Who needs Las Vegas when you have Copenhagen and Phelim McAleer?  The Copenhagen writer who assessed the teams before the season was pretty accurate when he predicted their finishes.  McAleer’s prognostications came before trades, injuries, suspensions and ownership changes, but nonetheless, he was pretty good. He predicted St. Petersburg and Geneva would win the Kharlamov and Schloder  divisions and was right on. He had his own Copenhagen finishing second in the Ahearne Division, perhaps modestly, and they ended up winning the division crown.  In the Demitra Division … well let’s just say that was a hard division to predict. The teams that surprised him more than any were Prague, Stockholm and Athens.

Here’s a look at how McAleer fared in his predictions. Team, actual finish (predicted finish).

Ahearne Division – Copenhagen  1^st (predicted 2^nd);  Oslo 2^nd (1^st); Dublin 3^rd (3^rd); Edinburgh 4^th (4^th); London 5^th (6^th); Belfast 6^th (5^th).

Kharlamov Division – St. Petersburg 1^st (1^st); Stockholm 2^nd (5^th); Gothenburg 3^rd (2^nd); Helsinki 4^th (4^th), Moscow 5^th (3^rd); Minsk 6^th (6^th).

Schloder Division – Geneva 1^st (1^st); Bern 2^nd (3^rd); Munich 3^rd (2^nd); Berlin 4^th (5^th); Zurich 5^th (4^th); Frankfurt 6^th (6^th).

Demitra Division – Prague 1^st (4^th); Milan 2^nd (3^rd); Madrid 3^rd (1^st); Bratislava 4^th (5^th); Paris 5^th (4^th); Athens 6^th (2^nd).

And now … the Conference Finals

The Conference Finals, which will start soon, feature two teams from the Ahearne Division (Copenhagen and Dublin) and two from the Schloder (Geneva and Munich). All players are healthy are ready for the series except for Munich’s Joe Corvo, who is out with a nasty hernia injury.

Mike Fisher  of Geneva leads all scorers in the playoffs with a sizzling 21 points in just 8 games played. Ryan Kesler of Dublin is second with 18 points in 13 games. Fisher’s teammate Kari Lehtonen, has been equally as impressive in goal, allowing just 8 goals in 8 games with 3 shutouts and a .967 save percentage. He and his fellow Generals are a perfect 8-0 in the playoffs after sweeping Berlin and Bratislava.

Matchups

Northern Conference:  Copenhagen beat Dublin 5 out of 6 times during the regular season. The only Dublin win came on Nov. 13 when Milan Michalek scored in the third period to break a tie. Stephen Weiss did the most damage to Dublin for the Tridents during the 6 games, getting a first star and two third stars. Copenhagen had Roberto Luongo in net for every one of the six contests. Tim Thomas was 1-3 for the Irish, while Evgeny Nabokov was 0-2.  Scores were: Copenhagen 7-3;  Dublin 3-2; Copenhagen 4-0; Copenhagen 6-2; Copenhagen 5-3; and Copenhagen 4-2.

Southern Conference:  Geneva and Munich were 3-3 against each other during the regular season, with Geneva winning two early in the year, the Foxes winning a pair during the week after Christmas, and the teams splitting a pair in March.  Two of the Munich wins were in shootouts with four different players scoring shootout goals in the two games.  Kari Lehtonen started all six games in goal for the Generals, while Jonathan Quick was 3-2 and Scott Clemmensen was 0-1. Munich’s Patrick Marleau was the only non-goalie to earn a star in more than one game during the head-to-head matchups. He was the first star in an Oct. 15 5-1 loss to Geneva and in the Dec. 26 4-3 shootout win. Scores were Geneva 5-1; Geneva 4-2; Munich 4-3; Munich 4-2; Munich 2-1; and Geneva 6-1.