The Moose still don’t know their opponent but they do know the dates of the first couple of games for when their Calder Cup playoffs get underway.
The AHL is a different animal than the NHL playoffs in a few ways. One they have play-in games so in the Central the 4th and 5th place teams will do battle in a three-game set to get a shot at the top team in the division. They also play a five-game opening series for the “second round” (they consider the play-in series round one).
The higher seed has the option however to start at home or to start on the road. Whichever way they pick it goes games 1 and 2 in location X and games 3, 4 and 5 in location Y. Last year, for example, the Moose were the 2nd seed while the Admirals were the 3rd giving Manitoba the choice. Most teams, as Manitoba did that year, choose to start on the road and have a potential game 5 played in their home barn.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
As I indicated above the Moose do not know their opponent. It will either be Texas (90 points with two games left) or Milwaukee (89 points with one game left) but regardless both those teams have made the decision to start on the road which allowed Manitoba to set their first two playoff games.
The team announced this morning that they will play:
Friday, April 28th at 7 PM CDT
Sunday, April 30th at 2 PM CDT.
Tickets can be bought here.
For now they focus on concluding the regular season. They are in Rockford tonight for their second last game and will end their final regular season road trip tomorrow afternoon in Chicago.
