Month: May 2008

QUEBEC – Semifinal summaries Friday from the IIHF world hockey championship:Canada 5 vs. Sweden 4First Period1. Canada, Heatley 11 (Burns, Green) 5:35 (pp)2.

QUEBEC – Team Canada is on the verge of something very special.The Russians are now the only team that stands in the way of Canada becoming the first country to win the IIHF World Hockey Championship on home soil since 1986.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Last summer, Predators general manager David Poile had to strip several key players off his team to save money on salary. This year the team has new ownership committed to keeping Nashville’s young talent from leaving.

QUEBEC – It doesn’t get much better than this.The top line delivered another huge performance Friday as Canada beat Sweden 5-4 to set up a gold medal game with Russia at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes know their coach will be back next season. They’re still waiting to find out whether two of their aging defencemen will join him.

DETROIT – Johan Franzen will miss a fourth straight playoff game when his Detroit Red Wings try to eliminate the Dallas Stars in the NHL’s Western Conference final Saturday (1:30 p.

VOORHEES, N.J. – Kimmo Timonen’s return from injury suddenly seems much closer than that of Philadelphia Flyers defence partner Braydon Coburn.

QUEBEC – Veteran Sergei Fedorov got the opening goal as Russia used its quick-strike attack to down Finland 4-0 on Friday and advance to the final of the IIHF world hockey championship.

DETROIT – Tomas Holmstrom would rather go on a soup diet than stop crashing NHL creases.He doesn’t appear to need to drop any pounds. There is little fat on the six-foot, 203-pound Swede’s body, but the feisty forward will do anything to help the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins have only lost two games in the NHL playoffs so there’s hardly any hand-wringing going on after a Game 4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference final.

SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers are locking up general manager Jacques Martin to a long-term deal.The NHL team announced Friday the two sides have reached an agreement for Martin to remain as GM through the 2011-12 season.

TORONTO – Canadian teams may be out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but that hasn’t kept Ottawa singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards from creating her own bit of NHL fun.

Results Thursday:IIHF Men’s World ChampionshipAt Halifax and Quebec No Games Scheduled.2008 Memorial CupAt Kitchener, Ont.Round-robin begins Friday.

Scoring summary from Thursday’s NHL game:Penguins 2 at Flyers 4First Period1. Philadelphia, Lupul 3 (Hartnell, Parent) 8:272. Philadelphia, Briere 9 (Jones, Hartnell) 11:48 (pp)3.

Movements in the world of hockey Thursday:National Hockey LeagueCAROLINA HURRICANES-Agreed to terms with D Brett Bellemore on a three-year contract.

QUEBEC CITY – Would-be NHL owner Jim Balsillie said Thursday night he enjoys pursuing what he believes in and he made it abundantly clear that he firmly believes Canada should have at least one more NHL team.

PHILADELPHIA – The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to wait at least a few more days to make their travel plans for the Stanley Cup final.
Jeff Carter, Daniel Briere and Joffrey Lupul scored first-period goals and the Philadelphia Flyers refused to die in front of their home fans, hanging on for a 4-2 win Thursday night and forcing a fifth game in the Eastern Conference final.

PHILADELPHIA – Players always say they don’t read newspapers but yet the Philadelphia Flyers admit they were more than a little perturbed at all the talk of a Pittsburgh-Detroit Stanley Cup final.

PHILADELPHIA – The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to wait at least a few more days to make their travel plans for the Stanley Cup final.Jeff Carter, Daniel Briere and Joffrey Lupul scored first-period goals and the Philadelphia Flyers refused to die in front of their home fans, hanging on for a 4-2 win Thursday night and forcing a fifth game in the Eastern Conference final.

QUEBEC – Canada and Sweden haven’t had a chance to develop much of a rivalry at this year’s IIHF World Hockey Championship.The two teams were separated by 1,000 kilometres for the first two weeks of the tournament and could only find nice things to say about each other after finally skating on the same ice surface here Thursday.