Olympic Pool Update (Day 10, Feb 25)

The 2018 PyeongChang Olympics were destined to give us an unpredictable men's ice hockey tournament and it didn't disappoint.  I suppose, all we could have wished for was some pretty good hockey and for the most part, minus some of those questionable European guidelines, it was pretty decent hockey.  In the end, I think we all got the gold medal game that we were looking for, a well-contested game, with some last minute drama and an overtime to finish it off.  No one expected Germany to be there and no one expected Germany to hang in so well against the tournament favourites, but they arrived and they played well.  In the end, however, Russia's best players were the difference, as Nikita Gusev and Kirill Kaprizov carried their team on their shoulders and won it in extra time.

Both players were in on every goal in the 4-3 win and they truly won the day, as Germany could not seem to contain the pair, even in the softest moments, like with seconds on the clock to end a period.  The Russians are golden and the Germans should be proud of their huge accomplishments in this tournament.

Nikita Gusev was the hockey pool MVP in this tournament, finishing with 4 goals, including 2 playoff round game-winners, and 8 assists, which totaled up to 16 points, far and away the best player in the pool and the biggest reason why Neil is our winner this time around!

Neil's team finished 4 points clear of Don's team, 44-39, to take the overall title and win the $180, thanks to Gusev, who was indeed his 1st round pick, 7th overall in the draft.  Congratulations to Neil, he won a fun 2-week hockey pool, which was a good laugh at the draft and all the way through.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 9, Feb 24)

Certainly, for these two teams, this wasn't the game they were hoping to be in, but the bronze medal game is still a game for an Olympic medal and all of those stories about regret, not playing well in this game and coming home empty-handed years down the line, may have resonated with some of these guys, as this game had all kinds of offense and they were really going for it.

The hockey pool hero in this one for Canada was forward Chris Kelly, who finished with a pair of goals, including the eventual winner in the 6-4 victory for the bronze medal, which gave him a 4-point effort on the night.  This was great news for Neil's team, as that helped his team pull away at the top of the hockey pool standings, finishing this game with a 4-point lead at 38 points.

Mason Raymond and Mat Robinson each chimed in with an assist in this game, helping to lift Steve's team into 2nd place, behind Neil's team, keeping a reasonable distance, ahead of tonight's gold medal game.

A lot of the points, between the Canadians and the Czechs were too little, too late for the teams at the bottom of the standings and there were quite a few of them.  But we have one more game left to go and then we'll hand out the money.  Neil's team is the favourite, but I wouldn't count Steve's team out right yet.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 8, Feb 23)

It was semifinal Friday in PyeongChang this morning and it all kicked off with the Czech Republic and Russia going toe-to-toe for a spot in the gold medal game and the scrappy Czechs were holding their own for the first half of the game, but midway through the 2nd period, the Russians got on the board and then locked it down. Nikita Gusev opened the scoring, almost at the 28-minute mark of the middle frame, and that goal would stand up to be the winner, making it back-to-back games for him to score the winner and his point total has just shot through the roof.

Gusev helped guide Neil up to the top of the standings after this one and with seven players on his roster for the medal games coming up, things were certainly looking up for his chances at the overall money.

In the second semifinal, the German giant-killing machine, fresh off dispatching the Swedes, were certainly riding a high and they were able to knock of Canada as well this morning, sending the Canadians to the bronze medal game and propel themselves to a gold medal date with the Russians on Sunday afternoon (in Korea) and Saturday night for us here in Alberta.

Penalties were costly to Canada, as the Germans scored a power play goals and Gilbert Brule, shortly after scoring a power play marker of his own, was booted from the game after a high and dangerous hit in the 2nd period, leaving the Canadians a man short for the rest of the game.  The Germans rode some good highs and then held on for dear life in the 3rd period, bending, but not breaking, winning 4-3 in the end.

Unfortunately, with Germany only having three players taken in the draft, there wasn't a whole lot of points collected in this game, only assists to David Wolf and Marcel Goc, so no bonus points here.

