Through one weekend of the second round — remember the second round? As of Saturday, May 6, Bridgeport hasn’t played a game on that date or later in the past 14 years — three division finals were tied at 1 (though one is no longer), while Syracuse has a 2-0 series lead. Providence nearly pulled that off after winning Saturday night at Hershey, but on Sunday afternoon, Christian Djoos tied it late, and Travis Boyd won it early in overtime as the Bears salvaged a split at home. The Bruins come home to play Thursday-Friday-Sunday. Aaron Ness is back again from injury for the Bears.
Syracuse took that 2-0 lead with a wacky 8-5 win Saturday. The Crunch led 3-0, 6-1 and, after the Marlies closed to 6-4, 8-4. Tuesday-Wednesday in Canada for that series.
Out west, San Jose took Game 2 fairly handily from San Diego. They head down south for the next three. And in the Central, the only series that’s progressed past a second game, Grand Rapids claimed a 2-1 series lead Saturday with a 4-2 win over the Wolves. They play Game 4 on Monday in Grand Rapids, then are off until Saturday back in Rosemont.
Over at the World Championship, a mess for the U.S. on Friday (42 saves for Thomas Greiss), but the Americans came back to win Sunday over Denmark. Big one on Monday against Sweden. Latvia leads the pool, as we all predicted. (Wins over Denmark and Slovakia.) Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the top four in each divi pool make the playoffs.