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AHL Power Rankings: Grand Rapids, Providence Still Chasing History

· Yahoo Sports

Patrick Williams delivers the FloHockey AHL Power Rankings each week throughout the regular season.


The AHL regular season is down to its final two weeks, and a pair of teams still have a chance to make history.

For 33 years, it has been the Binghamton Rangers who have held one of the AHL’s most prestigious marks.

That 1992-93 Rangers team, which featured the likes of Alexei Kovalev and Sergei Zubov enmeshed in a deep veteran cast, went 57-13-10. On the one hand, the AHL employed an 80-game season back then. However, points were not awarded for overtime losses, and the shootout was years away. Binghamton finished with a league-record .775 point percentage. Don Biggs, a future AHL Hall of Fame member, posted a league-record 138 points (54-84-138) as the Rangers finished with 392 goals (a remarkable 4.9 goals per game).

Two years ago, the Hershey Bears came close but fell short at .771. They went on to win their second consecutive Calder Cup.

Now it’s the Grand Rapids Griffins and Providence Bruins who still have a chance to take a run at that milestone. But they’re going to have to cut it close, very close, if they are to push Binghamton aside.

A 112-point finish would give one or both teams a .778 mark. Each team has five games remaining. Providence has 104 points and will need at least eight of those final 10 available points. Holding 103 points, Grand Rapids needs to take nine of a possible 10 points.

Of course, regular-season success is far from a guarantee of a waltz to the Calder Cup. That 1992-93 Rangers team got put through a seven-game first-round series by a Baltimore Skipjacks team led by head coach Barry Trotz. Bloodied from that first-round fight, the Rangers found themselves in another seven-game punch-out in the second round. Up against the Rochester Americans, a team that had finished 37 points behind them, the Rangers were eliminated.

In fact, it was the Cape Breton Oilers, a rather average 84-point team in the regular season, that ended up taking the Calder Cup. Those Oilers went 14-2 in the postseason, conquered Rochester in the Calder Cup Finals, and had Bill McDougall post a playoff record 52 points (26-26-52) in those 16 games.

Thirty-three years later, the Bruins and Griffins will both attempt to best that Binghamton team’s regular-season and set themselves for what could be long postseason runs.

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1) Providence Bruins (--)
With five games to go, the P-Bruins have a chance to match their franchise season record of 56 wins. Providence’s 1998-99 club set that record in an 80-game regular season before going on to win the Calder Cup.

2) Grand Rapids Griffins (--)
Defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka went back up to the Detroit Red Wings, but the Griffins had Michigan State standout goaltender Trey Augustine on hand for practice Tuesday. He is the latest addition for a team that hammered the Manitoba Moose last weekend in a pair of wins, 13-5.

3) Ontario Reign (--)
Winding down a grinding period on the road, the Reign went to Coachella Valley last Wednesday and turned in a 7-0 win. Then they put up six goals on the Bakersfield Condors. They have a home-and-home series with the Firebirds this weekend against what should be a motivated opponent. Their race for the Pacific Division title with the Colorado Eagles – and the first-round bye that comes with it – remains exceptionally tight.

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2026 Coachella Valley Firebirds vs Ontario Reign


4) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (--)
The Penguins continue to beat up on their Pennsylvania rival, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. They swept and home-and-home series this past weekend to take their winning streak to six games. AHL All-Star goaltender Sergei Murashov has been recalled to the Pittsburgh Penguins, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton does still have a very capable number-one in Joel Blomqvist.

5) Charlotte Checkers (+2)
The Checkers went to Toronto and took care of the Marlies in back-to-back games to close out a 5-1-0-0 road trip and finish with a .708 road performance this season. For at least the next several weeks, it’s all home ice for head coach Geordie Kinnear’s team. They have a pair of weekend two-game series against the Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley to close out their schedule. Five points behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, catching the Penguins at this point does not look very doable without a lot of help. They do stand to get Mike Benning, Tobias Björnfot, and Nolan Foote back from the Florida Panthers at some point before the postseason.

