Soundin' Off

Bridgeport Sound Tigers

School partnership, locals to Europe

Saturday, May 25, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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Excellent and long-overdue news in high schools: The SCC and SWC announced a partnership beginning in the winter, teaming up to create a superpower hockey conference. The headliner is Notre Dame-Fairfield joining up with the SCC’s Division I powers like Fairfield Prep and Notre Dame-West Haven and Hamden; that part, hockey-only, was long-rumored (at least, if I recall correctly, since I was covering schools full-time in the late ’90s, around the time eventual Philadelphia Phantoms forward Peter Zingoni left to play junior hockey). But this also puts together a very impressive Division II and a nice grouping of Division III schools.

Elsewhere in high schools, it’s raining during spring conference championship week. And along those lines, water is wet, ice is cold and grass is green.

Darien’s Hugh Jessiman is joining KHL Medvescak Zagreb in Croatia, the newest member of the KHL. Ben Walter (ObFWB: “a center that works all over the web”) is also going eastward, to Sweden.

Grand Rapids struck first in the Western Conference Final; Landon Ferraro scored the winner early in the second. An assist for OKC’s Mark Arcobello, speaking of the SCC. Syracuse and Wilkes-Barre get going Saturday as these two play Game 2.

And RIP, our colleague Wayne Ratzenberger.

Categories: 'Round the League, Alumni watch, RIP, Schools, Southern CT: Taking over hockey one player at a time

Pens all the way back

Thursday, May 23, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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They pulled it off. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, dead in the water, facing the top team in the league, needing four in a row with the last two on the road… They pulled it off.

Brad Thiessen made 34 saves for another shutout. He made 141 on 143 shots in those four wins. Chad Kolarik (other teams remain not so lucky) had another big night. Trevor Smith* scored again. Jonathan puts a lot of it into context; The League did the historical context this morning.

So it’s Pens-Syracuse beginning Saturday, Grand Rapids-OKC beginning Friday.

*-Got a somewhat random laugh out of Elite Prospects today. Kurtis McLean and Mike Iggulden both signed new contracts, McLean to go back to Finland with HIFK, Iggulden going to Vityaz Chekhov of the KHL, on the day Smith played a Game 7. Party like it’s 2009.

Categories: 'Round the League, Alumni watch

Islanders sign Chris Bruton/Griffins advance

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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The Islanders announced they’ve signed right winger Chris Bruton to an NHL deal for next year. Looks like he brings some grit and toughness; he was also captain of the 2008 Memorial Cup champions in Spokane, scoring 10 points in 21 playoff games that year after 63 in the regular season. He’s worked his way up, beginning the 2011-12 season on an ECHL deal, earning a trip to Peoria and then a deal again last year. Appears this will be his first NHL deal at age 26.

….

Nighttime edit: Toronto was on the verge of prolonging things tonight, but Grand Rapids scored three in the third — the first two 28 seconds apart, the last with 4:03 to go — and beat the Marlies 4-3 in Game 6. So last year’s finalists are both out (though Syracuse obviously has some continuity with last year’s champ), and whoever wins the Western Conference will be playing for the Cup for the first time. The Griffins and Oklahoma City will start Friday in Michigan.

The Eastern Conference will play on Saturday and Sunday, one way or t’other. Game 7 should be fun Wednesday.

Categories: 'Round the League, Bruton, Transactions

Pens force Game 7

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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There’ll be a seventh game Wednesday night in Providence, and you can thank or blame Brad Thiessen as appropriate. The Bruins were all over the Pens; Thiessen didn’t let a second one in, which gave Trevor Smith a chance to score the winner 3:26 into overtime. From Jonathan’s postgameblog: Smith scored the overtime game winner in a historic playoff game and I didn’t mention his name until the eighth paragraph of this blog post. That should tell you how unbelievable Thiessen was.*

The Bruins were without Graham Mink, suspended for Game 6 and, it turns out, Game 7 for his match penalty, going after Thiessen late in Game 5.

Oklahoma City waits for the Grand Rapids-Toronto winner, but real life has intruded in horrific fashion. Not much you can say.

Tip of cap to Dave Bike.

And RIP, Ray Manzarek and Ralph Fico.

*-The box initially had Smith as first star and Thiessen as second. Glad to see that was incorrect.

Categories: 'Round the League, Alumni watch, RIP

The 10th one’s the tricky one

Monday, May 20, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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Switzerland was 9-0 at the World Championship through Saturday. But Sweden is the World Champion, coming back from an early deficit to win gold on Sunday.

The U.S. coughed up a 2-0 lead in the bronze-medal game, but Alex Galchenyuk scored on back-to-back shootout attempts, one to keep the thing going and the next to win it, and we’re No. 3. John Gibson (36 saves) was strong again.

The United States’ medal history in this tournament in the past 50 years: bronze medals, 1996, 2004, 2013. That is all. (There are just 12 other top-fives in those 50 years.)

Nino Niederreiter, 5-3-8 in those 10 games, finished tied for 11th in the tournament.

