Back To The Queen City

As advertised yesterday, I had a blast at the slo-pitch tournament as we had laughs and saw some great plays all day from those who participated. Rarely do I ever complain about having a good time, but I came home last night and felt a little fatigued so I watched the Calder Cup Game and then went to bed earlier than I normally do on a Saturday night. Whatever I did yesterday, though, seemed to catch up to me pretty quickly because a head cold set in overnight while I slept, and I woke up with all the typical symptoms: runny nose, a bit of a cough, nasal congestion, and aches and pains. How did I manage that?

Whining about my cold aside, last night's Calder Cup game looked like it was going to be one of the ages if the Abbotsford Canucks could find a goal in the third period. A record 7470 people were ready to celebrate in the Abbotsford Centre, the Calder Cup was in the building, but it seems that no one told Checkers goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen about that plan because he was unbeatable for thirty minutes before the game was finally decided. So did they win?

Based on the title of this article, that answer is "no". And the goal that was scored was one that both Abbotsford's Guillaume Brisebois and Ty Mueller are going think about on their way to Charlotte.
That one will sting for a few days for the two Canucks as Jesse Puljujärvi gets credit for his third goal of the playoffs after pinballing the puck into the net from behind the net off both players' skates as Charlotte escapes Abbotsford with a 4-3 overtime win, but trail 3-2 in the Calder Cup Final series. Sometimes, you gotta be lucky, right?

Charlotte head coach Geordie Kinnear praised his goaltender for standing tall in the third period and overtime.

"He's a leader for us," he said of Kähkönen in his postgame press conference. "I thought in overtime he made a couple of key composure saves and then got whistles for us at critical times. That shows his experience and you need that to be able to win."

The series will now resume on Monday in Charlotte where the Checkers have to win both to capture the Calder Cup. As we know, Abbotsford split the two games in Charlotte to start the series, and they'll be looking to do the same to capture their first Calder Cup. After last night's ending, I'd expect both teams to come out shooting for the win, so expect an exciting game Monday night.

Abbotsford head coach Manny Malhotra seemed to allude to his team looking forward to the upcoming battle in North Carolina.

"That's one of the major factors why the guys are ticked off in the room right now," he said of the Canucks missing out on winning at home. "It would have been a storybook ending, but we're not a storybook team. We grind and we work for what we get."

If the Canucks are going to win the Calder Cup championship this season, they're going to have to work hard and grind out a road win in a place where not many teams won this season. Again, they do have a win in Charlotte already in this series, but there haven't been any teams not named "Checkers" to win twice in Charlotte this postseason. We'll find out on Monday if the Canucks can do that when they take the ice against the Checkers at Bojangles Coliseum.

As for me, I'm going back to bed to continue to fight this cold.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!