Yes, that's right; someone who played 55 games in the American Hockey League this season stepped up on Wednesday night to decide the Western Conference Final for his Detroit Redwings against the Chicago Blackhawks. With just 23 NHL games under his belt, Darren Helm has not scored a single NHL goal in the regular season, yet...

Last week, I asked the question of whether Carolina Hurricanes could come back from being one down in their Eastern Conference final. Now, they're at 0-3 and it's looking more and more unlikely. They're still in with a chance, though, and tomorrow's fourth game against Pittsburgh Penguins will be huge. It's tough enough winning one match against the Penguins, four in a row will be, shall we say, difficult! Even if the Hurricanes haven't yet made a comeback, Penguins' Sidney Crosby certainly did in answer to my second question last week. In the latest match, the pairing of Crosby together...

Carolina Hurricanes will tonight against Pittsburgh Penguins attempt to repeat what they have done in their two previous play-off series in the Eastern Conference: a comeback from being 0-1 down after the first game in the series. In the two rounds leading up to the conference final, the Hurricanes have lost the initial battle each time, first against the New Jersey Devils (4-3 series win) and then Boston Bruins (also 4-3). Pittsburgh's big star, Sidney Crosby, will be looking to play a more dominant role than he did in the first match, where his passes seemed to be most...

After knocking out the Calgary Flames in the sixth match of their series, Chicago Blackhawk President John McDonough likened the situation to a group of college students taking their graduation. Well, these graduates have now advanced another round after knocking out Vancouver after six games and are facing "old boys" Detroit in the Western Conference final. In the team, Chicago has eleven players that are 23 or younger while Detroit is the oldest team in the NHL with an average age of just over 31. In the first match last night, the graduates were taught a lesson with old boys Detroit...

So what happens now when the World Championships are over? Us Europeans just have next season to look forward to, or look across the Atlantic at North America and the NHL play-offs. Before we do that, there is still some World Championship news to catch up on. One of the most interesting discussions at this year's Worlds was what will be happening at the opening of next year's tournament in Germany....

After a rather hectic start to the IIHF World Championship final between Russia and Canada, the Russians threatened to take over completely as Canada's Doan took a minor penalty three minutes into the match. At that stage, it was Canadian...

Both Sweden and the USA went for Sunday stroll in the park this afternoon in Berne with the USA getting back to the match before the Swedes. The USA got into the game first with a goal from Johnson five minutes into the second period and brought the Swedes back onto the ice and into the match to make it more competitive. Eriksson equalized for the Swedes after 13 minutes and Mårtensson put them ahead two minutes later...

The Washington-Pittsburgh match-up has its history and it looks like it might be repeating itself. After last night's 4-3 OT win in Washington, the Penguins are on the verge of winning a tie against the Capitals after being two games down for the FOURTH time in history! In 1992, Pittsburgh was down 2-0 and 3-1 but came back to win after seven matches. They trailed 3-1 in 1995 as well but managed to win the next three matches to come out 4-3 winners again. It was 2-0 to the Capitals again in 1996, only for the Penguins to win the next four matches to end up victors. It's been a few years...

I have had a week with anxiety but also a chocking insight that I am probably the laziest person existing regarding physical activities. I had this horrible physical test on Wednesday morning. I do not yet know the full result of it, but my guess is that it is not entirely perfect.... After that, when realizing that I probably have to train a little bit more, I suddenly discover how active everybody else is. I have friends who book core sessions at 6.30 in the morning, and my husband decided one morning to run to his work. 16 K!! What is the problem with everybody? Or what is the problem with...

A late goal by Gorovikov for the Russians took them to Sunday's World Championship final in Berne but where were the United States? I saw two European teams on the ice today and the Swedish TV commentators I was watching said the Americans...

I rush in to the hotel. Turns on the TV. Well, there they are, the blue-yellow against a red-white, looking each other in the eye and the clock showing 20.00 period 1. I made it! Quarter final of the ice hockey World...

Your heart just has to go out to the Swiss in their last match in Group E of the qualification round. They needed all three points in their match against a USA team that had already qualified to the quarterfinals. All credit to the USA; despite already being qualified, they gave away nothing to the Swiss. The Swiss finally won the game 4-3 but the game winning goal came 13 seconds (!) the...

Have you been reading my football blog? Recently I wrote about 6 5 and thought I'd write about it here too. Although here it's going to be about 6 against 5 instead.

In the IIHF World Championships, Sweden weren't able to repeat their comeback feat, this time against the Russians. They did manage to equalize with just over one minute left of regular time and overtime seemed to be goalless until Kalinin scored for Russia with just 56 seconds...