Face-Off: news and Notes for May 5th

NHL Playoffs:
Conference Finals are set.
Yesterday's results:
Eastern Conference
Rangers 2 - Penguins 3 OT
Marian Hossa's OT goal puts second seeded Pens past Rangers in 5 games.
Pittsburgh will face Philadelphia (sixth seed) in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Western Conference
Sharks 1 - Stars 2 4OT
Brendan Morrow's goal nine minutes into the fourth overtime lifted fifth seeded Dallas Stars past the second seeded San Jose Sharks in five games. It was the eighth longest game in NHL history and the third longest in Stars' franchise history. Go fig.
Dallas will face the top seeded Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference final. Game 1 will be on Thursday in Detroit.

Full Conference Final schedule here:
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=362488

IIHF World Championship
Yesterday's Results:
USA 5
Slovenia 1
Phil Kessel's hat-trick powered the way for the US. Slovenia's lone goal was scored by (drum roll) LA King's young superstar Anze Kopitar.

Canada 7
Latvia 0
Canada's top line of Dany Heatley, Rick Nash, and Ryan Getzlaf are putting on a show for their Canadian fans putting up three goals and eight points between them. Pascal Leclaire made 30 stops for the shutout.

Russia 5
Czech Rep 4 OT
Alexei Morozov scored the OT winner for Russia who lost goalie Alexei Eremenko to a torn ACL.

Denmark 6
Italy 2
Not even Michele Strazzabosco could save italy from the Danes.

Today's games: Switzerland vs. Belarus, Finland vs. Norway, Sweden vs. France, Germany vs. Slovakia.

Face-Off: News and Notes for May 4th

NHL Playoffs:
Flyers knock off Canadiens in 5 games
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&page=Recap&gameNumber=215&season=20072008&gameType=3

Sean Avery out of ICU
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=236660&lid=sublink01&lpos=headlines_nhl

Games tonight:
Rangers at Penguins Game 5. Pens lead series 3-1. 7:00 pm EDT
Sharks at Stars Game 6. Stars lead series 3-2. 9:00 pm EDT
Both games will be shown on Versus in the US and TSN in Canada.

World Championships
Sweden 6
Belarus 5
Two words: Tommy Salo

Finland 5
Germany 1

Switzerland 4
France 1

Slovakia 5
Norway 1

Today's games: Czech Republic vs. Russia, Canada vs. Latvia, Denmark vs. Italy, USA vs. Slovenia

Goal of the Day - Stephane Matteau - 1994 OT vs the Devils

Seeing as how my assumptions have been horribly off I'm going to use a bit of reverse psychology here. Rangers have a good chance to surprise the Pens again tonight, this time at the Igloo in Pittsburgh. Hehe.

Stephane Matteau's OT goal in Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals sent the Rangers on their way to their first Stanley Cup in FIFTY-FOUR YEARS!!

By the way, it went of Slava Fetisov's stick, but I guess Howie Rose thought "MATTEAU MATTEAU!! STEPHANE MATTEAU!" sounded a whole lot better than "FETISOV! FETISOV!! VYACHESLAV FETISOV'S STICK!!"

It's 13 years later....I'm not bitter.

IIHF World Championships Began in Halifax and Quebec City.

Canada 5
Slovenia 1
Ottawa's Dany Heately's two goals put him past Marcel Dionne for the leading Canadian goal-scorer in international competition. Slovenia's goal came off the stick of LA King's star Anze Kopitar. Surprise.

USA 4
Latvia 0
Chicago's Calder finalist wunderkind Pat Kane had a goal and two assists as the US blanked Latvia. The Stars and Stripes also got goals from youngsters Zach Parise of the New Jersey Devils and the Kings' Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan.

Other results: Russia crushed Italy 5-1, the Czech Repulblic downed Denmark 5-2.
Games today: Sweden vs. Belarus, Finland vs. Germany, Switzerland vs. France, and Slovakia vs. Norway.

Face-off: Why did I not point out that the Devils were on the brink of elimination?

OpenHockeyDB: The Rangers will most likely be eliminated
That night - Rangers 3 - Penguins 0

OpenHockeyDB: Stars will eliminate the Sharks tonight
Last night: Sharks 3 - Stars 2 OT

I apologize to Marty, Zach, Lou, the entire NJ Devils organization and their fans for my shortsightedness. I'm a real jack-ass.

DAILY ROUND-UP

SJ beats Dallas: Win second straight facing elimination, series at 3-2
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=236622&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_nhl

Carey Price back in net for the Habs tonight in Game 5
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=362368&page=NewsPage&service=page
DB Note: Carey Price will be great. Maybe not tonight, but someday in the NHL this kid will be astounding. He's played with marked inconsistency so far, but rookie mistakes can be catastrophic when they are committed by the man in net.

Even so, the Habs failure in this series so far cannot be blamed on their netminders, but on skaters and the fact that their NHL regular season best power-play has gone into hiding. If the Canadiens can get their man-advantage going again this series will look completely different.

Goal of the Day - Bret Hull, 1999 Stanley Cup winner

I find this goal fitting for today as the Stars have another chance to eliminate the Sharks tonight.

Also, it's a reminder that horrible officiating is nothing new to the NHL Play-Offs.

Face-off: News and notes for May 2nd

Franzen's Hat-trick leads Wings over Avalanche, Avs buried in 4 game sweep.
Jagr, Lundqvist dominate in 3-0 win over Pens. Stave off elimination.
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=362298&page=NewsPage&service=page

Avery still in ICU, may leave today
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/rangers/2008/05/01/2008-05-01_sean_avery_may_leave_icu_friday-2.html

Adams Award (Best Coach): Boudreau, Carbonneau, and Babcock finalists
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=362163&page=NewsPage&service=page

Pearson Award (MVP as Voted by the players): Malkin, Iginla and Ovechkin finalists.
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=362248&page=NewsPage&service=page

I'm on a tiny vacation in North Carolina so will not be updating as much intil I get back to NYC on Monday. Enjoy the weekend y'all.