2016-2017 SEMI FINALS PLAYOFF RESULTS

 

16-17-Playoff Bracket

Thunder Bay Nor’Westers & Hampton Blizzard
Series Preview: Hampton and Thunder Bay open their semi-final series in the much anticipated Hoser-Fest pitting the Atlantic Coast Hampton Huskies from New Brunswick against the sauerkraut stomping Nor’Westers from that Upper Canadian stronghold of Thunder Bay, Ontario. To kick off the festivities the night before Game 1, the Huskies were able to buy the services of AC/DC who quite coincidentally were booked into the entire second floor of the same hotel in which the Nor’westers were staying (on the floor below). Rumor has it that that partying went “all night long” until the police were brought in after Thunder Bay goalkeeper James Reimer had called in a complaint about the “frigging loud goat screamin’.”
Game #1: All kidding (goat joke) aside … the first goal of the series went to none other than Hampton’s mega-pest Andrew Shaw who smashed Darren Helm off his skates and stripped him of the puck at centre ice then cruised in on a breakaway to beat Reimer between the pads and give the Huskies the 1-0 lead at 3:25.

Most of the action for the next 10 minutes of the game happened around centre ice as the teams played tight hockey exchanging checks and a few futile power plays until all hell broke loose after Filip Forsberg’s roughing penalty was killed.

With the play still going, Forsberg left the box and cruised down into the Thunder Bay end of the rink and began a nice game of do-see-so with Martin Hanzal that ended with Hanzal feeding a pass into the slot to Paul Stastny who came through big and lifted a shot over Reimer’s shoulder to make it 2-0 at 17:15. Byyyyyaaaaaaaaaa

Just over a minute later Tomas Hertl took a seemingly innocent bad angle shot from near the blueline that baffled Reimer and bounced over his stick and into the net for a 3-0 Hampton lead. With only seconds left in the 1st period, Hertl and Andre Burakovsky capitalized on Seth Jones’s misplay at his own blueline and completed a beautiful 2-on-1 break by beating Reimer low between the pads making it 4-0.

The 2nd period was tightly played with the Nor’westers trying to grind the Huskies’ skaters into powder along the boards and it worked. With the on-ice Hampton players fatigued, Jaccob Slavin took a behind-the-net pass from Aleksander Barkov and fired it toward the net where Tomas Tatar was waiting to tip it past Huskies’ netminder Brian Elliott. The goal made it 4-1 with 25 minutes to go …

And that would be as close as Thunder Bay would get.

At 3:18 of the final period, Helm was again nailed at centre ice – this time by Forsberg – and coughed up the puck to Stastny who made no mistake and deked his way past Reimer to make it 5-1.

Burakvosky ripped a slapshot past Reimer on the power play at 6:29 to put the nail in the coffin with Jake Muzzin off for interference.

And that’s the way that it ended …

After 1 Games Summary: Not the way it was expected, but Hampton will gladly take the lop-sided 6-1 win and skate into Game 2 up 1-0 in the series with rumors already floating around that the scoring siren would be replaced with a 100-decibel bleating of a herd of goats.

Game Two of the Semi-finals in Hampton had the hometown fans hoping to have their eardrums shattered by the sound of goats bleating after James Reimer and the Nor’westers fell to the Huskies 6-1 in the opener.

Game #2: Well … not by choice but the hometown faithful headed home after this game with their ears intact.

The game featured a lot of tight checking and unlike the first game some pretty solid goaltending at both ends of the ice. The key to the game would basically come down to refereeing as some key calls in the game had the officials getting booed off the ice for trying to decide the game on their own after receiving bribes from the visiting team rumoured to be in the metric tonne area in sauerkraut, cheap beer and sausages.

Bribery aside the Huskies opened the scoring at the midway mark of the opening period when Andre Burakovsky victimized poor Darren Helm yet again, poking loose a puck that eventually found its way into the net behind Reimer off Mikael Backlund’s tip-in of Andrew Shaw’s slapper from the edge of the faceoff circle.

The bleating was silenced just more than a minute later when Aleksandeer (Goatslayer) Barkov blasted a puck high over a sprawled Brian Elliott to even the game 1-1. Shaky as a bungalow built on the San Andreas faultline in the last couple weeks of the season, Elliott came through big for Hampton stopping Mr. Jarny Jarnkrok on a breakaway with just seconds left in the 1st period.

