Wow! What a week for the brave. I'm concentrating on two ice hockey games played this week that weren't exactly for the fainthearted.
It started off earlier this week in the seventh and deciding game in the NHL play-offs between New Jersey and Carolina. New Jersey had a one goal advantage going into the last two minutes of the match to give them a Conference semi-final place against Washington. All over? No way, not for Carolina anyway. With 1.20 left, Carolina managed to equalize through Jussi Jokinen and force a decision in overtime, or so we all thought, especially the Devils so it seems. In a last effort, Carolina's Eric Staal managed to skate to the net with just 32 seconds left to play and hit the game winning goal that sent Carolina to a next round tie against Boston. How I feel for the Devil's fans, no more than just over a minute from extending their season to a new seven-game battle and now their season is over! And what ecstasy for the Hurricanes' fans.
The second game was from last night involving Sweden and the USA in the IIHF World Championships. In a to-and-fro game, the USA went three goals ahead with 12 minutes left to play. Match over? Of course, nobody could think it was possible to score three goals in one period against the USA! However, a time out called by Sweden coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson before the face-off after the USA goal seemed to do the trick. Just 26 seconds later, Sweden's Magnus Johansson started the fight back with a one-timer inside the right-hand post. Seven minutes later the Swedes were amazingly level after goals from Persson and Weinhandl. Kristian Huselius completed this magic night for Sweden after less than two minutes of overtime!
Much of the credit for the Sweden win must be given to The Monster. Sweden goaltender Jonas Gustavsson introduced himself to the world stage of spectators (every team in the world probably already knows about him). Despite letting in five goals, he was by far the best Swedish player on the ice and kept his team in the game at times. I've seen him live myself and with the help of a good defence he is a monster!
The first round of the Stanley Cup play-offs is now complete and an article on nhl.com intrigued me a while back. New Jersey Devils forward Jay Pandolfo tells us that gaining the home ice advantage in the seventh game of the first round of the Conference play-offs is why you play the 82 games in the regular season! Remarkable! Of the eight matches played in the first round of the play-offs, only two went to a seventh and decisive match and only one was won by the team with the home ice advantage!
All the best!
