Talk about a dominating performance—for both player and team!
Elias Pettersson picked up two more goals on Sunday as his Vaxjo Lakers defeated Skelleftea 5-0 to capture the Swedish League championship. Not only was the series a four-game sweep, Vaxjo outscored Skelleftea 20-1, recording three shutouts in the series.
Pettersson finished the postseason with 19 points in 13 games, including an astonishing 10 points in the four-game final. The whole team gets to wear the gold helmets to honour their championship; Elias also gets a trophy:
Pettersson has now re-written Sweden's U20 record book in both the regular season and playoffs.
The only 'blemish' on his year, if you can even call it that, was *only* winning silver at World Juniors. All indications are that he'll get another chance to play for his country next month in Denmark at World Championships. I'm excited to see what else he can do!
Meanwhile, in Toronto, the Utica Comets will try to steal a road game from the Toronto Marlies as Game 2 of their best-of-five AHL playoff series goes down Sunday at 1 p.m. PT. They came close on Saturday, when Michael Chaput forced overtime when he tied the game at 2-2 with 36 seconds left to play in the third period and Thatcher Demko on the bench of the extra attacker. In overtime, Cole Cassels thought he had won it, but a review determined that the puck had not crossed the goal line.
Demko made a career-high 44 saves and the penalty kill was an impressive 6-for-6 until Chris Mueller of the Marlies scored the game winner with Ashton Sautner in the box serving a hooking penalty with 2:12 left to play in the first overtime period.
With an abundance of forwards to choose from, here's how coach Trent Cull deployed his lines on Saturday:
There was some consternation about the fact that Cull chose not to use Jonathan Dahlen or Kole Lind, going instead with players he was more familiar with. No word yet on whether he'll change things up for Game 2.
No points on Saturday for Czech prospect Lukas Jasek, but he came into the playoffs with a big prize already in hand. On Friday, the Canucks announced that they'd signed the sixth-rounder from 2015 to a three-year NHL entry-level contract.
Ed Willes of
The Province is covering the series. His attempt to interview Jasek, with his limited English, is both amusing and heartwarming.
“I feel very good and I’m very happy to be here,” Jasek told Willes. “I’m sorry. My English isn’t so good.”
If he picks up the language as well as he seems to have picked up North American hockey, we'll be hearing plenty of meaty quotes before long. Jasek will turn 21 in August and even though the Canucks roster is overflowing with young forwards, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a real look from the big club at training camp next year. Sounds like he has a terrific attitude and is thrilled to have a chance to show what he can do on this side of the ocean.
“He skates really well but the big thing with him is he makes play at the same pace,” Cull says.
As for the language barrier, that’s a work in progress.
“Sometimes I’m talking to him and I’ll say, ‘Did you understand me,’” Cull says. “He’ll shrug and I’ll say, ‘OK, let’s go to (video)’ and I’ll show him. But it doesn’t matter what language you speak if you understand the game.”
Meanwhile, in the NHL playoffs, we've got two fun games on the schedule for Sunday. Both Philadelphia and Colorado avoided elimination on Friday night with gutsy road wins. And both are using essentially their third-string goaltenders to try to beat the odds.
Michael Neuvirth stepped into Game 4 after Brian Elliott gave up three goals on 17 shots in 28:04 of action; he gave up two more goals in that game and kept Pittsburgh to two again on Friday, setting up Sean Couturier to score the game winner in his first game back after being injuring in a collision at practice with his teammate Radko Gudas.
Neuvirth's last playoff appearance was a heroic three-game stretch for the Flyers against Washington in 2015-16. The Caps won the series in six games but Neuvirth gave up just two goals in three games, finishing with a .981 save percentage. He'll need to recapture that same magic today for the Flyers to force Game 7.
Meanwhile in Denver, the legend of the Hamburglar is alive once again! After that incredible 20-1-2 run that got the Ottawa Senators into the playoffs in 2014-15, the White Rock native saw his fortunes dip. A throw-in from the Matt Duchene trade, Hammond appeared in just one regular-season game with the Avalanche before being tapped to relieve Jonathan Bernier with Colorado trailing 3-0 after two periods in Game 4 against Nashville.
Hammond stopped all eight shots he faced and the Avs scored twice, nearly sending the game to overtime. So he got the start in Game 5, and made 44 saves as Colorado pulled out the 2-1 win in Nashville to send the series back home to Denver.
I picked the Penguins and the Preds to win these series—heck, I picked 'em both to repeat as Stanley Cup finalists. But I love a good underdog story. Looking forward to both these games today!
Penguins-Flyers gets us started at noon PT, then it's Preds-Avs at 4 p.m.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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