Paul Stastny broke open the 1-1 tie at 8:27 of the 2nd period with his 3rd goal of the series – a wrist shot that beat Reimer glove side. Mattias Ekholm and Frans Nielsen drew the assists on that one.

The lead lasted about 10 minutes and then Cody Eakin muscled his way through a crowd in the front of the Hampton net to bash home his own rebound and make it 2-2.

Then the fricking zebras found their damn whistles as the smell of bratwurst and ‘kraut wafted across the ice from somewhere on the Thunder Bay bench. At 17:18 Patric Hornqvist was gaffed for hooking and then when that power play didn’t work they sent Backlund off for tripping at 19:53.

Not good enough? Nope … 24 seconds into the 3rd period Tyler Myers was whistled down for holding to give Thunder Bay a 5-3 for 90 seconds. Thunder Bay buzzed all around the net but had trouble getting the puck to Elliott.

Two-man power play failed, the refs then turned their attention to Mr. Misconduct (Andrew Shaw) and sent him off for a couple of minutes for checking Tomas Tatar from behindeven though he was on the bench at the time he was called for the penalty, but was called anyway “cuz he had that crazy look in his eye” and was “lookin’ funny” at Tatar according to the refs.

The penalty resulted in a five-minute delay to the game after the referees were carried off the ice on stretchers after being pelted by frozen cod.

Fearing for their lives, the replacement referees almost immediately got to work and called Thunder Bay winger Gustav Nyquist for an elbowing major after he attempted to separate Backlund’s jaw from his head.

The ensuing power play was about as successful as the attempted oral surgery and Hampton could barely even get close to the Thunder Bay net without hitting defenceman Alex Goligoski.

Bracing for overtime, the two teams settled down for some centre ice trench warfare with really no scoring chances coming along other than the occasional impotent shot from the blueline.

At 17:09, the crowd came to its feet when the Huskies Swedish winger Patric Hornqvist finally was able to land a shot on net on a one-timer from Burakovsky that beat Reimer stick side.

Thoroughly bummed out the Nor’westers piffled their way through the next minute or two of play and only managed to pull their goalie with 47 seconds left on the clock. The only chance thunder Bay had to score was on a shot at the buzzer by Charlie Coyle that Elliott stopped to end the game and preserve the 3-2 win.

After 2 Games Summary: Hampton squeaks its way to a 2-0 series lead amid tonnes of controversy and allegations of attempted bribery on the part of the scruvy dog visiting team.

NOTE: Something seems amiss with the Setup as at the start of each game Steve Mason initially popped up as Thunder Bay’s starting keeper even though on the roster file he shows as Inactive. Regardless, we were able to manually insert Reimer for each game.

Brian Elliott should be the keeper for both of the next two games as the series swings to Thunder Bay.

After loosing both games in Hampton the Nor’Westers return home hoping they can turn this series around. Game #1 was a blowout, but game #2 was a tight 1 goal loss.

Game #3:  Thunder Bay jumps into the lead when Alexsander Barkov burries a wrister past Elliott. Just 27 seconds after the goal DeKeyser tries to implant Trochek’s face into the glass and get’s 2 minutes for charging. At 12:45 Jarnkrok slashes Ekblad and he heads to the box. Thunder Bay’s PK boys are up to the job again. Finally after keeping Thunder Bay penned in for most of the last 5 minutes Hertl scores to tie the game at 1-1.

About 17:30 Muzzin upends Stastny in front of the Thunder Bay goal. The referee’s arm is up but play continues. Forsberg rips a low shot and Reimer makes sprawling save but Stastny flip the rebound top shelf for a 2-1 lead and an in-your-face stare at Muzzin.

The Norwesters rally in the 2nd period bringing the hammer finishing every check and roughing the Blizzard players at every chance they can get. Hampton coach is staying calm and constantly telling his players stay cool we have the lead play our game.

Early in the 3rd period Saad brings the Thunderdome to a thunderous celebration when he gets a backdoor pass from Muzzin and gets it under Elliot to tie the game at 2-2. The game stays rough with Thunder Bay slamming everything that moves. At 11:47 McGinn and Eberle start a shoving match in from of Elliot after the whistle. Before they can be separated we have 10 player wrestling match. Nobody wants to throw the first punch but it was a face washing fest. McGinn and Eberle both get 2 for roughing.

