Alumdate: ECHL playoffs underway

Fort Wayne Komets

It's mid-June. The weather is beautiful. 74.2% of the province has received one dose of vaccine. All this positive news leads us to one obvious place: the ECHL playoffs.

Only 14 teams opted to take part in this pandemic-impacted 2020-21 ECHL season. Eight teams - four from each conference - qualified for a shortened post-season.

In the Western Conference, the top-seeded Allen Americans have already eliminated Cedric Pare and the Utah Grizzlies.

Pare had an impressive campaign, finishing fifth in ECHL rookie scoring with 40 points (17 goals and 23 assists). The 22-year-old added two goals and an assist in three playoff games. 

Kelly Bent, meanwhile, had a goal and 71 penalty minutes in 15 regular season games with the Americans but was left off the team's playoff roster.

The other Western Conference matchup has Matt Murphy, Oliver Cooper and the Fort Wayne Komets holding a 2-1 series lead over the No. 2 seeded Wichita Thunder. Murphy has been held pointless in the series so far while Cooper has yet to play.

In the Eastern Conference, Chase Stewart is on the South Carolina Stingrays reserve list for the playoffs. The Stingrays are trailing 2-1 in their series against the top-seeded Florida Everblades. The other series has the Greenville Swamp Rabbits facing the Indy Fuel.

Here's a look at how Saint John Sea Dogs alumni performed in the ECHL's regular season.

Player	Team	GP	Goals	Assists	Points
Cedric Pare	UTA	67	17	23	40
Matt Murphy	FW	33	5	8	13
Spencer Smallman	FW	8	6	6	12
Oliver Cooper	FW	17	2	2	4
Chase Stewart	SC	17	0	3	3
Kelly Bent	ALN/KC	19	1	0	1
Nicholas Blachman	FLA	1	0	0	0

And a few of the above players also saw action in the American Hockey League this year, which had a much more abbreviated schedule. Here's how Dogs alumni (and one current player) performed in the AHL this year.

Player	Team	GP	Goals	Assists	Points
Bokondji Imama	ONT	31	9	5	14
Tomas Jurco	HSK	22	4	7	11
Ostap Safin	BAK	22	4	2	6
Joe Veleno	GR	4	1	2	3
Brett Gallant	CLE	17	2	0	2
Spencer Smallman	CHI	6	0	2	2
Olivier Leblanc	BEL	12	0	2	2
Matt Murphy	CHI	2	0	1	1
William Villeneuve	TOR	2	0	0	0

Only the AHL's Pacific Division held any kind of playoff. Safin and the Bakersfield Condors won the playoff, defeating Jurco and the Henderson Silver Knights 2-1 in the best-of-three final.

Vladislav Kotkov appeared in one playoff game with the San Jose Barracuda.