A young(er) Mike Commodore
Freep mail/ping airborne or Hat-Trick if you want on or off the Hockey Ping List.
Posted on 06/02/2006 9:20:09 AM PDT by Hat-Trick
Category 5 thriller on tap
Hurricanes earn Cup berth against Oilers in homecoming of sorts
John MacKinnon, The Edmonton Journal Published: Friday, June 02, 2006
The Edmonton Oilers have a Stanley Cup final date, at last, beginning Monday night in NASCAR country.
And the speedy, skilled Carolina Hurricanes will be facing the Oilers in the final thanks hugely to Mike Commodore and Ray Whitney of Fort Saskatchewan and ex-Oilers captain Doug Weight, making amends for a costly penalty in Game 6 by scoring a key goal in Game 7, a dramatic, see-saw victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
Not to mention goalie Cam Ward of Sherwood Park, an emergent star in goal for Carolina as a 22-year-old rookie, who made 22 Game 7 saves.
It was Commodore, he of the signature flaming-red Afro, who got things started Thursday night, sending his signature average slapshot pinballing off two Sabres and past goaltender Ryan Miller at 12:05 of the first period.
"I was just thinking, 'Get it by the first guy,' and I barely did that," said Commodore, whose shot clinked off the skate of Taylor Pyatt, who came out to block the shot, then clanked off the skate blade of Adam Mair, redirecting a shot headed wide past a helpless Miller.
"I tried to get it up in the air, too, and it didn't even come off the ice.
"It hit a skate and hit another skate and went in. I'll take 'em however I can get 'em."
The Hurricanes took this game and kept it, in the end, but it was no breeze, even with the Sabres lineup shredded, its top four defenceman out with injuries, along with centre Tim Connolly. The Hurricanes, of course, were without power forward Erik Cole, gone for the playoffs with a neck injury.
The most recent Sabres casualty was defenceman Jay McKee, who woke up early Wednesday morning with a painful, swollen, infected leg. He didn't make the trip to Raleigh, joining Henrik Tallinder (broken arm), Dmitri Kalinin (broken ankle) and Teppo Numinen (groin) on the sidelines.
Still, in the end, the Sabres gave the Hurricanes all they could handle, erasing the 1-0 lead Commodore had provided, building a 2-1 advantage and going end-to-end with the Hurricanes in a wild third period.
But it took awhile for the rest of the Sabres to find their legs. Pyatt produced Buffalo's first second-period shot in the 12th minute and it was a good one, forcing Ward to make a splendid leg pad save. But the Sabres seemed to be out of gas until a seeing-eye slapshot by replacement defenceman Doug Janik eluded Ward about four minutes later, tying the game.
When ex-Oiler Jochen Hecht, shooting from behind the goal line, banked one in off Ward's skate to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 19:55 of the second period, it was almost enough to cause an observer to think there was a hockey god, after all, and she lives in the grim, urban wasteland of Buffalo, N.Y.
The Sabres didn't sag after Weight tied the game 2-2, burying a passout from Whitney at 1:34 of the third period. But the Hurricanes certainly claimed the momentum.
"It was a rough night after Game 6," said Weight, who was sitting out a boarding penalty when the winning goal was scored. "I was in the box when they scored.
"It was a terrible feeling. "I tell you what, these guys in this room are just great hockey players, wonderful people, great organization. "They were awesome to me, and said, 'Don't even blink an eye about it.' "
Rod Brind'Amour, the Hurricanes captain and one of seven team holdovers from the 2002 Carolina club that lost 4-1 to the Detroit Red Wings in the Cup final series that year, scored the Eastern Conference final-clinching goal at 11:22 of the third period, with Sabres defenceman Brian Campbell in the box serving a delay of game penalty. Justin Williams added insurance on a setup from Brind 'Amour with 52 seconds left.