Then O’Reilly hooks Forsberg behind the Thunder Bay net and Hampton is on the Power Play at 12:34. The move the puck well but while the bench is shouting “Shoot SHOOT” The puck continues to rotate around the PK perimeter. Seth Jones finally sends the puck deep just as the penalty ends – Icing. On the next faceoff Petry gets off a wicked slapper that catches Reimer on the mask.

Time is winding down and we appear headed to OT. 3 minutes to go……..
2 minutes to go…………..Last minute of play in the period………….
Big Tyler Myers blasts a shot into a crowd inform of Reimer. It his at least 2 players then skitters to the left of Reimer and Stastny with his 2nd 1 footer lights the lamp and sends Hampton to the locker room with a 3-2 victory and a 3-0 lead in the series.

Game #4:  Game 4 gets off to a wild start as the first shift ends with Tyler Myers two handing Calle Jarnkrok in the back of his legs. It might have had something to do with Jarnkrok’s elbow accidently uppercutting Myer’s jaw seconds earlier. Thunder Bay Power Play. Muzzin passes to Nyquist in the slot. Nyquist immediately backhands a pass to Saad at the right circle and Saad beats Elliot. That was a planned play.

Midway in the period, Andre Burakovsky get away on a breakaway and Muzzin hooks him from behind. —–Penalty Shot—– Burakovsky goes forhand to backhand top shelf to tie the game at 1-1.

Hampton is starting to meet check with check and the game is a slog. At 17:34 Charlie Coyle re-directs a slick pass from Smith for a 2-1 lead as the 1st period ends.

The 2nd period like the last game is brutal. There is no room anywhere for anybody. It is wild west hockey. Forsberg makes a speed move to beat DeKeyser at center ice then sets McGinn up for an easy score at 18:24 allowing Hampton to tie the game.

The 3rd period is more slug fest than hockey. Both teams look like they want to punish each other not score but the clock winds down and the period ends 2-2. We are headed to 5-5 Overtime.

After calling 9 penalties in regulation the ref’s swallow their whistles and let the team settle the game. Thunder Bay seems to have found legs in OT and Hampton are sluggish. Maybe a little too much Poutine last night and a few to many of the free Bador’s sent to their floor by the Hotel. In any case Thunder Bay is controlling play and outshooting Hampton almost 3 to 1. Tatar drives hard down the wing but is cut off by Ekblad, Tatar pulls up short and pass back to Adam Larsson at the point Larsson fires wide – but Barkov is driving the net — that was a pass — Barkov takes the puck cuts across the face of the net leaving Elliot going the wrong way. Barkov slides the disc home for the Overtime winner and series prolonging goal.

There is always HOPE!!!!!!!!

After 4 Games Summary:  Three games in a row with 3-2 scores – These are 2 very closely talented teams. Thunder Bay still has to win the next 3 but let’s just worry about game 5 and wining so we can get back to the Thunderdome.

Leading the semi-final series 3 games to 1, the Hampton Blizzard return home to hold off the surging Thunder Bay Nor’westers who stayed alive in game 4 by winning yet another tight game 3-2.

Who’s Hot … Thunder Bay’s Aleksander Barkov has scored a goal in each of the past three games and Brandon Saad has scored in each of the past two showing that there really is no place like home. Tomas Tater hasn’t found the twine too often in the playoffs but he’s been a force offensively for the Nor’Westers nonetheless riding an 8-game point streak into Game 5. Apart from the horrific Game 1 6-goal scalding, goaltender James Reimer has been a stud in nets with no fewer than 29 saves in any game so far in the playoffs. For Hampton, despite getting only about 13 minutes of ice time per game Andre Burakovsky has put together a couple of goals and three assists in the first four games of the semis. Tomas Hertl has three goals in the series, but no one has blossomed as has Paul Stastny who has five goals in the series and six goals and six assists in the playoffs.

