Regina lost again at home. They have 8 games left - 5 on the road - and are 7 points out of a playoff spot. In related news, Rita McNeil performed after the game.
Vancouver's win also clinched the B.C. division title for them, ensuring them at least the #2 seed in the first round of the West playoffs.
Chilliwack beat Prince Albert and thus clinched a playoff spot in the West, the 6th team to do so. An hour later, Kelowna lost in a shootout in Lethbridge but still clinched a playoff spot with their loser point, so they are the 7th team in the West to book a postseason appearance. They also gained a point on Kamloops in the battle for #6/#7/#8 in the West, as the Blazers lost in Edmonton. But they lost a point to Chilliwack in that #6/#7/#8 battle too of course....
Seattle reeled off their 3rd win in a row by beating Prince George. Too little too late for the T-Birds though, who are still going to be mathematically eliminated by the end of the weekend.
Moose Jaw lost in OT to Saskatoon, but the loser point zips the Warriors ahead of Swift Current into 7th place in the East. Saskatoon's win moves them three points up on Brandon in the battle for the East division, and two points up on Calgary in the battle for first overall in the league.
And Everett went into Spokane and won, moving them four points clear of the Chiefs and within three points of Tri-City in the battle for 1st-2nd-3rd-4th in the U.S. division. That is one tight, excellent division this year.
Oh, and there was a game in Vancouver too....Canada and somebody....
Is it just me, or was the total lack of emotion or interest on the part of the Russians surprising to anyone? Sure, Canada came out going great guns and put the pressure on the Russians from the get-go, but there was just no push-back from the Russians. They just sat there and took their beating, they barely fought back and didn't seem to care. For a team lead by a fiery guy like Ovechkin, I expected more spirit....but then, he disappeared too after a couple minutes of physical play.
Nabokov was terrible in net and I will never understand why the coach didn't pull him after the 4th goal. Canada was up 3-0, the Russians called their timeout and seemed to get a little bit going after the timeout - they scored to make it 3-1 and were showing some signs of life. Then Nabokov gives up that brutal goal to Morrow and that might have been the backbreaker there....but the coach doesn't give him the hook. Go figure.
What a difference 24 hours makes, eh.....this time yesterday everyone in Canada was gnashing their teeth over the situation the team was in, and this morning they look to have the easiest path to the gold medal game of any of the four teams remaining. The Slovaks knocked off the Swedes and beat the Russians in the round-robin so Canada would do well not to take them lightly but still - Slovakia has never won an Olympic hockey medal and hasn't had great success at the World Championships lately either - not since they won it in 2002 anyway. They have to be the huge underdogs to Canada.
USA-Finland in the other semifinal should be a much tougher game for both teams.
4 comments:
Hey is there any way you could update the prospect post with a more current list so we can see who's still where, thats a great quick link I find to be extremely informative.
Prospect posts get done once a year....it is far too much work to do it any more often than that, unfortunately.
ok, look foward to the next one - same time of year as the one you have posted is dated ?
Yes, it will be sometime in the offseason, probably June/July.
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