As the party began, to the strains of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet at the Royal Bank Center (yes, that Royal Bank), a fan held up a sign that read 'Redneck Hockey.' Appropriate that, since the big-market hockey observers dismiss the first Cup final in the New NHL as an artistic triumph but a TV ratings and marketing disaster.
After all, it pairs small-market Edmonton with Raleigh, where their fans, the Caniacs, are wonderfully passionate, just not that numerous outside the 18,730 that filled the RBC Center on Thursday night.
Never mind. The final will be a once-in-a-lifetime homecoming to hockey-mad Edmonton for the likes of Commodore, Whitney, Ward and Weight, who finally felt free to talk about that scenario with the conference final out of the way.
"It's crazy there," Weight said, obviously up-to-date with the Whyte Avenue shenanigans. "It rivals this building, definitely, and they feed off it emotionally.
"They deserve to be where they are at, they beat some great teams. "They play a lot like us -- they skate, hit and finish.
"When you are the last two teams standing, the words heart and character (runs) throughout the rooms, both rooms."
No doubt.
Like BTO sang, 'You Ain't Seen Nothin' yet.'
Check out my blog at: www.edmontonjournal.com
jmackinnon@thejournal.canwest.com
A young(er) Mike Commodore
Freep mail/ping airborne or Hat-Trick if you want on or off the Hockey Ping List.
I was pulling for the Sabres, too bad. Now it's GO OIL!
GO Canes!!
I could live with that, keeping the Cup in the SE division.
He looked a little less stunned last night.
A NC PINGO PUCKO from a native NC Grand National fan. (#21 - 'The Silver Fox')
Me too. I'm guessing that the Oilers don't have to pay (fan-friendly) cheerleaders to stand in the arena to get their fans fired up. Even though they have boo-ed the Star Spangled Banner, I'm still going to root for Edmonton.
Having the Cup back in Canada is good for the NHL, Go Oilers!
Hah! The Canes cheerleaders look pretty hot but it seems to me they're not right for a lunch pail sport like hockey. A mascot is OK and kids playing goofy games on the ice between periods is all I need.
I'm rooting for Carolina. They're my 2nd favorite team after the Minnesota Wild.
I've liked 'em ever since they moved to Carolina. Don't know why. Just do.
I watched all the play-off games in '02 when they made it to the Stanley Cup finals.
I hope they do better this time! GO 'CANES!
Doesn't matter who wins this, it was a great year for the NHL and the NHL fan.
My 10 year old wants Edmonton which means I have to go with the Canes.
Hopefully the upcoming series won't be an anti-climax to the Eastern Conference series -- that was worthy of a Stanley Cup Finals. Despite the adversity of losing their top four defensemen and key forward Tim Connolly, Buffalo showed a lot of heart in extending the series against a technically better team in Carolina.
Actually, it was the "Hillary Curse" that did the Sabres in ... (word to the wise, never let Her Thighness mention she roots for your team ;)
There's a thread going about the Curse:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1642103/posts
I was pulling for the Sharks, until they were beaten by the Oilers. Hard to choose between the Oil and the Canes,
both are fast skating clubs, thought Oilers have more
grit and Canes more leavened by veterans.
Brind'Amour and Recchi are both in the twilight of their
careers and a Cup would cap them nicely. Also, Peter
Laviolette has done a great job keeping the Canes in the hunt all season. OTOH Craig McTavishs' Oilers benefitted by a brilliant set of trades at the deadline and a late season win streak that placed them barely into eighth place in
the West. I think it will go Oilers, in six.
Looking forward to a hard fought series.
It's really a shame, since it's probably going to be a very exciting series.
NHL ratings suck one way or the other. Who's playing doesn't matter. Even the Devils vs the Lanche (with interest from Boston fans because of Bourque) got crappy ratings. The league needs to do a lot of audience building across the board before the teams in the Finals have a serious effect on the ratings, as it sits right now the ratings will either be crappy or really crappy, hopefully someday they'll have the choice between good and so-so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.