As noted on the AHL’s twitter feed, it has become a pandemic. Just like in the NHL tonight, where Don Cherry must have had flashbacks even without looking at his own wardrobe, Texas took a too-many-men penalty late in the third period, and Brock Trotter made the Stars pay on a rebound. Hamilton draws first blood in the Western Conference final at 14 seconds of overtime.
(Does the 3-0 deficit tonight in Game 7 push this one beyond the Islanders’ 1975 comeback as the greatest ever? I’m leaning that way but should probably think harder. The Flyers took down another team that squeaked into the playoffs on the last weekend, not the ’85 Oilers. Then again, there was only one point’s difference between those Islanders and those Penguins. Finish it off in the next round against those Flyers, 25 points better… ah, now we’re just playing games. WhoWins.com said after Boston’s 2004 ALCS comeback that it won’t rank them anymore.)
The Bears and Monarchs get back at it Saturday. The two conferences won’t play on the same night until next Saturday (East 6 and West 5, if necessary).
The promised Worlds catch-up includes Frans Nielsen, who somehow dodged the puck: The Danes bombarded Slovakia 6-0, with every goal scored in the first 13:42, and Nielsen didn’t record a point though he was on the ice for three goals. Canada, speaking of bombardment, laid a 12-1 bopping on Norway. That Tavares kid had a hat trick. Finland beat Belarus 2-0. And Sweden beat Latvia 4-2.
Looks as if the locals had a quiet day Thursday, too, in the last day of the qualifying round, especially since Mattias Weinhandl is out.
I don’t think all of that really clinches anything except trouble for both Latvia and Belarus, who’d have to win both of their final games and get help — probably specific help that I’m too tired to sort out.
The U.S. plays Kazakhstan on Saturday afternoon and France on Sunday morning (Eastern time, anyway), then Italy on Tuesday morning. Two out of three probably gets it done, unless one team goes 0-3, in which case they’d better have scored some goals in a few of those games.
Italy-France in the relegation round Saturday, too. History suggests you talk about their sisters, boys.