Who’s not … Thunder Bay’s Darren Helm hasn’t been Un-hot on the scoresheet but has been burned several times in the series leading to Hampton goals. Keeping the puck on his stick will be his goal for Game 5. Perennial thorn-in-the-Blizzard’s side during the regular season Calle Jarnkrok has been frustrated in the semis with no points and four penalty minutes after scoring four goals and two assists against Jagr in the quarter finals. Hampton defenceman Jason Demers apparently got wind that he had not been re-signed for the 2017-2018 season and has gone cold with no points against Thunder Bay after scoring two goals and two assists against New Jersey in the playoff opening series.

Game #5:  With visions of the the Hoagie Party scheduled for after the game, the two teams came out in the first period firing at anything that moved. Fortunately for the goaltenders, the shooters were not really choosy about where they were when they shot and as a result the teams only had two scoring chances apiece in the entire period.
The teams whacked the snot out of one another with amazingly only four minor penalties called in the first 20 minutes. Both benches were constantly on their feet after several cheap shots and what they thought were sure-fire penalties behind the play that went uncalled. Somehow through all of it Andrew Shaw never was sent to the box.
Hampton won out in the shot department 15-12 using its typical quantity over quality “cloud of gnats” offensive strategy, but couldn’t solve Reimer who was absolutely brilliant throughout the game including robbing Vincent Trocheck in what seemed like a certain goal on a rebound with the net wide open. Elliott was much less flashy in net for Hampton but equally successful in keeping shooters off the scoreboard in the first period.
Pass the mustard and hand me my beer … finally at 15:23 of the 2nd period (with none other than poor Darren Helm in the box for cross-checking Aaron Ekblad) Stastny won a draw deep in the Thunder Bay end, drew the puck back to Filip Forsberg who made a nice pass to Jamie McGinn who raced in from the edge of the circle and bore down on Reimer, flipped the puck up and over the goalie’s outstretched pads and into the net for a 1-0 Hampton lead.
Cancel that order … Thunder Bay stiffened up considerably in the second period, but came to life after McGinn’s goal with Baba O’Reilly doing the honors at 16:26 by ripping a pass from Saad past Elliott after Nyquist kicked the puck lose from those frigging battles along the boards that Hampton seems to never win. Oh well … 1-1 and we’re back to nail-biting.
Unfortunately for the Blizzard, turtle was the only thing on the menu for them the rest of the period. Although they badly outshot Thunder Bay 19-5 in the period, Reimer stayed rock steady (stopped Hornqvist on a breakaway, he did) the Blizzard only managed four scoring chances thanks to the solid defensive shell the Nor’westers set up. Thunder Bay gave up lots of low percentage shots but this was not going to be the game that Reimer was going to let in a 40-foot floater.
The 3rd period began with Reimer already having made 2 great saves – I think Elliott may have made 10 all season – and the Thunder Bay offense starting to fire up with five shots just in the first two minutes of the period.
Eventually it has to rain … Martin Hanzal made a brilliant cross ice pass to Trocheck just inside the Thunder Bay blueline to allow Trocheck to move in unmolested on Reimer and finally ended his scoring drought by beating the star goalie high stick side and gave Hampton a 2-1 lead with 15 minutes left in the game.
With thoughts of protecting the slim lead, Hampton dropped back on the old defensive zone aggressiveness meter that still baffles me and it proved disastrous. Thunder Bay immediately pounced on the Blizzard for a several great scoring chances. Goligoski blasted a shot that Elliott didn’t see but somehow got a pad on sending a big rebound back to Tatar who fired the puck over the net but it took a crazy bounce that went straight to Eberle who was staring at a wide open net, but the winger suffered from premature exultation and rifled the puck nowhere near the net. Less than a minute later, right off a faceoff Saad rushed in and deked Jeff Petry out of his jockstrap and backhanded the puck past Elliott … and off the post. On the next line change, Cody Eakin’s shot at the scoresheet ended when he came in all alone on Elliott and broke his stick on his attempted slapshot that went nowhere.
Enough of this horsescheiss!
The Blizzard abandoned the crappy defensive cocoon (more porous than a deep sea sponge as it turned out) and went back to its original game plan and it paid dividends. Forsberg rubbed out (mind out of the gutter) Goligoski along the boards as he tried to move out of his own zone and that set up an odd man rush with Andrej (Stonewall) Sekera and Frans Nielsen screaming up ice. Forsberg tapped the loose puck over to Sekera who zipped a pass to the plucky Dane who fired a snapshot over Reimer’s shoulder to make it 3-1 with a little less than 12 minutes to go.
Thunder Bay moved onto the attack with a purpose, but it kept fizzling out in whistle after whistle. Growing increasingly frantic to try and tie things up, breakout passes magically jumped over Nor’wester sticks and turned into icing and the blueline turned into a skipping rope the rushing forwards just couldn’t avoid tipping over and going offside.
The whistles meant faceoffs and faceoffs were not kind to Thunder Bay in the game. By the end of it they had won only 20/58 (34.5%).
Thunder Bay had their backs against the wall but were not going down without a fight. They finally won a faceoff in their own end with just under two minutes left and moved down the ice with Reimer racing to the bench. Saad flew in across the Hampton blueline wound up for a blistering slapshot and … never touched the puck as he was crushed by Sekera. Ekblad picked up the loose puck did a few double axles at centre ice and then rifled the puck towards the empty Thunder Bay net to secure the victory. NOT. While his skating may have been the equal of a professional figure skater so was his shooting. The puck barely made it to where the net would have been had it been 10 feet to the left and Thunder Bay breathed new life with the icing call and subsequent faceoff deep in Hampton territory.
It was Stastny’s 21st faceoff of the game and he made it his 14th win. The son of former NHL great Peter Stastny won the draw and fed it over to son of former NHL great Peter Forsberg who circled behind the net and dumped the puck towards centre ice and the awaiting stick of Frans Nielsen .. son of former Amsterdam baker Jakob Nielsen who had no idea who Peter Forsberg or Peter Stastny were. The pass bounced over Nielsen’s stick but it forced the puck deep into Thunder Bay’s end of the ice. The Nor’Westers counter-attacked, but couldn’t get off a shot before the siren sounded and it was all over.
A great game and another close one.
DKSports unimaginatively awarded the 1st star to Jamie McGinn (currently not aware his contract is being loaded onto a rocket and fired into the sun .. we wish him well next season wherever he is) for a goal and a assist and the silver went to Nielsen for his goal, but I’m over-ruling that and giving the first star to Andrej Sekera for seeming to always be in the face of a Thunder Bay player and making key blocks and takeaways all through the game. Second star was a no-brainer and should have gone to Thunder Bay keeper James Reimer. He played huge against Hampton all season, but saved his best game making 42 saves – two of them great ones.
Series Summary: Congratulations to Mike Haley’s Thunder Bay Nor’Westers for a great season and coming back with a vengeance after a slow start. With its strong nucleus of players, the Nor’Westers won’t be strangers to the playoffs for years to come. Hampton maybe not so much.

