(Not sure which Game 7 surprised me more Monday. Crazy.)
Yann Danis made 30 saves in a shutout, Mark Arcobello had a goal and Oklahoma City took a 2-1 series lead over Texas in the only game in the league Monday. All four series resume Wednesday. Meanwhile, Dave Eminian reports that, on the day the Canucks informed Peoria that they wouldn’t operate there this year, Peoria got a Southern Pro League team.
At the Worlds, the U.S. clinched its quarterfinal berth Sunday with a win over Germany. A win over Slovakia on Tuesday morning and it’ll be first in the Helsinki group; otherwise, it’ll sweat out Finland’s game against Latvia later. Russia stayed alive in that mix with a win over Slovakia and a come-from-behind — yes, really — win over Austria. (Because of that, the U.S. could finish as low as third with a regulation loss.) France, the team that knocked off Russia, lost to Latvia; both are still alive for the fourth spot in that group.
No points for Nino Niederreiter for the first time Sunday; Switzerland beat Norway anyway. Canada beat the Czechs on Sunday and somehow needed overtime to beat Slovenia on Monday (Steve Stamkos), leaving the top spot in the Stockholm group until the last day of the round robin. Whoever that is — it’s Switzerland with a point against Belarus, or Canada otherwise — will play the winner of Tuesday’s Norway-Czech Republic game. Sweden faces whoever finishes second. Denmark beat Belarus on Monday; that loss would’ve left Belarus in danger of relegation along with Slovenia, but Belarus hosts next year and can’t be relegated, so Austria drops instead.
Niederreiter and Kirill Petrov (who had a couple of assists in that mess Monday) are the last men standing in the organization, then. Mitchell Theoret had two points for Barrie, including the tying goal with 2:53 left, in the seventh game of the OHL final on Monday. The problem: London’s Bo Horvat scored with less than a second left in regulation to send the Knights to the Memorial Cup, joining Halifax and Portland in Saskatoon. Theoret’s (and Brenden Kichton’s) rights are reserved to the Islanders only until June 1.
And RIP, Dr. Joyce Brothers*.
*-“I brought my own mike!” (9F15)