The game did tighten up the race a little bit, as both Chris and Don each got a point in this game and Neil did not, so Neil leads with 34 points, while Chris and Don each have 33 points.  Steve is still in the mix, especially with seven players of his own, at 31 points.  Only two more games left and with these same four teams, one tomorrow morning and the other tomorrow night.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 7, Feb 21)

I don't think you can count this as an upset, but the Americans are out at the hands of the Czech Republic, after a pretty good, tight-checking game, which led right to the shootout.  1-1 after one, 2-2 after two, no scoring in the 3rd, the Czechs playing for the shootout in overtime and the Europeans did what they do best and that's throw some mad dangles out there.

There wasn't a lot of scoring for the hockey pool though.  The Czechs didn't help us out much, only one assist in the scoring summary, while the Americans were not a whole lot better, but 3 out of 4 points for the pool works, I guess.

The Czechs were then set to take on the winner of Norway and Russia.

And to no one's surprise, the Russians didn't waste much time with the Norwegians, finishing the 1st period with a 3-0 lead.  Norway was able to get a goal back, but a couple of costly penalties in the 2nd period and they were down 5-1 at the end of the middle frame.  The Russians then coasted to the finish, adding one more in the 3rd period and they are through to the semis to take on the Czechs.

Nikita Gusev was the big performer of the night in the hockey pool, scoring the winning goal and adding a pair of assists for a 5-point night, getting Neil back in the hunt for the money.  Mikhail Grigorenko and Ivan Telegin each had a couple of points for Clayton's team, but that's not quite enough for his side, and then another three players, Pavel Datsyuk, Slava Voynov and Ilya Kablukov each had 2 points as well.

The Finns were one of the most offensive teams in the tournament, leading up to the quarterfinals, and they had the top hockey pool scorer at their disposal, Eeli Tolvanen, so it was even more impressive that the Canadians were able to shut them out.  It was even more impressive that it was a split effort, with Ben Scrivens going down with injury and Kevin Poulin coming in to finish the job.

It was a super-tight game, as there was no score into the 3rd period, but a Maxim Noreau goal off an early 3rd period faceoff was enough to get the job done, as Canada held on for a 1-0 win.  Noreau got the 3 points, his 2nd game-winning goal of the tourney, definitely turning out to be Dale's best player, but he hasn't been quite enough either.

Next up on the bracket for Canada was the winner of Sweden and Germany.

Plenty of ups and downs in the last of the quarterfinal games, but it was eventual heartbreak for the Swedes, who went into the playoff round with some pretty high hopes and expectations.  Germany got off to a strong start, scoring two goals in 29 seconds in the 1st period and really clamping down on the Swedes, taking that 2-0 lead into the 3rd.

Sweden got their motor running in the 3rd though, managing to tie the game up at 3-3 with under nine minutes to go in the game.  This one had to go to overtime too, but the Germans were not going to be denied, scoring a minute and a half in and upsetting the Swedish powerhouse and moving on, hoping to do the same against Canada on Thursday.

Out of the Germans in the hockey pool, Christian Ehrhoff had a goal, but it was the opening goal, so no bonus points and that was it.  The Swedes were able to post some points in the pool, but it was only Linus Omark that was notable, with 2 points, on the way out of the tournament.

With four games left to play in this tournament, both Chris and Don lead the pool with 32 points, Chris has the second tie-breaker in game-winning goals to this point, but both teams only have three players left in the tournament.  Neil's team, which is only 2 points back, has two Canadians and five Russians, and they're running pretty well, so far.  Steve is at 28 points and also has seven players, so he has a pretty good shot at the money as well.

I would have to say it's down to these four, as the points drop off pretty quickly.  It's been a fun pool, so far... I can't wait to see how it finishes.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 6, Feb 20)

I thought that this game was going to be much closer than it was.  The Americans and Slovaks got off to a pretty tight start, no score after the 1st period, but once the Americans got on the board, they didn't really look back.  A 2-man disadvantage, which included a 5-minute major and game misconduct to Michal Cajkovsky, already down 1-0, didn't help the Slovaks too much and the Americans cruised to a 5-1 win and to a date with the Czechs tonight.

James Wisniewski scored on the 2-man advantage to make the game 2-0, eventually getting credit for the winning goal and also chipped in with an assist for the 4-point effort in this one, thanks to the medal round bonus point.  Troy Terry had 3 assists and Ryan Donato had a couple of goals, guiding the way for the Americans.

