Apart from being tough as nails and apparently a pretty bright, engaging guy, Bobby Robins has some wildly inspirationaly afternoon dreams.
Jamie Tardif’s goal midway through the third was enough to get Providence into the second round, coming back to beat Hershey in five. The Bruins get the Penguins next; the Bears are done.
Adding onto what Jason Chaimovitch provided us last year going into that Sunday afternoon at Hartford, and hopefully counting correctly: There have been 137 best-of-5 series in Calder Cup history. In 23 of those series, a team lost the first two games at home, including Binghamton and Providence this year. The Bruins became just the third to win, joining the 1954 Hershey Bears (semifinal against Pittsburgh) and the 1967 Rochester Americans (quarterfinal vs. Cleveland).
In all, a team has fallen behind 2-0 in 84 of those 137 series. That team has come back to win 10 series. The last to do it were the 2002 St. John’s Maple Leafs against Lowell, a round before they faced Bridgeport. Of course, there were no best-of-5 series between 2004 and 2011.
According to Bob Raissman, the Islanders will air on 98.7 FM Thursday night.
Veteran AHL sniper Brett Sterling is going to HV71.
Nino Niederreiter’s goal-scoring streak at Worlds ended, but he had an assist in a 7-1 win over Slovenia. (Keith Kaval in charge.) Big win for the United States over Finland; Craig Smith’s hat trick included the winner on a power play and an empty-netter. Ducks prospect John Gibson made 31 saves. Germany beat Austria on Rob Zepp’s shutout and two Marcus Kink goals. (Ian Croft in charge.) Sweden beat Norway going away in the third.
A bunch more locals taken in the second phase of the USHL draft: Ryan Segalla, who the NHL draft forms all put in Greenwich, Dubuque; Danny Tirone, Trumbull, Cedar Rapids; Kevin Duane, New Canaan, Des Moines; Mike Lee, Hamden, Tri-City; Chad Krys, Ridgefield, Green Bay; Charles Corcoran, New Canaan, Green Bay; and, though the link doesn’t appear to appear properly, Sam Tucker, Wilton, Youngstown. The 411th pick was pretty cool.
And Mike Cavanaugh takes over at UConn.