No Game Threes

The SDHL Playoffs kicked off earlier this week, so it makes sense to do a rundown of all the action that happened in Sweden among the eight teams participating in the chase for the Swedish Championship trophy. As the title of this article suggests, there were no rubber matches needed in any of the four three-game series so don't hold your breath for a stunning comeback in any of the series. I'm not going to break down the series by game, but we'll take a look at who did what for each team.

Top-seeded Luleå started at home against eighth-seeded AIK in what looked like a serious mismatch on paper, and the scores seemed to reflect that mismatch as Luleå flexed their muscle against the Skelleftea team.

Sara Grahn surrendered just two goals - both in Game Two - while Luleå scored eleven in the series. Grahn pitched a shutout in stopping all 14 shots she faced in Game One as Petra Niemenen opened the scoring while Viivi Vainikka had a pair of empty-net goals in the 3-0 win. Credit to AIK goaltender Jule Flötgen for stopping 32 of 33 shots she faced to give AIK a chance, but they went down 1-0 in the series with the shutout loss.

Game Two was a completely different story, however, as Luleå unleashed their offensive prowess upon AIK. Ronja Savolainen, Michela Cava, and Wilma Sjölund scored in a 6:55 span in the first period to put Luleå up 3-0. AIK's Lisa Johansson made it 3-1 early in the second period, but Luleå roared back with another three goals as Emma Nordin, Petra Niemanen on the power-play, and Savolainen with her second put Luleå up 6-1 with 20 minutes left. AIK's Emmy Alasalmi scored a power-play goal six minutes into the third period, but Luleå's Jenni Hiirikoski and Niemanen with her second power-play goal rounded out the scoring in the 8-2 rout as Luleå moves on to the semi-final round.

I know I already spoke of one mismatch, but this series showed just how different the top and the bottom of the standings were in the SDHL as seventh-seeded SDE met second-seeded Brynäs in this series.

Lindsey Post was under siege in this game for SDE as Brynäs brought the full arsenal of their attack in this one. Josefin Bouveng scored on the power-play to put Brynäs up 1-0 after the first period. She added a second goal in the second period to give Brynäs the 2-0 lead through 40 minutes. Denisa Kirzova made it 3-0 just 40 seconds into the third period as Brynäs continued to hem SDE in their own zone. Bouveng would complete the hat trick at 10:11, Katerina Mrazova added a fifth Brynäs goal on the power-play 1:40 later, and Anna Meixner added a sixth goal 2:12 after that goal. When all was said and done, Eveliina Suonpää stopped all 18 shots she faced to back Brynäs to the 6-0 shutout win.

It didn't get any easier for SDE when they returned home for Game Two. Denisa Krizova and Katerina Mrazova scored 1:32 apart in the first period to put Brynäs up 2-0 through the first frame. Fanny Brolin scored 1:41 into the second period and Josefin Bouveng scored 3:11 after that to give Brynäs the 4-0 lead through two periods. Mrazova would add her second of the game in the third period as Brynäs not only swept SDE out of the playoffs a 5-0 win, but had Eveliina Suonpää post back-to-back shutouts in stopping another 18 shots and all 36 shots in this series.

In what I was jokingly calling the "U SPORTS Swedish series", sixth-seeded MODO met third-seeded HV71 with all of Manitoba, Regina, and Saskatchewan represented from Canada West while Montreal from the RSEQ had a couple of players in this series as well.

HV71's Kennedy Marchment opened the scoring just 1:49 into Game One, but Jaycee Magwood would put MODO at 9:18 as the two teams went into the intermission tied. MODO's Lina Ljungblom scored with 2:32 left in the second period to give MODO the 2-1 lead heading into the third period. Elin Svensson scored 2:45 into the final frame to tie the game before Jessica Healey put HV71 up 3-2 at 10:27. With 2:24 remaining in the game, MODO found the equalizer off the stick of Amanda Ahlm, and we'd go to overtime in this one!

It appeared that MODO came close to winning the game 7:28 into the extra frame, but the puck flirted with the goal line before HV71 forward Sanni Hakala swept it off the line to keep the game going. And as we've seen in many hockey games prior to this one, that close call usually ends up seeing the team who avoided the loss come back to win. That would be the case in this game as Marchment poked the puck from the front of the net to Michelle Löwenhielm who was to the left of the net, and she'd slide home the winner at 10:47 of the extra frame to give HV71 the 4-3 overtime victory and the 1-0 series lead!

