Two big comebacks tonight, and we have half of the Final set. But the other half could be pretty neat: Wilkes-Barre comes back from a 3-0 deficit — Andrew Ebbett scored his second of the night with 32.something left in the second period — with Connor James’ goal with 11.something left in the second, then two Chris Minard goals in the third, and then James again 20 seconds into overtime — sounded like the Bucs had themselves a decent chance first — and we’re off to Game 7 Saturday night. Portland played a Game 7 in Pennsylvania two years ago with the conference championship on the line. Here’s a second chance.
Jonathan recaps Friday’s excitement in the blog and notes an astounding coincidence in the Pennsylvania evening pick-4. Go. Now. We’ll wait for you.
OK, back? Good. At Rosemont, the Wolves came from 2-0 down midway through the game and won 4-2 with an empty-netter to finish off the Marlies. Three power-play goals for Chicago, which killed off a kneeing major in the third.
The Wolves are 27-for-119 (22.7 percent) in the playoffs while a man up. Wilkes-Barre is third (20.2), and Portland is fifth (18.2). Chicago has the most power plays per game (6.61) of any team in the playoffs, which makes its power play even more devastating. Curiously, the last of the 16 playoff teams? Portland (3.88). The Pirates were just below the middle of the pack in the regular season, while the Wolves led the league then, too.
So the top three leagues in North America will all have big games going on Saturday night at roughly the same time. Forget Hockey Night in Canada: This Saturday is Hockey Night in Everywhere. (“NBA”? Nah, we didn’t go to no fancy business school, just undergrad.)
And then Kitchener and Spokane play for the Memorial Cup on Sunday. Speaking of Hockey Night in Everywhere.
Wonder what The Pensblog will have to say about this.
*-The Equals, not Player.