The Penguins survived the first round and now face a very good St. John's team in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. A quick look at the basic regular season notes and numbers for the opposition:
The St John's IceCaps (AHL) represent the Winnipeg Jets (NHL)
Regular Season: 1st place Atlantic Division, 2nd place Eastern Conference
76 games played, 43-25-5-3, 94 points, Goals For: 240, Goals Against: 216
Leading scorers: RW Machacek(18G-32A), D Postma(13G-31A), D DeSantis(11G-32A), RW King(22G-19A), LW Jaffray(17G-21A)The schedule for the seven game series which begins tomorrow night in Newfoundland. I won't be making the 1,800 mile trip up for the road games but will still have live coverage on Twitter with thanks to the AHL Live. I'll be watching closely. There has been a link for a free video stream for the last few WBS playoff games and if I come across one I will post it on Twitter as well as on the blog.
Note that all times are in Penguins time (EST). St. John's is an hour and a half ahead so plan accordingly as all games on the road this series start at 6 p.m.
Eastern Conference Semifinals – Series “J” (best-of-7)
2-St. John’s IceCaps vs. 4-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Game 1 - Tue., May 1 - W-B/Scranton at St. John’s, 6:00 ET
Game 2 - Wed., May 2 - W-B/Scranton at St. John’s, 6:00 ET
Game 3 - Sat., May 5 - St. John’s at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 ET
Game 4 - Sun., May 6 - St. John’s at W-B/Scranton, 4:05 ET
*Game 5 - Tue., May 8 - St. John’s at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 ET
*Game 6 - Fri., May 11 - W-B/Scranton at St. John’s, 6:00 ET
*Game 7 - Sat., May 12 - W-B/Scranton at St. John’s, 6:00 ET
On paper these two teams are pretty even in basically every statistical category. Looking more closely at each position after the jump with my thoughts and a prediction.