With MODO almost stealing a game on the road, would they bring the same fire in Game Two? Just as HV71 did in Game One, they started Game Two off with an early goal as Michelle Löwenhielm found twine just 28 seconds into this game. Danielle Stone would make it 2-0 with 4:15 to play in the opening period, and HV71 took the two-goal lead into the break. Kennedy Marchment would make it 3-0 at 3:44 of the second period before MODO struck on the power-play 1:50 later when Olivia Carlsson converted to make it a 3-1 game. HV71's Anna Borgqvist and MODO's Marion Allemoz exchanged goals later in the period, and HV71 went to third period up 4-2.

Borgqvist added her second into an empty net to make it 5-2 late in the game before she MODO's Lina Ljungblom engaged in a little fisticuffs and were excused from the game with 1:18 to go. Jessica Healey scored with 39 seconds remaining into an empty-net while on the power-play following the ruckus, and HV71 took Game Two by a 6-2 score to sweep the series.

Fifth-seeded Linköping met fourth-seeded Djurgårdens in what may have been the most even matchup on paper based on standings and statistics. Would we see it play out that way? Again, the title of this article says "no" as Djurgårdens opened this series at home.

Djurgårdens' Alexis Mauermann scored the lone goal of the first period, but Nicole Hall added a marker at 1:50 of the second period before Djurgårdens scored three goals in 5:57 as Andrea Dalen sandwiched a pair of goals between Hall's second of the game to put Djurgårdens up 5-0 midway through the second period. Marthe Brunvold would get one back for Linköping, but the five-goal lead would be restored by Sofie Lundin before the period ended as Djurgårdens took the 6-1 lead into the third period. Jennifer Wakefield and Carly Bullock on the power-play would cut the deficit to 6-3 for Linköping, but Mauermann would cap the game off with her second goal as Djurgårdens skated to the 7-3 win.

Game Two was more of a defensive battle than Game One as the scoring began in the second period when Carly Bullock put Linköping up 1-0 just 2:53 into the period. Djurgårdens would rally back as Sarah Bujold tied the 3:18 later with her goal, and we'd head into the third period with that 1-1 stalemate intact. Allie Munroe would find the back of the net at 11:11 of the final stanza to put Djurgårdens up 2-1, and goaltender Lovisa Berndtsson ensured that goal remained the game-winner as she stopped all four shots in the third period to help Djurgårdens secure the 2-1 win and the sweep of Linköping.

That leaves four teams standing in the playoffs as fourth-seeded Djurgårdens will meet first-seeded Luleå while third-seeded HV71 tangles with a yet-to-be-scored-on Brynäs team. If you're wondering, the U SPORTS players who remain in the playoffs include HV71's Danielle Stone (Saskatchewan) and Djurgårdens' duo of Mathea Fischer (UBC) and Sarah Bujold (StFX). If you're looking to cheer someone on, these three are good picks!

We'll have another update next week as the SDHL Playoffs continue with the best-of-five semifinals following the same schedule as the teams will start on Sunday and see Game Two on Monday before switching cities for Game Three on Wednesday. If necessary, Game Four goes Thursday with Game Five scheduled for Friday. Note that Game Five does not switch back to the top-seeded teams' cities! While the home-ice advantage does revert back, you have to wonder if playing at home will help the lower-seeded teams assuming they make it to a Game Five situation? I guess we'll find out if we get there!

We'll have more updates next week here on HBIC, so make sure you tune in then! Best of luck to the four remaining SDHL teams in their games this week!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 441

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight with a full roster once again as Jenna is back to make Teebz smarter with the results from her second exam! We already know that Jenna's a smart cookie based on her first exam's results, but tonight's guest might be the smartest person we've ever welcomed to the show. Her work in the classroom is pretty amazing, and she was a standout player on the ice both at the university level and at the professional level!

The Hockey Show is proud, honoured, privileged, humbled and pleased to welcome Dr. Karolina Urban to the show! Dr. Urban has done incredible work in pediatric concussions, and she earned her Master's and PhD degrees in Canada while playing hockey! We'll talk to Karolina about emigrating to Canada at the age of four, moving to Toronto to play hockey with the University of Toronto Lady Blues, her incredible university career, getting drafted to and playing in the CWHL, playing in Europe, ball hockey, meeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, how the women's pro gram has grown since she retired, and so much more! As you'll hear, it was her education led to a lot of hockey opportunities so make sure you settle in for Dr. Karolina Urban's story! Tune in on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com at 5:30pm CT to hear the amazing chat we had with Dr. Urban!