6) Colorado Eagles (+2)
A 4-1 charge on the road has enabled the Eagles to take this first-place battle with Ontario down to the final two weeks of the season. As is the case for the Reign, the Eagles are trying to avoid the perils of a best-of-three first-round series. It’s as simple as that.

7) Syracuse Crunch (-2)
The Crunch had a rough night at home against Providence last Friday as starter Brandon Halverson was pulled in an eventual 4-2 loss. They also have lost Dylan Duke, Conor Geekie, and Jakob Pelletier on recall to the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have three home games this week as they gear up for the postseason and try to edge out the Laval Rocket for the North Division title.

8) Laval Rocket (-2)
Yes, Laurent Dauphin and Alex Belzile have been out. But at this stage of the season, the Rocket can’t be losing at home to a bottom-of-the-league team like the Calgary Wranglers.

9) Henderson Silver Knights (+1)
The Silver Knights may well have put an end to the postseason hopes of the rival Tucson Roadrunners last weekend with a pair of wins. With Braeden Bowman back, their roaring offense looks even more dangerous.

10) Coachella Valley Firebirds (-1)
Having won nine of 10 games before facing Ontario, the Firebirds had a rough night at the rink last week. To their credit, they did respond with back-to-back weekend wins against the eliminated Abbotsford Canucks. They have a chance to atone this weekend when they face the Reign.

11) Bakersfield Condors (-1)
It was a straight-sets losing weekend in Southern California for the Condors, 6-3, 6-3. One of the AHL’s first-half success stories, the Condors are just 14-12-3-1 in second-half play. They are waiting to see whether Calvin Pickard or Matt Tomkins can grab hold of the number-one job as the postseason approaches.

12) Texas Stars (+1)
Coming off a six-game West Coast trip, the Stars came home and started Remi Poirier on back-to-back nights against the Chicago Wolves. That choice paid off with a pair of victories that moved them to just two points of second place in the Central Division. Second among AHL goaltenders in appearances this season, Poirier has been a standout for Texas.

13) San Jose Barracuda (-1)
The losses continue to accumulate for the Barracuda, whose late-season slide has grown to two weeks. They have a rough schedule ahead, too, with a pair of games against both Henderson and Bakersfield along with a home date with Coachella Valley. They could end up falling to sixth in the Pacific Division and losing home-ice advantage in the first round.

14) Cleveland Monsters (+1)
The Monsters took care of the Milwaukee Admirals on the weekend and then at least scratched out a point at home to the Rochester Americans. Third place in the North Division isn’t theirs yet, but they went a long way toward that goal. Their work ended a five-game losing streak and comes ahead of what is a demanding finish to their schedule.

15) Chicago Wolves (-1)
It’s Cayden Primeau’s net as the Wolves went with him three times in four nights. They got the goaltending, but their goal-scoring went quiet with just three goals in a pair of losses at Texas. With just two wins in the past month, they desperately need a jolt of confidence. They are in danger of losing their once-secure hold second place to the Stars.

16) Bridgeport Islanders (+3)
These Islanders are making the end of hockey in Bridgeport a good one for the franchise’s long-time fans. Success has been elusive in Bridgeport for more than two decades, but this is a diligent, competitive team that is already 31 points ahead of last season’s finish.

The Rest
17) San Diego Gulls (+3)
18) Tucson Roadrunners (-2)
19) Milwaukee Admirals (-2)
20) Manitoba Moose (-2)
21) Rochester Americans (+1)
22) Toronto Marlies (-1)
23) Springfield Thunderbirds (--)
24) Hershey Bears (+1)
25) Lehigh Valley Phantoms (-1)
26) Belleville Senators (--)
27) Rockford IceHogs (--)
28) Iowa Wild (--)
29) Utica Comets (--)
30) Calgary Wranglers (+2)
31) Abbotsford Canucks (-1)
32) Hartford Wolf Pack (-1)

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