Categories: International, Niederreiter

Niederreiter, Switzerland looking golden

Saturday, May 18, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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The rest of the organization waits at home, but Nino Niederreiter’s playing for gold on Sunday. He scored the first goal on a two-on-one off a neutral-zone turnover, and he assisted on Reto Suri’s breakaway empty-netter (complete with Suri’s awesome leap-into-bench celebration) to put away Switzerland’s 3-0 win over the United States. First chance I’d had to watch, and Niederreiter looked really good: playing a physical game, using his size, getting to the net with and without the puck. He’ll get a chance at national sporting heroism. Switzerland plays tomorrow afternoon against Sweden, which beat Finland 3-0 as Jhonas Enroth made 30 saves.

The U.S. is relegated to playing Finland for bronze, Sunday morning at 10. Both games are rematches from early in the tournament.

(Wrapping up the quarterfinals, Eric Staal has a third-degree MCL strain that the Hurricanes hope will be healed in time for next season.)

Two elimination-game Game 5s in the AHL tonight. Edit below.

Neither Providence nor Grand Rapids closed out their series tonight, so on they go. The Penguins shut out the Bruins on 30 Brad Thiessen stops, not counting whatever blows he may have blocked from Graham Mink as the Bruins vet earned himself a match penalty. Toronto kept things going, too; three points, including the first goal, for Spencer Abbott.

Game 6 in Providence is Monday; it’s Tuesday in Toronto. Both series would play a Game 7 on Wednesday.

Categories: 'Round the League, International, Niederreiter

Friday links: Survive, sweep, send to brink

Saturday, May 18, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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The Penguins fell behind but scored three goals in the second to extend the series to five games against Providence with a 3-1 win. Brad Thiessen made 31 saves. Up in Syracuse, though, the Falcons are done: The Crunch finished the sweep with a 5-2 win. Between last year in Norfolk and this year in Syracuse, the Lightning’s affiliate doesn’t lose playoff games. Or many games, period. (Except this year against Bridgeport for some reason.) Howard Dolgon was much happier with the turnout.

Out west, Grand Rapids is a game away from knocking out Toronto after a 4-1 win in Game 4.

The Big Club re-upped Eric Boulton. Think that’s 33 contracts for next year.

Hershey fired coach Mark French. The Utica rumo(u)rs won’t go away. The World Championship reaches the medal rounds, but Alex Edler doesn’t. (The USA-Switzerland game is on NBC Sports Network at 1 p.m. Edit: Chris Peters notes that OLN/Versus/NBCEtc won’t be showing it live, but on tape delay late Saturday night. It will stream on their website at 1 p.m., though.)

And RIP, Ken Venturi.

Categories: 'Round the League, Coaching Carousel, International, RIP

Semi-set

Friday, May 17, 2013 by:Michael Fornabaio
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We got us an AHL semifinalist: Yann Danis made 33 saves as Oklahoma City beat Texas 5-1 Thursday, finishing the series in five games. Mark Arcobello had three points, including his ninth goal in 10 playoff games. They’ll move on to meet the Grand Rapids-Toronto winner, and that won’t be determined until at least Saturday.

Speaking of semifinals: The United States is on to the World Championship semifinals after Thursday morning’s shellacking of Russia, 8-3. The U.S. led 2-0 and 4-1 (chasing Ilya Bryzgalov) and 5-2; Alexander Perezhogin scored soon after that to make it 5-3, but three goals in 1:56 finished things off with 10 minutes left. John Gibson stopped 31 of 34. (Alex Ovechkin flew over there to play on a broken foot. How’s that for pride.) In Saturday’s semifinal (1 p.m.), they’ll have to stop undefeated Switzerland, who rode Martin Gerber’s 33 saves to its eighth win in a row. Nino Niederreiter without a point and with one shot. On the other side of the bracket, Finland blew a three-goal lead but beat Slovakia 4-3 on Juhamatti Aaltonen’s goal with 11:47 left. It’ll be a matchup of the hosts in the early semifinal, as Sweden beat Canada in a shootout. Eric Staal left the game with a knee injury; Alex Edler got a major and a game misconduct for kneeing.

This is, obviously, a curious tournament, European-focused, played amidst the Stanley Cup playoffs, missing most of the world’s best players despite being a world championship. Still, the United States has managed as many 13th-place finishes as it has medals since 1963, and both of those medals have been bronze. Until 1968, the Olympics counted as the World Championship result; 1960, then, is the United States’ only World Championship gold since 1933, and 1933 is its only other title.

It’s two wins away.

(Russia’s entry in the Power Rankings got me.)

@CTWhale on Twitter has surreptitiously become @WolfPackAHL with its first tweet after the official name rechange. (Also appears the old @HtfdWolfPack account is gone, unless the handle was changed and I just missed it. It still existed, though idle since the fall of 2010, at least as of Tuesday.)

Though I matched precisely no numbers Wednesday night, I rather enjoyed the Powerball FAQ. (See also “Real Letters” and despair but laugh.)

Finales are hard. I thought “The Office”‘s was pretty darned good.

And RIP, Dick Trickle.

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