Playoff Dailies 5/21/17

Good morning sports fans. It’s medal day for the World Championships along with an afternoon game in the NHL capped off with the Mem Cup this evening.

IIHF Worlds

10:15am ET - Finland vs Russia, loser game

2:45pm ET - Canada vs Sweden on NBCSN, Gold Medal game

For me, the Russia/USA game was the best of the tournament so far, let’s hope the Gold Medal game gets close. Finland might surprise here, they’re good in the Bronze games historically and Russia I’m sure was focusing on playing later in the day.

NHL

3pm ET - Ottawa at Pittsburgh on NBC, tied at 2

Memorial Cup

7pm ET - Windsor vs Seattle on NHLN

ECHL

Our beloved Eagles clinched the Western Conference championship last night after playing nearly 3 games in 27 hours. Julien Nantel had the GWG in both Friday & Saturday’s wins and Sergei Boikov added a goal and 3 assists over the weekend. After falling behind 3-1 they rallied for 5 straight goals and to be honest I wasn’t worried or surprised at any point. This team just seems to find a way to win.

Regardless of who comes out of the East, right now the SC Stingrays are up 3-2, the Eagles will start with home ice in the finals. Game 1 will be Friday night at the Bud Center with Game 2 next Sunday. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, get some.

Here’s where our Avs/Rampage players are statwise after 3 rounds/16 games:

Alex Belzile - 14G/10A/24 points, leads the league in points and goals by a lot
Julien Nantel - 7G/4A/11 points, 4th on the team in points & 2nd in goals
Shawn St-Amant - 4G/5A/9 points in 14 games, 9th on the team in points
Sergei Boikov - 2G/5A/7 points in 14 games, 10th on the team in points, 3rd among Ds
Mason Geertsen - 1G/3A/4 points, also leads in PIMs

Besides these 5, Matt Register is 2nd on the team and in the league in points with 20 and Jake Marto is right behind with 18. These 2 defensemen are a huge part of Colorado’s success and along with captain Sean Zimmerman and the Avs guys make up an exceptional ECHL D corps. I’ve also been impressed lately with Cam Maclise, who came alive this series and had 2 goals last night. He’s a big forward with decent speed that came out of the Canadian College system this Spring and might be a good depth option in San Antonio next year.