The Division Finals

With the first round over, we now look forward to the second round: the Division finals. The East Division will be the first division to be decided as the Buffalo Bandits travel to Rochester Friday night to face the Knighthawks. The West Division will be decided the next night as the San Jose Stealth challenge the Sting in Arizona. The two winners of this weekend’s games with meet on May 12 to battle it out for the Champion’s Cup in a one game showdown.

The East Division Final

The advantage for this match-up lies with the Rochester Knighthawks, who finished the season with a perfect 8-0 record in the Blue Cross Arena and currently have a twelve game winning streak at home, including last weekend’s first round playoff game. Their last loss at home was on March 18, 2006 when they lost to the Buffalo Bandits in overtime. Rochester had the most potent offence this season with 249 goals, including a league high 67 power play goals and a league high 23 short-handed goals. Two of the top five goal scorers and two of the top five in points were Knighthawks, including John Grant Jr. the leader in both categories. As a team, Rochester is 70-25 all time in front of their home crowd with a 14-5 all-time record at home versus the Bandits. Rochester also leads the all time head-to-head match up 23-14.

After losing both games on the last weekend of the season to the Knighthawks, Buffalo is going to be looking for some revenge. With their starting goalie unlikely to start due to an injury suffered in a game on April 13, Buffalo’s chances may lie on backup goaltender Mike Thompson. Thompson has proven he can play in this league as he shut out the Swarm in the second half of last weekend’s first round playoff game to go along with the five wins he earned during the regular season. For Buffalo to win, they will need Tavares to continue to play the role of leader and the defence to hold the Knighthawks to ten goals or less.

This is a key game for both teams, as it will decide not only who will go to the cup final from the East, but also where the final will be played. Buffalo wants nothing more than to avenge their loss in the finals last year at home by winning the cup this year in front of their fans. A win in Rochester will give them that chance. This game has the making of a classic and if Buffalo can play a full game to their potential, they have the ability to beat Rochester. Rochester looks to win only their second championship despite making the playoffs every season since their inception into the league, losing five times in the championship game (the most losses in the championship game).

The West Division Final

In the West, San Jose has a tough road ahead. They already beat the Mammoth in Colorado, their first ever win in the Pepsi Center, and now travel to Arizona on Saturday night where they have only one victory in five visits. Colin Doyle, the best big game player in the league, is hoping to lead the young Stealth to their first Championship game appearance since moving to San Jose from Albany for the 2003 season. San Jose has the number one goalie from the regular season in both goals against average (10.22) and save percentage (79.2%) in Anthony Cosmo. Cosmo stumbled early in their first round playoff game but recovered by the second half where he kept Colorado to three goals. This team proved they can play against the big teams when they beat the best from the West in the first round, the only question remains is if they can continue their winning ways for two more games with the amount of travel they will have to endure?

Arizona stumbled into the playoffs, losing three straight to end the season, but recovered in the first round to beat the Calgary Roughnecks. Arizona beat San Jose in both of the head-to-head match ups this season, is 4-1 all time at home against the Stealth, and have a 7-3 all-time record versus San Jose. Arizona won their only other playoff game at home, beating Colorado in 2005, and has a 4-2 record all-time in the playoffs. Leading the way offensively for the Sting is Dan Dawson, the number two point getter and the number 3 goal scorer in the regular season this year. They have a roster full of guys who can score so they do not rely solely on any one player thus, making it hard for teams to defend against them. Arizona’s goaltender, Rob Blasdell, finished the regular season with the second best goals against average with 10.94 but only the ninth best save percentage at 76.1%. Arizona definitely has what it takes to win but every player needs to show up and play hard for a full sixty minutes if they hope to go on to the Champion’s Cup final.

Both teams finished the season with a 9-7 record but they achieved them differently. Arizona seemed to ease up once they secured a playoff spot while San Jose made it to the post season by winning. Arizona comes in to the game as the favourite, at least on paper, while San Jose is seen as the underdog in these playoffs. Arizona relies on a team game where anyone can score from anywhere while San Jose relies on a few players to score and solid goaltending from Cosmo. As mentioned, San Jose’s offence relies primarily on four players, Doyle, Rosyski, Wiles and Zywicki, if they are kept off the scoreboard then more pressure will be put on Cosmo to shut down Arizona’s multi-pronged attack. This should be a close game featuring the two best goaltenders in the regular season this year. No matter which team wins this game, they will make for a tough opponent for the East Division finalist and will make the cup final interesting.

My picks:

Rochester over Buffalo
San Jose over Arizona