Hockey News

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Nathan Smith scored the game-winner in the third period as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins held off the Chicago Wolves to win Game 4 of the Calder Cup final 3-2 on Friday.

The Wolves lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, and remain on the brink of their second Calder Cup championship. At 2:21 of the third period, when a Wolves defenceman dove to block a shot by Smith, he unwittingly knocked it into the net.

Dave Gove and Chris Minard scored the other markers for the Penguins.

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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - The Binghamton Senators Hockey Club proudly announced that they helped raise $135,515 for various non-profit and charitable organizations in the Greater Binghamton region during the 2007-08 American Hockey League season. The fundraising total is $30,000 more than last season’s total and a new franchise record.

Some of the notable efforts from this past season were:

* The third annual Binghamton Senators Charity Golf Classic raised $20,984.00 for the Family Enrichment network.

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DETROIT - “Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie.”

The chants filled Joe Louis Arena as Chris Osgood’s outstanding goaltending, two unassisted goals by Mikael Samuelsson and fierce forechecking combined to give the Detroit Red Wings a 4-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening game of the NHL’s championship series Saturday night.

Late goals by Dan Cleary and Henrik Zetterberg padded the final score.

Teams winning Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final have gone on to win the championship in 53 of 68 seasons, or 78 per cent of the time, since the best-of-seven format was introduced in 1939.

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DALLAS - Dominant in the regular season, superb again in the post-season, the Detroit Red Wings are headed back to the Stanley Cup finals.

Just when the Red Wings lost consecutive games and were starting to look vulnerable, they bounced back strong in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, getting first-period goals from Kris Draper, Pavel Datsyuk and Dallas Drake on their way to knocking out the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Monday night.

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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.

Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf and Rick Nash each scored in the semifinal victory to continue their torrid pace at this tournament. They’ve been far too much for any opponent to handle and have combined for 20 goals in eight games.

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QUEBEC - The no-name Swedes are starting to look familiar at the IIHF World Hockey Championships.

Mattias Weinhandl scored 3:15 into overtime Wednesday to give Sweden a 3-2 victory over the Czech Republic and a berth in the semifinals, where it will face Canada on Friday.

It is the eighth consecutive year Sweden will play in the semifinals, where it lost 4-1 to Canada last year in Moscow.

But this may be the sweetest of all, as the Swedes did it without most of their top NHL stars, such as Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, and a handful of the Detroit Red Wings now battling for the Stanley Cup like Nik Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom.

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TORONTO - Toronto Marlies left winger Bates Battaglia scored late in the first overtime period to beat the visiting Syracuse Crunch 4-3 in second-round American Hockey League playoff action on Friday night.

Battaglia, standing in front of the Crunch crease, got a stick on David Ling’s centring pass and deflected the puck past Syracuse netminder Karl Goehring at 18:35 of the first extra frame.

“Linger made a great pass and I was just in the right place,” Battaglia said. “He put the puck right on my stick. I was trying to get to the net and Ling made a great play and I just shovelled it in.”

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WINNIPEG - Derek MacKenzie wasn’t interested in discussing his overtime goal Saturday night - he wanted instead to rave about his star teammate.

MacKenzie’s goal 10:54 into overtime lifted the Syracuse Crunch to a 3-2 victory over the Manitoba Moose on Saturday, and a 3-2 lead in their American Hockey League North Division semifinal.

MacKenzie took a perfect pass from Derick Brassard, raced to the front of the crease, outguessed Schneider and backhanded the puck into the net. After the game, MacKenzie lauded Brassard for setting up the game winner.

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Rockford, Ill.- The Rockford IceHogs hosted its 9th Annual Jersey Auction for charity on Saturday night following its game against the San Antonio Rampage. IceHogs fans helped the Hogs raise $73,195. The IceHogs and their generous fans have now helped raise over $500,000 for chaerity with the club’s nine auctions.

All proceeds from this year’s auction will go the IceHogs Charitable Foundation. The IceHogs Charitable Foundation will in return, distribute the proceeds to several not-for-profit organizations in the Rock River Valley including, but not limited to, MDA Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Rockford area Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Jr. IceHogs and others.

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NEW YORK - The New York Rangers’ muddled playoff picture cleared some after a shootout loss to the New York Islanders in the second-to-last game of the regular season.

While the Islanders skated off with a 4-3 win Friday night, they knew their season had come to an end much earlier than they hoped. There was little solace in damaging the Rangers’ chances to earn home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“It’s always nice to win, but I don’t think it overshadows the fact that there is a lot of disappointment and sadness in our locker room,” said Islanders forward Richard Park, who scored a short-handed goal and had the decisive tally in the shootout. “We had really high expectations throughout the whole year.

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