Two minutes for cross-checking

Well, in the meantime of my silence:

Finland won the bronze. Sweden won the gold.

The Edmonton Oilers made it to the Stanley cup finals and are waiting to know if they will play Buffalo or Carolina. It could have been Carolina last night, but noooo, the Sabres won in overtime. That series will finally be decided for good tomorrow night, Game 7 at Carolina. Go Hurricanes.

While it seemed that Hershey were well on their way to stomping Portland to make it to the Calder Cup final, Portland forced a seventh game, which Hershey eventually won, in overtime. Milwaukee took care of Grand Rapids in a sweep, and so the berths in the Calder Cup finals this year are occupied by the Milwaukee Admirals and the Hershey Bears. (This is the Bears' 19th appearance in the Calder Cup finals. They seem to hold many of the AHL records, but I don't suppose that should be any surprise as they have been around since the dawn of time.) The finals will begin in Milwaukee on Friday, and, in a surprising twist of plans, I will be going to Game 2 Saturday evening. This was decided out of the blue today in the lab, when it came out that one of my coworkers will be in Milwaukee for a conference and will have a hotel room. Another coworker suggested she go to the hockey match, and then said, "Are there tickets?" When I looked and found tickets in section 214 at the Bradley Center (which seems to be center ice section!) maybe 10 rows up, we sort of paused and looked at each other. "How much are they?" she ventured. "$18, plus fees," I replied. Next thing I knew I was buying the tickets and we are going to Milwaukee for hockey (hey, that ... rhymes!!) between two teams that I don't even really like that much! But, my friends, it is live, professional hockey, and I'm not going to say no to that. (Plus it will be a weekend in a different town, one that I haven't been to in years, with some pals. But that is not a story for this blog.)

I'm going to have to root for the Admirals.

Some brief hockey news, nothing very cheerful for me and I don't feel like spending a lot of time bellyaching about it:

Later Thursday, Finland beat Belarus 3-0 and advanced to the semifinal, which they lost today to the Czech Republic (1-3). On to the bronze medal match for Suomi. (Damn, if they had just been able to have Niittymäi ... wait, I promised no bellyaching, so I will stop there.)

In the other semifinal, Canada was narrowly defeated by Sweden (4-5). Rematch Canada-Finland. Sweden - Czech Republic for the gold medal, I will not make any predictions but will hope for a blue-and-yellow victory.

Eastern Conference Finals today: Buffalo over Carolina, 3-2. BAH. And I don't really care who goes forward in the West; the Iowa Stars have players from Edmonton's club, so I could cheer for them, but Anaheim has Todd Fedoruk. One way or the other, whatever. Edmonton 3, Anaheim 1 today.

Calder Cup playoffs: Milwaukee Admirals are sweeping the Grand Rapids Griffins (well, they are up 2 games to 0. Halfway to the sweep, then.) And on the other side of the bracket, Hershey are up 2 games to 0 over Portland, and are at this very moment about to go into overtime in Game 3 with a 5-5 tie at the end of regulation. Go Portland?

Thumped yesterday. Sweden won 6-0. Ouchie.

On the whole the American national team did a lot better in the worlds than it did in the Olympics -- of course the team was comprised of no one who was on the Olympic team. (What does that say? I suppose I would have to check the makeup of WC rosters of opposing teams as compared to Olympic rosters to know how much it says.) Until playing Sweden yesterday it was tied in the tournament (with Finland (!) and Slovakia) for fewest goals allowed. What a shame. (If they had won, with Canada defeating Slovakia, the semi- would have been CAN - USA.)

So, then, Canada is still in, and I only care because Flyers Jeff Carter and Mike Richards are playing. Looks like they will match up with Sweden on Saturday.

Czech Republic defeated Russia, advance to the semis and will play whoever wins FIN-BLR today. (Go Finland!! Game in progress, 0-0.)

Update, one minute after original posting: Finland up, 1-0, thanks to Riku Hahl. Whee!!

It's 8:20 a.m., and the USA is down 3-0 to Sweden in the second period.

USA defeats Czech Republic 3-1 this morning!! Box score ... With this win they secured third place in the qualifying group (E), and the standings there are as follows:

1) Canada
2) Finland
3) USA
4) Czech Republic

Given the layout of the other group's standings, the matchups for the quarterfinals, which begin tomorrow, will look like this (unless I have made a mistake):

Canada - Switzerland or Slovakia
Finland - Belarus
USA - Sweden
Czech Republic - Russia

Tomorrow's games will be CAN/SUI(or SLO) and USA/SWE.

And no news on Niitty's injury yet. Not likely he will return?

Update: Niitty's not going to be back.

Antero Niittymäki is a world-class goaltender. He was instrumental in Finland's silver medal at the Olympics (not to say that the rest of the Finnish team was trash, because they were, of course, the opposite) and was named the MVP of the tournament. I was disappointed he did not get more playing time for the Flyers post-Olympics. I was disappointed on March 28th when the Flyers laid down and surrendered to the Leafs when Niitty was in goal (I was ticked off at the loss, having paid $100 to be at that game, and would have been ticked if Esche had been in goal, but I sooo wanted to see Niitty win). I was disappointed he was not named starter for the playoffs. I really believe he would have been at least as good as Robert Esche, and would have been no more the reason the Flyers exited first-round than #42 was. [Given the tragedy that was Round 1 for the Flyers, though, I am partly glad, in retrospect, that it was not Niitty starting, because at least this way what happened really was out of his control. Esche can't really say that, though, to be honest and fair, many of the (unfortunately) many goals that slipped into the net were nothing that Esche could do anything about. Thanks for falling asleep / dying, Flyers defense!! {sob}] I was glad when Niitty stepped in front of the net for Finland this World Championship tournament, and I was thrilled on his behalf for his great play recently. I was proud when I read an article on IHWC.net putting Niitty "in the spotlight." They list his many accolades, though not outright mentioning his backstopping the Phantoms all the way to the Calder Cup last year. He's good. He's very good. He deserves all the praise he gets, and he's only going to keep getting it because he should only keep getting better. I can't wait until next season to see more of him.

