was actually a nice goal, too.  He was in the right place at the right time and earned it.

– I really didn’t think Andy Chiodo was that bad, to be honest.  He got peppered with some quality chances…and on this night, anyway, Trenton was clearly the better team.  I was a little surprised when Steve Martinson pulled Chiodo for Julien Ellis…unless he was trying to “save” him for tomorrow.

– Be sure to check out my game story in The Trentonian.  And, of course, feel free to let them know how I’m doing.  I’ll be doing some Trenton Thunder games for them in April — at the very least — so it seems my work has been noticed to some extent. 

Andy Chiodo

Julien Ellis

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Cormier And Lepine Hug It Out

Pre-Game (Updated With Goalies)

I’m live at the Nobody Tells Me Anything Arena here in Trenton.  My guess is you see Dave Caruso out there again for the Trenton Devils after winning last night…no clue for the Jackals.  I’m hoping to see Andy Chiodo for the first time, but who knows. 

Chris Lamoriello is here again, for what it’s worth.

I’ll update this with…you know, actual news when I can.  It’s a Trentonian game for me, so I’ll be busy during the game…

UPDATE: It’s Caruso vs. Chiodo tonight…

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com