Where's the best place can you hear tonight's show if you're outside Winnipeg or not near a radio, you ask? The new UMFM website's online streaming player is pretty awesome if you want to listen online. If you're using an Apple device, the player doesn't seem to like Safari yet, so if you want to stream the show I'd recommend Radio Garden to do that as it works nicely with Safari. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store. If you do use the TuneIn app, you won't be disappointed. It's a solid app.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!

Tonight, Teebz and Jenna get educated by Dr. Karolina Urban in the subjects of becoming a new Canadian, university hockey, CWHL hockey, European hockey, Clarkson Cup victory laps, concussion research, medical cannibis work, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: March 4, 2021: Episode 441

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Edinburgh Experience

This isn't a "musicians in jerseys" article, so you could be forgiven if you were guessing who the person was to the left. That's Tyler Plews from 2015 in his EIHL Edinburgh Capitals jersey before making his debut in 2015, but we're not here to talk about Tyler Plews. Instead, we're here to talk about oft-heard guest on The Hockey Show Jason Pchajek because he's allowing us to peek inside his closet to check out one of his jerseys, namely his totally-awesome Edinburgh Capitals jersey, that he proudly has in his collection. We don't see EIHL jerseys very often on this side of the pond, so what's the story behind Jason's Capitals jersey? Let's find out!

First, here's Jason's Edinburgh jersey in full, glorious colour!

As spectacular as that jersey is, there's a story behind it, so let's hear how this jersey came to be Jason's favorite jersey in his collection.

I've always had an appreciation for that one person on the ODR who wore the weird jersey. Now I get to be one.

I've always had a fascination with the aesthetics of hockey, particularly jerseys and logos. It always interested me how ownership groups and teams formed their identity, pulling from history, their city, their region, to form a look and feel that is quintessentially theirs.

I'm also the son of an English immigrant. So when I stumbled across the EIHL as a kid, my love of weird looks, and UK culture fused. Unfortunately, at the time, my mum's hometown of Surrey didn't have a club (now they have the Guilford Flames though the club is not very good), so I, being a fan of Manchester United, gravitated to the Manchester Phoenix as 'my' club. Then, imagine my heartbreak when the Phoenix left the league and eventually folded.

At that point I fell away from UK hockey. That is...until 2017. Perusing the world of hockey logos, I decided to peak at what had happened in the EIHL, finding the Edinburgh Capitals, a franchise struggling on and office the ice in the tepid and insecure world of UK hockey. Knowing the club was likely not long for this world, I decided to order an older jersey, emblazoned with the Scottish cross, and SO MANY ADS.

Ok...full disclosure...I like ads on jerseys. There are some in the world that should NEVER be desecrated (The Original 6 coming first to mind), but I like European jerseys that look like billboards. They're weird, they're unique, and I love that.

Now, every time I step on the ODR, I'm a walking billboard. Maybe I should be getting some ad dollars?

I don't know about ad dollars, but that is a sharp-looking jersey even with the ads and Jason should be proud of that one. How many people in North America have an Edinbugh Capitals jersey, let alone one with all the ads and customized with one's own name? Pretty cool by my standards!

Jason wasn't wrong about the struggles they were going through, though, as the Scotland-based team closed shop in 2018 following a history of constant ownership and management changes at the EIHL level since 2004. There was annual player changes as the locker room never seemed to have that year-to-year consistent leadership to provide chemistry, and the team's annual standings and play suffered from this lack of continuity.

Every good move the Capitals made seemed to backfire on them through to their history, though. In their final season, former NHL star Dmitri Khristich was named head coach only to leave in December by mutual agreement between himself and the club.

In another instance, Jared Staal of the famed Staal family played his 2016-17 season there only to retire at the end of the season to move back to Canada to become an assistant coach with OHA Edmonton of the CSSHL.

In one of the worst things to happen to the club, highly-touted defenceman Joe Grimaldi, who played in the AHL, ECHL, OHL, and NCAA, was signed by Edinburgh only to be released from the club after 14 games for spearing Nottingham defenceman Evan Mosey, throwing his helmet at Mosey's face, and sucker-punhcing Mosey.

Needless to say, the constant revolving door of players, coaches, management, and owners along with some bad press hurt Edinburgh's play on the ice and in the standings where they never finished higher than sixth-place.

