Congrats to the Chiefs! They won the game 4-1 as of just now. It was a well played game that both teams deserved to win but Spokane just had Kitchener’s number tonight.

I’ll be uploading the celebration to youtube ocne its over, but for now, lets just leave it to them and their fans to do their celebrations. What kind of annoys me though, is now due to this win, Azevedo will become the North American Brunnstrom. An overager with no contract who played really well in his last gasp. This is the first time an American Team has won the Memorial cup in 10 years.

Stafford Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP, just like the NHL trophy named after more famous brother Conn) goes to Dustin Tokarski of Spokane.

UPDATE: The Chiefs have also BROKEN the Memorial Cup! Vid below.

• Sergei Samsonov was re-signed for three years after putting up 32 points in 38 games here in NC.
• Tuomo Ruutu, Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Dennis Seidenberg, Niclas Wallin, and Tim Gleason are all playing in the IIHF Championships for their respective countries
• JR is working on getting our RFA’s re-signed starting with Ruutu and Gleason as the top priorities.
• The jury is still out on whether Peter Laviolette will still be behind the bench for the Canes for the 2008-2009 season. Karmanos is expected to sit down and talk with Lavi sometime in the coming week since JR’s thoughts remain the same on the situation.
• The most exciting news from my perspective comes about the open position to back-up Cam Ward. JR indicated that Michael Leighton, our AHL wonder who recently made 98 saves in a 50T loss, is the strongest candidate and stated: “Michael Leighton is in the strongest position of anyone with the year he’s had. He’s done what he needs to do. We’ll wait until June because somebody else may have some thoughts on somebody we haven’t looked at or considered, but we won’t leave it until July 1.”

I will update more when there is something to share. Until then enjoy the Conference Finals!

Michigan, winners of the CCHA regular season and the Mason Cup,  is the #1 overall seed, playing in the East region. The Wolverines will play CHA Champion #4 Niagara. The winner of that game will play the winner of #2 St. Cloud State/ #3 Clarkson. The East regional will be played in Albany, NY.

After losing the Hockey East Tournament in the semi-finals in triple overtime, New Hampshire was able to hold on to a #1  seed, but will have to go all the way out to Colorado Springs, to the home rink of the #2 seed Colorado College. UNH drew Notre Dame while CC will play defending champion Michigan State. Also, real disadvantage that UNH has is that their game will be played at 1:00 a.m. EDT

The northeast region features 4 interesting teams. #1 seed Miami, OH will play AHA champion Air Force, who nearly beat Minnesota in the 1st round last year. The other match up pits #2 Boston College, winners of Hockey East against #3 Minnesota, who made an improbably run to the WCHA final, after finishing 7th in the WCHA regular season. These games will be played in Worcester, MA.

The Midwest region might be the most interesting region of the four. #1 North Dakota, who beat Colorado College in the WCHA 3rd-place game for the right to be a #1 seed, will play Princeton who won the ECAC for the first time in 10 years. #2 seed Denver, winners of the WCHA Final Five, will play #3 Wisconsin. Questions have been raised about the viability of Wisconsin’s inclusion in the tournament, as they are below .500, but are hosting the tournament in Madison.

A lot of WCHA fans such as I felt that Minnesota State (formerly Minnesota-Mankato) belonged in the tournament over Wisconsin. Minnesota State played Minnesota at Mankato in a 3-game set for the right to play in the WCHA Final Five, and I think it was probably the best 3-game series I’ve ever seen. All 3 games went to over time, two of them deep into double overtime with Minnesota winning games 2 and 3 at Mankato to win the series.

The tournament starts Friday, all the regional games are on ESPNU.

How about Cam Ward? He does this thing we call “Cam Ward shutouts.” After giving up a goal early in the game, he plays lights out the rest of the game…he has lots of these on the year. Major props to him for  being able to stay focused when he was only tested 17 times.

Then there’s this guy who was pretty good tonight, Joe Corvo. You know, that dude that they called “Uh Oh” in Ottawa. The only person saying “Uh oh” tonight was Gerber when Corvo put the puck past him 3 times tonight! Joe is the first defenceman since Ozolinsh in 2001 to score a hat trick.  The look on his face after the 3rd goal is something I will keep with me for a long time.   “What can you say?” Corvo said. “If I got to write a storybook ending, this would be it.” He just seems so genuinely happy to be here and for the way he has been welcomed by the team and the Caniac nation.

I have to mention Eaves too, because since coming back from the injury he has worked hard every shift and it FINALLY paid off today with his first goal as a Cane. Hopefully the flood gates open for him now that he has made his former team pay.

And Eric Staal continues to be one of the best players on the ice. 25+ minutes of ice time today and 3 assists. Sergei Samsonov too…2 assists.

Now remember this 5-1 win is after calling up Joe Jensen and Pat Dwyer since Matt Cullen is unable to play (joining Whitney, Brookbank, LaRose, Williams, Tanabe and Brind’amour in our press box)….against a fairly healthy Ottawa team.

Now unfortunately for the ‘Canes the Panthers and Capitals won today so our lead on the SE stays at 5 points. 8 games left. Oh I hate when the NHL season begins to draw to a close, especially when the playoffs are not 100% for us.

PS: As a side note Marty Gerber was vicious to his former teammates today. He got in Staal’s face for no reason and was yelling at him, to which Staal said “Get the f–k out of my face, Marty” and Marty kept running his mouth at him. The entire arena, which is usually pretty friendly to him since we remember what he has done for us in the past, then turned 180 degrees on him and began booing him and taunting him with the goalie chant. So much for souther hospitality!