It snowed in St. John’s. No, really*. Snowed. Like mad, apparently. Didn’t cool off Norfolk, which won its fourth in a row, with the winner from John Kurtz, who had five goals in the regular season and 14 in his AHL career. Playoff hockey, baby. John Gibson made 42 saves, and rookie Nic Kerdiles had two goals, including the empty-netter.
Phase 2** of the USHL draft included a few local forwards: New Canaan’s Craig Puffer (who spent some time at Fairfield Prep) to Waterloo at 104, Darien’s Johnny McDermott to Tri-City at 138, New Canaan’s and the Connecticut Oilers’ Patrick Harper to Omaha at 182, and West Haven’s Eric Esposito to Youngstown at 249.
Not only does Peter Laviolette take over in Nashville, but Lane Lambert remains on staff, and Kevin McCarthy joins him. If Phil Housley spent some time in Greenwich or something, this thing’s about as local as it gets.
And didn’t realize New Milford High School had its own public observatory. Tempted.
*-There were flurries when Bridgeport was in St. John’s in 2002; don’t remember which day it was, but that I walked through it to the rink narrows it to April 29-May 1 (think it was May 1). This was a little worse, apparently.
**-Phase 3: Profit.