So today, it was disappointing to read that Finland ended up losing to Canada 4-2, with Niittymäki leaving the game with a "leg injury" midway through the second period.

Please, hockey gods, please ... let Niitty bounce back immediately.

I was, of course, hoping for a Finnish win this afternoon (evening, in Riga), but I can't help but feel a little pleasure at the fact that two of Canada's goals came from Philly's Jeff Carter, who probably knew exactly where to shoot on Niittymäki's net. (Both of those goals were shorthanded. I didn't get to see the game, but I can just picture it. Jeff Carter can really be aflame on the ice.) I like Jeff Carter a lot; one of my favorite Flyers after watching him, in many games last season, storm his way to more than 20 points in the Calder Cup playoffs. So I hope that Niitty can forgive me for being ok with him being scored on twice. Only because it was Jeff Carter. If it had been anyone else (except possibly Mike Richards) I'd be damning the Canadian who did it from here to next Sunday, etc. etc., e.g. the other two scorers: Patrice Bergeron -- I booed you last season when you had your hair all poorly bleached and were playing for the Baby B's -- I'm still booing you. And you, Brad Boyes. Same thing. Booooo.

Ok, so, tomorrow the USA vs. Czech Republic. If I had a USA team jersey, I'd wear it. I really ought to consider getting on to add to my collection. I am American, after all, and I do support team USA; they just don't have my favorite players. Finland does -- though Joni Pitkänen isn't playing this WC.

Finland shut out yet another team today, defeating Norway 3-0. Frederik Norrena was in goal. Olli Jokinen of the Panthers made his tournament debut today. Finland are on a roll and face Canada on Monday! Power rankings through today have Finland at #2 behind Russia, Canada at #3. (USA -- #7) Who makes up the comments? Denmark, at #13: "The world's greatest Danish-speaking hockey nation." Norway, at #10: "If we keep playing like this, we'll never get to be in an A-Ha video."

Ha ha?

Aaaaaaand the 'Canes finally tossed out New Jersey, winning tonight 4-1. Aww... too bad. Bye bye, Debbies. Next series will determine who will play in the Stanley Cup finals: Buffalo or Carolina. I'm going to have to pull for Carolina, I'm afraid.

Since the Iowa Stars dropped out of the playoffs after round 1, I haven't paid much attention to what's going on in the AHL, but tonight I took a peek. It seems that Milwaukee, the team that Iowa pushed to seven games, swept Houston and are on to the conference final. In the east, Hershey (boo!) swept Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (boo!). Now there is a series where I cannot be glad of either -- alas, as I have said before, that they could not both lose. So who is left in the AHL?

Portland Pirates will play Hershey Bears in Round 3; Milwaukee Admirals will play either Grand Rapids Griffins or Manitoba Moose. That series is 3-2 Griffins.

I just can't cheer for Hershey, and I don't care about the Pirates. I guess I would rather the Calder Cup come to a team in my division ("my" division this season being the Stars' division), and so .... though it is difficult to root for a team that I would under any other circumstances boo incessantly .... I want Milwaukee to win this year.

I'm a Philadelphia Flyers fan, a Philadelphia Phantoms fan, and an Iowa Stars fan (it's the home team right now).

So here it is. Totally biased hockey blogging by a Flyers fangirl in the Midwest.

Technically it isn't the off-season yet for everyone, but seeing as the Flyers didn't make it out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs (and neither did the Iowa Stars make it out of the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs, and the Phantoms didn't make it period), my hockey season is now pretty much "off" though with the World Championships taking place at present I have one last hurrah or two to hope for. The teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs are teams I dislike, so while I will pay attention to what happens in that regime I won't be cheering for anyone (unless you count negative cheering, e.g. hoping Carolina does, in fact, sweep the Devils in spite of a current 5-1 NJ lead late in the second period, and that Ottawa will inject some bitter, bitter medicine into the Sabres tonight).

Going to be a long summer once the IIHF Worlds are done, but in the meantime:

Yesterday, in a qualifying round match, Finland thumped the USA 4-0, Niittymäki collecting the shutout. It was one of those games where in my heart I would want the USA to win, but I do like the Finns and was pretty sure they have the better team; I will be unsurprised (and thrilled!) if they are the champions this year, after taking the silver at the Olympics earlier this year with many, though not all, of the same players -- certainly having the Olympic MVP backstopping the squad again cannot hurt their chances! (Lucky then for Suomi that the Flyers didn't get past round 1, so that Niitty could travel to Latvia and mind their net.) I'd like to see the USA struggle less, though. Today they won over Latvia, 4-2, knocking the host country out of the tournament; the Americans are still in, play again on Tuesday vs. the Czechs. Tomorrow we have another Finnish match, against Norway. I'm not worried.

Downtown today I saw a man wearing a Suomi national team jersey, waiting for the bus. This is the first time I have ever seen someone wearing a jersey, not at a hockey game in Philadelphia, for the Finnish team. I did not have a chance to speak to him, but it made me grin. Go Leijonat!

UPDATE 7:30 p.m.: Devils didn't get swept, winning 5-1. No matter, I suppose; they are still down 3 games to 1 and I will relish it when they exit the playoffs. Sorry, I just cannot like the Devils.

UPDATE 9:30 p.m.: Buffalo ousted the Sens 3-2 in overtime. Bah!