In the office, we’re are still talking about the Athens-Berlin series, and Rose and I are even in our predictions. Each of us is 6-6. Here’s where I pull ahead and Rose starts to cry. Northern Conference Commissioner: Logic says this will be a very close series involving two solid teams with two of the…
Goalie Cam Ward was the biggest star Wednesday as Athens completed an unlikely comeback to knock Berlin out of the playoffs. The Greeks have advanced to play defending Cup champion Paris for the Southern Conference title. The Smurfs seemed to have the series in hand when they were up 3-0 and Athens had three forwards injured. But…
The Athens Greeks have stretched their playoff series to seven games with a thrilling 5-4 win at home Monday. They and Berlin will play a deciding game on Wednesday and the biggest question that will be answered that day is: That look in the Smurfs’ eyes … is it anger or fear? It has been…
Kevin Dallman scored two powerplay goals and Chris Higgins scored the game-winner to lift Moscow Spartak into the Northern Conference finals against Copenhagen. In Game 6 of their series with Helsinki, the Russians faced a tough, game Jokerit team in front of the Finnish Sea of Blue fans. The difference was in the penalties. Moscow…
The Berlin Smurfs were at home Saturday, a win away from advancing to the conference finals, but the Athens Greeks had no intention of rolling over and playing dead. Instead, they growled and attacked. A little more than 12 minutes into the game, Dominic Moore bit Berlin with a goal. Then he assisted Tomas Vincour on another…
Aleksey Morozov, Anze Kopitar and Andrew Ladd had some real offensive chemistry going in Game 5 to help their Moscow Spartak team defeat Helsinki 6-4. While they were on the ice together, the threesome accounted for a total of 4 goals and 9 points. But coach Glen Gulutzan won’t get to build on that chemistry…
Paris took a first-period lead, held their opponent scoreless the rest of the way and won Game 4 against Bratislava 3-1 and they now lead the series by the same count. Alexander Semin had an assist and a goal in the first period to lead the way for the Eiffels, but it was the goaltending of teammate…
Copenhagen was relentless and St. Petersburg didn’t have it Wednesday and that means the Tridents are a win away from the Northern Conference Finals to play either Helsinki or Moscow. Helsinki won by a goal and now their series is tied. The Red Stars did a lot of clean hitting and Pekka Rinne was good…
We don’t know how many times we have to repeat this: Don’t make the Smurfs angry. Athens came out hitting in front of their home crowd on Tuesday, wore out a path to the penalty box and ended up paying dearly in the end. They now trail 3-0 in the series and Berlin looks primed…
The toll taken on the Helsinki Jokerit in their first-round marathon sprint with Gothenburg might be showing a little. The Finns fought back from a 3-0 deficit Monday, but they seemed to peter out in the game’s final minutes, and Chris Higgins struck the death blow with 3:26 to play in regulation. Moscow now leads…
