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Smooth
Sailing
The Milwaukee Admirals win the franchise's first AHL
championship with a four-game sweep of the Baby Pens in the 2004 Calder Cup.
Dan Hickling
Minor
League News
06.06.04 - Wilkes-Barre,
PA. -- The road to the Calder Cup is supposed to be pockmarked with potholes
and pitfalls. But for the Milwaukee Admirals, it was a super highway.
The Admirals cruised to the American Hockey League championship after completing a 4-0 sweep over the Eastern Conference champion Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
If ever there was a team on a roll, a squadron with a mission, it was the Admirals.
After trudging past Cincinnati and Chicago in the first two rounds, the Admirals picked up speed and captured their first-ever Calder Cup with impressive oustings of Rochester (in five games) and finally the Baby Pens, whom they routed 7-2 in the decisive Game 4.
It was a fitting end to a year that saw the Admirals roll to the best regular season mark in the AHL.
"We're just a deep team," said veteran Wade Flaherty, who backstopped the Admirals to all 16 of its playoff wins, and was named the playoff Most Valuable Player. "We're just a strong all around team."
Strong? That would be an understatement.
The Admirals, stocked with a blend of promising Nashville Predators farmhands and veteran "character" players barely got past Cincy in a tough seven game set, then picked up steam during their six-game win over Chicago, a round that featured a pair of double-overtime wins.
Somewhere in that roiling stew, that Admirals morphed into a juggernaut.
"We had a great regular season," said Flaherty, "and then we had a big scare (against Cincinnati). They took us to seven and we were down three games to two. We had to battle back, and that was a bit of a wake up call for us. Then in the Chicago series, we had to face an unbelievable goaltender (Kari Lehtonen) who was standing on his head every night. We would go into lulls, but then we would pick it up. We're just a well-balanced club."
Too balanced for either Amerks or Wilkes-Barre to handle.
The Pens had no answer for Milwaukee's cadre of scorers, such as Calder Cup leading point producer Darren Haydar (think Martin St. Louis without the French accent), Simon Gamache, and the ageless Tony Hrkac.
And no, there wasn't any getting around the Admirals' a rock-ribbed defense, anchored in goal by the 36-year old Flaherty, and patrolled by tested blue-liners like Curtis Murphy, Brad Tiley, and Ray Schultz.
"We're a great puzzle," said Haydar, the second year pro out of New Hampshire who was the AHL's top rookie in 2003, and top playoff point-getter (11-15-26) this year. "Each night it's a different line that takes over the game."
But if you want to know a secret, the Ads didn't win this Calder Cup in the goal crease or anywhere else on the ice.
This one came straight out of the dressing room.
"We have a lot of speed and skill," said first-year Milwaukee bench boss Claude Noel. "But it's our veteran leadership that has been our guiding light. Guys like (Flaherty), and Tiley, and Hrkac, and Schultz, and Murphy, are guys who have done a really good job in the room. The recognize it's not always what you do on the ice, but in the room. They've done a wonderful job managing this team, and controlling the room."
They say that success begats more success, and almost every Admiral had already been immersed in high-stakes hockey.
These guys already knew plenty about pressure...and success.
Hrkac won a Stanley Cup with Dallas (1999) and an NCAA title with North Dakota (1987). Murphy and Jay Henderson both won Calder Cup with last year's Houston Aeros. Haydar was on the UNH squad that came within an overtime whisker of winning the Frozen Four in 1999. Simon Gamache was a Quebec League MVP, Timofei Shishkenov was this year's AHL Rookie of the Year.
"You've got to give a lot of credit to Nashville for drafting a lot of guys in this room," said Haydar. "And give credit to Milwaukee for bringing in the rest of the pieces. Bringing them in has defined this team."
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