In the end, it wasn't finances or a lack of fan support that killed the franchise despite the setbacks listed above, but it was the loss of their coveted ice time at Murrayfield Ice Rink that did the Capitals in as an ownership group led by former Edinburgh Capitals player and coach Tony Hand outbid the Capitals for their ice time! Without a home rink to play in, the Edinburgh Capitals made the tough decision to fold, ending their run in the EIHL.

There's a little background information to go with Jason's stellar Edinburgh Capitals jersey! Maybe you want in on this fun? If you do, I'm looking to feature all sorts of weird and wonderful stories about a jersey in your closet that you love! If you want to get in on this fun, please email me a front and back picture of your jersey with the story about why it's your favorite jersey. If you're not using the link above, email to "cdnuniguy@gmail.com" with the subject "Jersey Project" since you might do this off your phone which has a camera to capture those images of your jersey.

A big thanks to Jason Pchajek for his submission today!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Scrapping In Pads

If you don't know who the guy is to the left, that's ok. I had only heard his name before before this week, but we really need to talk about François Brassard's incredible goalie gear from when he played with the OUA's Carleton Ravens before we do anything else. How cool is his gear with the Ravens logo all over them? We need more fun goalie setups like this in Canadian university hockey, and you can call me a François Brassard fan right now because of his setup. What brought the spotlight to Brassard's game this week, though, wasn't his goaltending, but a part of the game goalies very rarely practice.

Brassard played five seasons in the QMJHL with the Quebec Remparts, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, and the Gatineau Olympiques. If he learned how to do what he did on Sunday on any of those teams, it may have been under Patrick Roy during Brassard's first two QMJHL seasons with Quebec. As we know, Patrick Roy wasn't one to shy away from the pugilistic side of the game.

Following a five-game stint with the SPHL's Peoria Rivermen, Brassard played three seasons with the OUA's Carleton Ravens before finding himself in the ECHL with the Maine Mariners for two seasons. He made the jump to the Wheeling Nailers in this past off-season, and he's tending net for them now. And, apparently, is the current heavyweight champion for goalie fights in that league after his February 28 showing against the Utah Grizzlies.
Brassard squared off against Utah netminder Kevin Carr with 9.1 seconds remaining in a 6-1 Wheeling victory following a line brawl by the rest of the players on the ice. Brassard casually skated towards center ice where Carr spotted him, and the two decided to entertain the fans with one of the rarer sights seen in hockey - a goalie fight! - where Brassard more-than-capably handled himself and Carr.

Kevin Carr, his opponent in this scrap, spent four years at SUNY-Buffalo State before bouncing around the ECHL for the last six seasons that included one in the EIHL, but what makes this scrap a little more interesting is that both men played in the SPHL for the Peoria Rivermen - Carr in 2013-14 for four games while Brassard suited up in 2015-16 for five contests!

I'm all about posting some good Canadian university content, but I'm not certain U SPORTS is looking for this kind of endorsement. Regardless of their wants, François Brassard earned the win in the game and the win in the fight, ending a pretty successful night for him on Sunday with the tussle seen above. While some might chalk it up as "good Canadian hockey", I'm not certain where Brassard would have learned moves like that!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Fun Addition

If there's one player whose career pretty much fizzled after one specific moment, that player might be Todd Bertuzzi. At one point in his career, Bertuzzi was a premier power forward for the Vancouver Canucks and, along with linemates Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund, was a feared competitor and scorer in the league. While the Steve Moore incident was the catalyst for Bertuzzi's trade out of Vancouver, one would be hard-pressed to deny that the former first-round pick by the New York Islanders had a pretty solid career going on Vancouver Island until that night against the Colorado Avalanche where things got out of hand in very bad way.

To kick things off with this new project where we peek inside closets for favorite hockey jerseys, I'll open up my closet a little and pull out this jersey that gets me more "why" questions than any other. Often, it's "Why do you have that?" or "Why Bertuzzi?" that I hear from people knowing what we know, but there are the occasional "Why Florida?" and "What's wrong with you?" questions that I field as well. I'm not saying my decision was smart, but you need to understand the rules I live by when it comes to my jersey collection.

The first rule I live by is that only people who wore the jersey can have their names on the back. That incorporates things like era in which players played, style of jersey, manufacturer of jersey, and being on the roster for that specific jersey. In other words, you won't find a Selanne Jets 2.0 jersey in my closet because (a) he didn't play for the team during that era, and (b) he never wore a Jets adidas- or Reebok-branded uniform during his Jets days.

