Reign advance, Monarchs fall, Mistele hot, Lewis assists

-With 10 goals and one assist in 18 games, Matt Mistele is having some kind of a Cy Young postseason. The Oshawa Generals acquired Mistele in January and now may be two wins away from the Memorial Cup after the forward whom the Kings selected in the sixth round last year scored twice in a 5-1 home win over Erie and Connor McDavid, who has been held to one point in two games, both Generals wins.

-For the first time in franchise history, the Ontario Reign will move on to the third round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. The #ReignTrain eliminated Utah in a five-game series and will now face the winner of the Allen (TX) – Rapid City (SD) series, which Allen currently leads 3-1. The Americans, affiliated with San Jose and based in the northern Dallas suburb of Allen, are back-to-back CHL champions and like Rapid City joined the ECHL in the Central Division integration prior to 2014-15. They finished the regular season with a Western Conference-best 106 points. Leading the way in postseason scoring for Ontario are Matt Register (6-8-14), Garry Nunn (5-8=13) and Tristan King (4-8=12). Jets prospect Jussi Olkinuora is 7-3 with a 2.05 goals-against average and .918 save percentage. I’ll post the conference finals schedule when it’s announced.

-Manchester fell 2-1 to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Saturday night and now holds a two-to-one series lead in the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. David Van der Gulik had the lone goal, which came while the Monarchs trailed 2-0 in the third period. Nick Shore took six shots, and Manchester out-shot Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 30-20. I spoke briefly with a member of hockey operations operations over email this week, and they liked the way Shore and Colin Miller had performed early in the series. After a day off Sunday, the series resumes in Wilkes-Barre on Monday at 7:05 p.m. local time.

1 MANCHESTER 4 vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 3 (3 OT)
2 MANCHESTER 5 vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 2
3 MANCHESTER 1 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 2
4 May 11 / 7:05 p.m. at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
5* May 12 / 7:05 p.m. at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
6* May 15 / 7 p.m. vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
7* May 16 / 7 p.m. vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
*if necessary

-The United States was out-shot 22-17 but defeated Slovenia 3-1 at the World Championships in Ostrava on Sunday. Matjaz Kopitar rode big guns Anze Kopitar (22:32), Jan Mursak (22:28) and Jan Urbas (21:54), but the Slovenians remained winless in the Czech Republic and, coupled with Denmark’s 4-1 win over Norway Saturday, wil be relegated to Division I Group A. Trevor Lewis assisted on all three American goals and finished a plus-two in 16:59 of ice time. Marian Gaborik and Slovakia will face Russia later Sunday. STANDINGS | STATISTICS