Hampton wins the tough series 4-1 and moves on to the finals to face the Western Conference winner of California and Wasau with the Regulators currently up 2-0.

Thunder Bay is happy with their season and already looking forward to season 2.  Both of our prospects developed very well with both playing regular shifts on play-off NHL teams.  Jim Vesey looks like a keeper –  a tough player who can slide up and down the line-up.  I will give the Nor’Westers some needed flexibility.  Nikita Zaitsev, played a lot for a very promising Toronto team.  Thunder Bay’s defense is deep and Zaitsev will add to that depth.  Hard to keep 10-11 defensemen, so teams that need good young blueliners send us an offer. 

Wausau Lumberjacks @ California Regulators
Series Preview:  Wausau heads west for Games 1 and 2 of the semifinals.
Game #1:  April 15, 2017

______1 2 3 F
WLJ — 2 0 0 2
CAL — 1 1 1 3

Scoring Summary
Per
1 WLJ Palat (2), assisted by Kopitar (5) and Perry (1)
1 WLJ Zuccarello (1), assisted by Cizikas (3) and Giroux (6)
2 CAL Zibanejad (4), assisted by Gaudreau (6)
3 CAL Dano (2), assisted by Di Giuseppe (1)
4 CAL Pageau (1), assisted by Trouba (1) and Di Giuseppe (2)

