The Capitals held off the Penguins last night and at least temporarily spared themselves the humiliation of yet another second round exit at the hands of the Penguins. A flightless Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin lead the charge to victory, but not before we got to see Phil Kessel make a classic Phil Kessel one knee goal.

We might have the first eliminations of the second round later today. Nashville will play the Blues at 3:00PM, and the Oilers will face the Ducks at 7:00PM.

The Marlies continued their series vs. the Crunch yesterday and took another loss in a wild game that had a final score of 8-5. There were misconducts galore and lots of penalties on both sides. Carl Grundstrom did end up making his debut, and he also scored one of the five goals. Kasperi Kapanen had a great goal after catching the Crunch defence asleep on their skates.

Now down 2-0 in the series, the Marlies get a breather, returning home to play the next two games at Ricoh on Tuesday and Wednesday. Scott will be there Tuesday, and I’ll be there Wednesday.

Crunch offense explodes for eight goals to defeat Marlies and extend series lead - Raw Charge
14 different Crunch players registered a point in the contest and it was all started by two guys that are on an absolute tear, Cory Conacher and Byron Froese.

Meanwhile, the IIHF World Championships continue on through the preliminary rounds. Canada is playing right now as I write this against Slovenia. They are up 3-0 in the first period.

William Nylander with 2 goals and 1 assist against Germany - Arvind
Just put him in blue, and he starts scoring.

Other News

Rebecca Michael named CWHL Director of Hockey Operations - Nafio
The Toronto Furies GM will move to a new full time role with the league as it expands its staff and game schedule.

It’s a slow news weekend for hockey, but things are quite busy here at PPP Advanced Nuclear Fusion Engineering and Kitten Ranching Concerns GmbH.

A bittersweet goodbye: From one managing editor to another
Scott Wheeler is leaving the ranch. Don’t worry, a familiar member of our community will be taking over.

From The Branches