Listened to the last period-and-a-half plus OT of Penguins-Phantoms tonight, and what a game, from how it sounded. Philly struck quickly, three goals in 77 seconds, to take a 4-1 lead (an assist for Zingoni on the last). Tim Brent put one through the net early in the third period to make it 4-2. Luca Caputi made it 4-3 with 6:35 to go. Kurtis McLean scored with 44.something left. Then Tim Wallace got called for slashing with 37.2 seconds left. They killed it off, then Chris Minard won it 2:07 in. It sounded like the Phantoms had chances upon chances, breakaways and everything, to bury Wilkes-Barre and couldn’t. We’ll see which way things go in Philly.
Rockford was threatening to do the same thing to Chicago, cutting the lead to 4-3, but Bryan Little and Boris Valabik (who’d taken a dumb penalty, apparently, after the 4-3 goal) and Darren Haydar scored to put it away for the Wolves. They take a 2-0 series lead northwest for Sunday’s Game 3.
Valabik, the Wolves’ broadcasters noted, has three playoff goals, and that’s three more than Jason Krog. (Krog has 11 more playoff assists than Valabik, though.)
Left something out: Utah takes a big lead with goals by Kinasewich and Labelle, plus a shutout for Mole. (Mole vs. Thompson. Hmm.) The Grizzlies can actually close it out Sunday.
Up in Canada, Juraj Kolnik had a goal and an assist in Slovakia’s win over Norwalk Norway; Branislav Mezei is indeed playing. Robert Nilsson had a goal (from lots of Wallins) and an assist as Sweden survived Belarus. (“Survived Belarus” may be a poor choice of words. Sorry.) Sean Bergenheim was statistically quiet in a win over Germany. The thrilling Switzerland-France matchup went to Martin Gerber.
Czech Republic-Russia headlines Sunday’s games, although every Mario Chitaroni game is a game to cherish. The United States plays Slovenia at night.