Star 1: CAL Zibanejad 1 G
Star 2: CAL Pageau 1 G
Star 3: CAL Holtby 35 saves

GWG: Jean-Gabriel Pageau

Notables: WLJ Halak 33 saves, CAL Holtby 35 saves

Game #2:  April 17, 2017

______1 2 3 F
WLJ — 1 0 2 3
CAL — 3 1 1 5

Scoring Summary
Per
1 CAL Rask (3), assisted by Kunitz (3) and Faulk (2)
1 WLJ Zucker (1), assisted by Giroux (7) and Oduya (3)
1 CAL Del Zotto (1), assisted by Trouba (2)
1 CAL Spurgeon (3), assisted by Gaudreau (7) and Komarov (1)
2 CAL Ovechkin (6), assisted by Fowler (5) and Gaudreau (8)
3 WLJ Palat (3), assisted by Niskanen (2)
3 WLJ Giroux (2), assisted by Zuccarello (1) and Keith (5)
3 CAL Del Zotto (2), assisted by Kunitz (4) and Trouba (3)

Star 1: CAL Del Zotto 2 G
Star 2: WLJ Giroux 1 G, 2 Pts
Star 3: CAL Ovechkin 1 G

GWG: Alex Ovechkin

Notables: WLJ None, CAL Holtby 33 saves

After 2 Games Summary:  California wins both games to jump to a 2-0 series lead.
Game #3:  April 15, 2017

CAL 2 3 0 5
WLJ 3 3 0 6

Scoring Summary
1 03:34 CAL Reinhart (3), assisted by Kunitz (5) and Rask (5)
1 03:50 WLJ Perry (5), assisted by Kopitar (6) and Palat (3)
1 06:37 WLJ Zucker (2), assisted by Giroux (8) and Zuccarello (2)
1 08:24 WLJ Niskanen (2), assisted by Holland (2) and Fisher (1)
1 09:23 CAL Rask (4), assisted by Spurgeon (3) and Reinhart (5)
2 01:08 WLJ Perry (6), assisted by Kopitar (7) and Palat (4)
2 01:49 CAL Trouba (1), assisted by Beauchemin (2)
2 07:56 WLJ Palat (4), assisted by Perry (2)
2 16:52 CAL Faulk (3), assisted by Reinhart (6) and Rask (6)
2 18:13 CAL Reinhart (4), assisted by Rask (7) and Faulk (3)
2 19:02 WLJ Kopitar (2), assisted by Keith (6) and Palat (5)

Star 1: CAL Reinhart 2 G, 4 Pts
Star 2: WLJ Perry 2 G, 3 Pts
Star 3: WLJ Palat 1 G, 4 Pts

GWG: Anze Kopitar

Notables: CAL Rask 3 assists
WLJ Palat 3 assists

Game #4:  April 17, 2017

CAL 2 1 3 6
WLJ 1 3 1 5

Scoring Summary
1 05:55 WLJ Palat (5), assisted by Kopitar (8) and Perry (3)
1 09:05 CAL Nelson (3), assisted by Dano (1) and Faulk (4)
1 12:12 CAL Faulk (4), assisted by Gaudreau (9) and Zibanejad (7)
2 07:01 WLJ Niskanen (3), assisted by Keith (7) and Cizikas (4)
2 10:10 WLJ Perry (7), assisted by Tanev (1)
2 13:00 CAL Pageau (2), assisted by Fowler (6) and Dano (2)
2 15:22 WLJ Kopitar (3), assisted by Perry (4) and Palat (6)
3 03:53 CAL Ovechkin (7), assisted by Gaudreau (10) and Komarov (2)
3 10:02 CAL Nelson (4), assisted by Silfverberg (4)
3 14:30 WLJ Zuccarello (2), assisted by Zucker (1) and Enstrom (3)
3 16:28 CAL Pageau (3), assisted by Dano (3) and Spurgeon (4)

Star 1: CAL Nelson 2 G
Star 2: CAL Pageau 2 G
Star 3: CAL Faulk 1 G, 2 Pts

GWG: Jean-Gabriel Pageau

Notables: CAL Holtby 38 saves, Dano 3 assists
WLJ Keith 6 blocks

Game #5: April 19, 2017

WLJ 0 0 0 0
CAL 1 0 0 1

Scoring Summary
1 6:00 EV CAL Reinhart (5), assisted by Spurgeon (5) and Kunitz (6)

Star 1: CAL Holtby 34 saves
Star 2: CAL Reinhart 1 G
Star 3: WLJ Halak 29 saves

GWG: Sam Reinhart

Notables: WLJ None
CAL Holtby 34 saves

Series Summary:  California beats Wausau 4-1 by the slimmest of margins.