Tim Thomas has stolen at least two games from the St. Petersburg Lynx and now has them one game from elimination. Petrograd will have to win three straight against Thomas and the Dublin Fighting Irish in order to advance to the conference finals to face the winner of the other Northern Conference series. Chances are it will be the Copenhagen Tridents, who lead Gothenburg 3-1. Thomas earned a shutout Monday by making 28 saves, but he had more help this time; his teammates outshot St. Petersburg 35-28. Most the Irish fans were still in the beer line when their team took the lead in this one. Bobby Ryan streaked to the net on the opening faceoff and tipped in a long pass from Phil Kessel, who had worked his way over the Lynx blueline and slammed on the brakes. Evander Kane, who has turned out to be one of the key acquisitions of the season, scored about 10 minutes later and Keith Yandle added the last goal of the game with more than 2 minutes to play in the first period. The next two periods were scoreless, with the home team holding a shots advantage of 25-16. The youngster Kane, drafted by Athens early in the second round, came to Dublin in a trade on Oct. 26 (WSH time) along with defenseman Alexander Sulzer in exchange for Scott Hartnell, Tim Gleason, two first round draft picks and $5 million. That hefty pricetag is more reasonable when one looks at Kane’s playoff numbers, which include 8 goals and 13 points in 11 games. The only player in the league who has taken more shots on goal than Kane is his teammate Ryan Kesler (57 shots to Kane’s 40). Kesler, by the way, is second to Mike Fisher in scoring in the playoffs with 17 points. During the regular season, Kane was ranked about 85th in scoring, ahead of some notable names like Thomas Vanek, Marian Hossa and Jarome Iginla. His turnover ratio was plus 19 and he’s only 20 years of age. His numbers were much better with Dublin than they were in Greece, where he scored 1 goal and 4 points in 13 games. In 69 games with Dublin, he had 25 goals and 51 points and was a plus 15. He had been a minus 5 with Athens. Thomas was selected in the 3rd round of the draft and was the 15th goalie taken. In this series, he has allowed 6 goals in 4 games and has made 36, 44, 34 and 28 saves in the four games. Still, he is only 8th among playoff goalies with a save percentage of .904. The player across the rink from him on Monday, Pekka Rinne, is the second best goalie in the playoffs with a tiny 1.75 goals against average and a save percentage of .933. Kari Lehtonen of Geneva leads all with ridiculous averages of 0.71 and .976. Dublin has an injury to contend with for Game 5. Blueliner Zbynek Michalek will have to sit for a couple of games. The Irish will be missing his rugged but clean play on the second defense pairing. Michalek has only 2 points in 11 playoff games, but he has 26 hits and no penalties. Nick Schultz (58 GP, 21 points and a plus 1) will probably replace Michalek.
Copenhagen 5, Stockholm 2
In Sweden on Monday, Copenhagen’s big guns were all firing while the Spartans’ big guns sputtered. Scoring for the Tridents were Troy Brouwer (7 goals this post season), Dany Heatley (5), Kevin Shattenkirk (5), Andrew Ladd (4) and playmaker Derek Roy (1). A Loui Eriksson powerplay goal put Stockholm in front in the first period, but Copenhagen led 2-1 by the first intermission, 4-1 after two periods, and 5-1 late in the contest before Ryan Smyth gave the home fans another reason to clap their hands a little. Ladd, Heatley, Roy and Teddy Purcell all finished with 2 points for the Tridents, with Fyodor Tyutin blocking 3 shots and Roberto Luongo turning aside 20 Stockholm shots. Keaton Ellerby was probably the best Spartan on Monday, dishing out 5 hits and blocking 2 shots in 14 minutes of ice time.
Tuesday
The Bern Bears will be looking to join Dublin and Copenhagen in the Ahead 3 to 1 Club as the visit Munich for what they hope is the last time, while Lehtonen and the Geneva Generals could end their second round playoff series with a win in Bratislava.
