OK, maybe it’s not the most shocking thing in the world, but still… if you’d come to me at 2-0 Providence, and said the Pirates were going to win four in a row, and how much did I want to bet against that? I’d have probably put a few bucks up. And felt guilty about taking your money. But loser would I be: The Bruins blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 tonight and are done. Gone. Portland chased Tuukka Rask. I guess J.S. Aubin could be the difference against anybody, and I had a feeling he might be against Hartford, but Providence? But Jason King scores a couple of goals, Andrew Ebbett throws in three assists, Aubin stops 30 shots, and they’re off to the conference final…
…to play the Penguins, which is a lot more believable. Chris Minard breaks the tie, Tim Wallace adds the insurance, and they’ll host the Pirates on Wednesday and Thursday.
Out West, the Marlies stayed alive in overtime with a 4-3 win at home on Bates Battaglia’s goal in the longest game ever played by the Syracuse Crunch. And Rockford has pushed the Wolves to the brink with a big win, going away, at Rosemont; that despite Jason Krog’s first goal of the playoffs. The North teams play Saturday at Syracuse, and the West teams meet Sunday at Rockford.
Up at the Worlds, Finland took 64 shots — 36 of them in the first, all stopped by Edgars Masalskis — but had to come back to beat Latvia 2-1. That moves the Finns back ahead of the United States and clinches a semifinal berth. Russia outshot Belarus 55-23 but had to come back from a 2-0 deficit to win in a shootout.
Hubie McDonough stays in Manchester. Olaf Kolzig won’t stay in Washington.
Incredible story about salvaging data from a hard drive that had been aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.