The match-up between Slovenia and Norway was a tightly contested affair, as one would have expected.  Norway coming away with the 2-1 overtime win, earning their way to a date with the Russians tonight.  The Norwegian keeper, Lars Haugen, managed to keep his team afloat, making 33 saves for the victory, turning away a Slovenian team that was hit hard by a doping incident, found earlier in the day.

There were two players in the hockey pool in this one, Jan Mursak and Patrick Thoresen, each coming away with an assist, but Thoresen moves on in the tournament.

The Finns didn't have too much trouble with the Korean hosts, dispatching them, 5-2, in one of the two late games.  Yes, the Finns gave up a pair of goals, bringing the Korean total up to three goals in the tourney, but we'll quickly look past it.

Eeli Tolvanen had 3 assists in this one and Miro Heiskanen scored the winner, so both players walked out of this game with 3 points a piece.

This game sets up a big quarterfinal match-up between Canada and Finland, which will be one of the early morning games on Wednesday.

Finally, in the other late game, the Swiss were upset by the Germans, 2-1 in overtime, making for a couple of semi-upsets in this qualification round, if you count the Norway win as a slight upset as well.  All six players were playing in the pool, but none were able to register a point.  Those six players are now three moving forward, as the Germans will get the Swedes in the quarterfinals, which will be a very tall task indeed.

Olympic Pool Preview (Day 6, Feb 20)

The men's ice hockey tournament resumes tonight in PyeongChang, with the qualification round, which is made up of the eight teams that didn't earn a bye into the quarterfinals and the tournament has now become a win and you stay in format, bracketed down the line.

With that being said, now the game-winning goals gain an extra bonus point, so not only do you get a point for the goal itself, it's now 2 points for a game-winner.

The USA will get the Slovakians in the early game of the day in Korea, our 8:10pm start tonight.  Both teams were 1-0-1-1 in Pool B and they'll face each other once again in the qualification round.  The Americans won their round robin game, 2-1, so it was close enough not to sleep on it this game being one-sided.

The hockey pool would prefer the Americans to go through, as their picks outnumber the Slovaks, 15-3, but the pool leader, Chris, doesn't have any Americans and he has one Slovak, Ladislav Nagy.  If you could call a Slovak win an upset, Chris would be okay with it.

The winner of this one will go on to face the Czech Republic in the quarters.

The midnight game in the Mountain Time zone will feature Slovenia and Norway, the 2nd-best team in Pool B against the last place team in Pool C.   Slovenia had a record of 0-2-0-1, winning both their games in overtime, while Norway didn't register a win, but did get an overtime loss, going 0-0-1-2.  This match-up clearly favours the Slovenians, since Norway only scored a couple of goals in their round robin games.

Only two players in this game are featured in the pool, Patrick Thoreson of Norway, belonging to Don, and Jan Mursak of Slovenia, belonging to Steve.  Don starts the night only 2 points out of the lead, while Steve is 8 points back.

The winner here gets Russia in the quarters.

Finland will get the host team from Korea in the qualification match, as the Finns held the best record, not to get a bye, and the Koreans scored one goal in their round robin games.  The expectation here is that this game won't be close.  Finland has been very good, so far, scoring 11 goals in three games, but just fell short of the bye, while Korea allowed 14 goals.

This is the best represented qualification game, thanks in large part to the mandatory Korean rule, where everyone is now expected to lose a player after this game, and this could be a game where a few teams make some hay on the leaders, since Chris only has one Finn... but it is the best Finn, Eeli Tolvanen.

Canada awaits the Finns... errr, I mean, the winner of this game.

The last of the four qualification games is between Switzerland and Germany and much like the USA and Slovakia game, this could be a evenly-matched game here too.The Swiss were 1-0-0-2 and the Germans were 0-1-0-2, with the Swiss having the better of the two goal differentials too.  This could be well played and if you had to pick a favourite, it could be the Swiss and the Germans could very well upset this one.

The two countries each have three players taken in the pool, six pool teams spread out the wealth in this one and Chris doesn't own one of those teams.  I'm sure the six teams represented in the pool are hoping for a barn burner!

Sweden is the lucky recipient of the winner in this game.

There you have it!  Tune in... there could be some good games!