The second rule I live by is that goalie cuts are for goalies and player cuts are for players. I do have one goalie on the back of a jersey that is meant for a player, but that jersey holds a great deal of sentimental value to me and I refuse to change it.

The third rule I have is that jersey cameos or universally-hated jerseys will always take precedence in my collection over popular players and trendy teams. Combining the two factors make the jerseys even better. For example, my Pooh Bear Bruins jersey has Bryan Berard on the back of it. Berard played one season in Boston wearing the unpopular Pooh bear jersey, so this jersey ranks highly in my collection.

The Todd Bertuzzi Florida Panthers jersey I own in the image above is accurate to the era and manufacturer - the Panthers wore the Reebok jerseys with the Reebok logo during Bertuzzi's time there - and he played just seven games for the Panthers in his career - a jersey cameo. The catch here is that this jersey didn't arrive in my possession as a Bertuzzi jersey, but was made into one thanks to the first jersey rule.

I purchased this jersey as part of a lot of jerseys that saw me acquire two additional Panthers jerseys and one Golden State Warriors throwback jersey. On all three Panthers jerseys was the name of the person who owned the jerseys. That person never once played in the NHL which breaks one of my rules, so a name change would be needed. Based upon era and manufacturer, it was easy to narrow down this jersey from the 2006-07 season thanks to NHL Uniform Database.

Knowing the year, I took a quick peek over at HockeyDB for the 2006-07 Florida Panthers roster for a #44, and Todd Bertuzzi had worn the number in that very season for his seven games of service. Had he not been in Florida for those three weeks of hockey, it would have been much harder to swap the numbers out for a player that season. Maybe David Booth as #46 or Ruslan Salei at #24? Either way, I got lucky that Bertuzzi was on the Panthers that year wearing this specific Reebok-made jersey!

That's not a remarkable story, but what is a more entertaining yarn is that I was completely oblivious to the entire Todd Bertuzzi idea when I was in Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2010 for the US Pond Hockey Championship. I, your resident idiot, decided that I'd bring a few jerseys with me to the Pond Hockey Championship to wear as wandered around the site. One of those jerseys was the Todd Bertuzzi Florida Panthers jersey.

If we go back to the 2003 NHL Playoffs, the hate for Todd Bertuzzi in Minnesota was born that year. According to this article by Dan Myers on NHL.com and Moment #4 by Glen Andresen on NHL.com, this spurred the hatred:

Prior to Game Four of the Western Conference Semifinals, Bertuzzi and some Vancouver Canuck teammates walked through the Xcel Energy Center lobby where hopeful Wild fans were in line to purchase tickets for Game Six. Rather than be on his merry way, Bertuzzi yelled at the fans for wasting their time because there wasn't going to be a Game Six.

Not only was there a Game Six, but there was a Game Seven too. The Wild crushed the Canucks in Game Five in Vancouver 7-2, and followed that stirring win with a 5-1 throttling of the Canucks at Xcel Energy Center in that Game Six that Bertuzzi said wouldn't happen. With the Canucks reeling, the Wild finished them off with a come-from-behind 4-2 win in Game Seven at GM Place.

Wild fans never let Todd Bertuzzi live that one down, and your truly is looking like an idiot wandering around Minneapolis in a Todd Bertuzzi Florida Panthers jersey while people stare at him. Yes, I noticed the stares. No, it didn't dawn on me that I was wearing Public Enemy #1's jersey inside the lion's den.

Needless to say, I survived the day without incident, but I did get stopped by one person at the Pond Hockey Championship who told me, "That series was the greatest hockey memory of my life," which confused me at the time until native Minnesotan Rick, who was at the championship with me, clued me in at dinner.

Nice job, Teebz.

Nevertheless, I love the jersey and will continue to wear it proudly in all places not named Minnesota or Colorado. Do you have a jersey like this? As stated yesterday, I'm looking to feature all sorts of weird and wonderful stories about a jersey in your closet that you love! If you want to get in on this fun, please email me a front and back picture of your jersey with the story about why it's your favorite jersey. If you're not using the link above, email to "cdnuniguy@gmail.com" with the subject "Jersey Project" since you might do this off your phone which has a camera to capture those images of your jersey.

More jerseys will follow this month, so check back for more jersey fun!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!