Sorry I missed the end of Rockford-Chicago, which featured a too-many-men penalty, a fight, some roughing, and game misconducts on both benches, including a coach’s-obscenity penalty on Rockford. Back during game play, Jason Krog deferred his departure to Russia for at least two more nights, with three points in a four-goal second period that led to a 4-3 win. Game 7 is Tuesday at Rosemont. Three points for Petri Kontiola in the loss. By the way, if you haven’t spoiled it already, click on the link, scroll down slowly, look at the penalties, and guess who was officiating.
Remember Utah? The Grizzlies and Wranglers begin their series Monday, and they’ll play four in five to start. Brian Compton wrote a Keith Johnson feature for NHL.com. Edit: Here’s the advances, from the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.
Chaos in Halifax, apparently: end-of-game riots, pucks through the net from the wrong side, all kinds of nuttiness. The problem for the locals is that it’s a United States loss to Finland. There were 114 minutes in penalties at the buzzer, though the number would be smaller under North American rules. Sean Bergenheim: DNP. For the Americans, as long as they get a point Monday against Norway, they’ll finish third in their pool. Even with a regulation loss (yikes), they’ll still be in the quarters, albeit in fourth. Canada and Finland go head-to-head with first place on the line; loser takes second. And Latvia, which kept itself alive with a win over Norway (goal for Herbie Vasiljevs), can get in with a regulation win and a Norwegian loss. (An overtime win works if Norway loses in regulation.)
Sweden beat the Czechs 5-3; two goals for Marcus Nilson, including the empty-netter. Weinhandl had a goal, and Robert Nilsson had an assist on the late winner. The Swiss beat the Danes handily to keep themselves alive to win their pool, which they can do with a win over Russia on Monday. If Switzerland loses in regulation, there’s a three-way tie for second, and each team was 1-1 head-to-head, which seems to mean it’d be the Czechs second, the Swedes third and the Swiss fourth, based on head-to-head goal differential. If the Swiss take at least a point from the Russians, then the Swedes would be third and the Czechs would be fourth. I think.
And a moment of mourning, please, for Italy, which has been relegated. (Sniff.) So has Slovenia. I’m not as sad, but I’m sure someone else is. Slovenians, perhaps.
Tom Benjamin makes an interesting point about the Red Wings.
And finally: Aaaaaaaaaaagh!