To date, no professional hockey organization has combined for more than seven NHL and AHL playoff series wins in a single spring. The last of three dual Calder Cup-Stanley Cup triumphs occurred one year before the top development circuit first used the full-fledged, four-round, 16-team tournament.
Out of the first 20 of those coinciding four-round playoffs, a pair of AHL and NHL affiliates has reached their respective championship round twice. In both cases, neither run culminated a champagne shower.
On five other occasions, the same organization has been represented in a conference final in a single year. In three cases, one affiliate went on to win its league’s Cup while the other was eliminated in the third round.
In any era, nothing matches the impressiveness of a binary banner year. But in an age where such an achievement is patently more challenging, the following seven NHL-AHL playoff runs are the closest company to the three double crowns ranked ahead of them.
10. 2010 Montreal Canadiens/Hamilton Bulldogs
Rookie sensation P.K. Subban had a hand in both an Eastern and Western Conference final run. After piloting the Bulldogs past Manitoba in a six-game first-round series, then participating in the second-round opener versus Abbotsford, he answered a summons to the parent club amidst an upset bid against Washington.
With Subban’s input, the Habs forced a Game 7 in their opening round, then finished their rally past the Presidents’ Trophy winners. He remained a regular in the lineup for a subsequent seven-game dethroning of the defending champion Penguins, then a five-game loss to Montreal’s fellow Cinderellas from Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, even without his services, Hamilton cooled the Heat, then pushed the Texas Stars to a Game 7 in the third round.
9. 2008 Pittsburgh Penguins/Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Both Penguins teams met a championship shortcoming when they lost to a franchise collecting its fourth title in 11 years. But Pittsburgh prolonged its series with the Red Wings by winning a triple-overtime Game 5 on the road, while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton forced the Chicago Wolves to finish their set in six games after claiming the first three.
Along the way, both flocks of Penguins defeated their Philadelphia rivals, WBS repressing the Phantoms in the second round and Pittsburgh grounding the Flyers in the conference final. For their conference crown, the Baby Pens won back-to-back elimination games to oust the Portland Pirates in seven.
In his final full season as a player, Randey Cunneyworth co-led Rochester with 14 assists in 20 AHL playoff games, then joined the Sabres for the latter half of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
8. 1999 Buffalo Sabres/Rochester Americans
Having finished first in their respective divisions and held home ice for all three conference rounds, the two 2007-08 Penguins teams did not surprise many with their concomitant runs.
Conversely, while the 1998-99 Amerks topped the AHL’s Western Conference, their parent club finished seventh in the NHL’s Eastern sector. The Sabres lacked home ice for every series, but rode the otherworldly Dominik Hasek and the opportunistic Dwayne Roloson to a 12-3 breeze by Ottawa, Boston and Toronto.
As it happened, Rochester and Buffalo would both lose the championship series to the league’s best overall record holder. The Providence Bruins clinched the Calder Cup on a Sunday night before the Dallas Stars eliminated the Sabres the subsequent Saturday night/Sunday morning, bookending a bittersweet week for Western New York hockey.
7. 1997 Colorado Avalanche/Hershey Bears
In defense of their 1996 title and home ice throughout the playoffs, the Avs met their match in a rematch with the Red Wings. Detroit’s six-game triumph avenged a reverse result from the previous Western Conference final.
But in their first year as Colorado’s partner, the Bears ensured a combined six playoff wins for the organization. Most notably, they ousted their own league’s regular-season royals from Philadelphia in the second round. They followed that with another seven-game victory over Springfield before claiming the Cup in five versus Hamilton.
6. 2003 Minnesota Wild/Houston Aeros
Unlike the 1997 Avalanche, the 2003 Wild defied expectations by advancing to the third round. With back-to-back Game 7 road wins over Colorado and Vancouver, Minnesota reached the conference final in its first playoff run in three years of operation.
Though the equally surprising Anaheim Mighty Ducks halted that journey with a sweep, the Aeros kept the extended family on the ice for another four weeks. And just like the 1997 Bears, their run culminated in a Cup-clinching game at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton.
5. 2001 Colorado Avalanche/Hershey Bears
Any honest, fully invested devotee will take a Stanley Cup over a Calder Cup if one must choose. For that reason, the second combination of a championship and a three-round run in the Colorado-Hershey alliance gets higher priority.
While the Avs met their expectations by matching the Presidents’ Trophy with the Cup, the Bears pulled a pair of upsets. Finishing fifth in the Mid-Atlantic Division, they crossed over into the Southern Division for the first two rounds. All they did there was sweep the top-seeded Kentucky Thoroughblades and silence the Norfolk Admirals in five games before running out of gas against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
In 1997, Bob Hartley coached the Hershey Bears to a playoff championship while the parent Colorado Avalanche reached their Western Conference final. Four years later, those roles were reversed. (Photo by Elsa/Allsport via Getty Images)
4. 1973 Montreal Canadiens/Nova Scotia Voyageurs
The Voyageurs finished first in the Eastern Division and second overall in the AHL. They verified their formidability by sweeping the Providence Reds and Boston Braves before meeting the top-dog Cincinnati Swords in the final.
Cincinnati would take the Calder Cup in Game 5 on May 15. But by that point, Nova Scotia’s parent had already had Lord Stanley in its possession for five days. The Habs beat Buffalo (Cincinnati’s parent club at the time) and Philadelphia by a combined 8-3 game count before taking a six-game final from Chicago.
3. 1976 Montreal Canadiens/Nova Scotia Voyageurs
Just as they did three years prior, Montreal and Nova Scotia combined for five series victories. But with a first-round bye, the Voyageurs needed only to win two round to claim their crown, which they did through a sweep of Rochester and a five-game repression of Hershey.
The Habs also needed to ward off rust after finishing first and sitting out the preliminary round in a 12-team bracket. But once they were called to action, they went on a 12-1 romp, sweeping Chicago in the quarterfinals and later the two-time defending champion Flyers in the final.
2. 1977 Montreal Canadiens/Nova Scotia Voyageurs
Although the 1977 AHL playoffs were only a four-team, two-round affair, the Voyageurs were pursuing the first repeat Calder Cup in 11 years, and only the seventh in the league’s 41-season history.
With a pair of six-game wins over Hershey and Rochester, they kept their crown. Two weeks later, Montreal did the same by finishing a sweep of the Bruins, polishing a 12-2 ride through three rounds.
1. 1995 New Jersey Devils/Albany River Rats
In the last year of a strange AHL playoff structure, the regular-season champion River Rats gained a bye to the final by being the highest-seeded of three remaining teams after the second round. The Fredericton Canadiens edged the Cornwall Aces in a best-of-three to determine the other finalist.
As it happened, the weeklong layoff had no adverse effects on Albany, which swept the Baby Habs for the title. Around that time, the Devils were starting the second round of a run in which they would lack home ice for every series.
Despite that, they went 16-4 overall, including a 10-1 record on enemy property, to garner their first Stanley Cup. And they, too, would claim a sweep in the championship round, thus clinching at home with a 5-2 roll over the Red Wings.
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