Image courtesy of CTK (Czech Press Office)

2013 IIHF World Championship Semis and Finals – Bronze Age for the USA, Gold for Gus

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/20/2013 at 6:17 pm

5/18/2013 Semifinals Finland-Sweden 0-3 Vaananen 0+0, 17:47 TOI Kukkonen 0+0, 6:37 TOI Gustafsson 0+0, 24:17, +1 Sweden became the first finalist to play in their home World Championship. They won against Finland scoring three goals while Jhonas Enroth earned a shutout. Loui Eriksson scored twice and Henrik Sedin buried the empty netter. Switzerland-USA Carle 0+0, 22:59 TOI, -1 Switzerland remains unbeaten, gaining 3-0 victory against USA and they advanced into the finals. They will earn the first medal in 60 years. USA will fight with Finland for the bronze medal. 5/19/2013 Bronze-medal game Finland-USA 2-3 in SO Vaananen 0+1, …

2013 IIHF World Championship – Quarterfinals – USA manhandles Russia, Canada is heading home

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/16/2013 at 7:36 pm

5/16/2013 Finland-Slovakia 4-3 Vaananen 1+0, 14:40 TOI Kukkonen 0+0, 9:06 TOI Radivojevic 0+1, 15:59 TOI Slovakia’s struggles against Finland continue. Despite being down by three, the Slovaks found a way to tie the game. Juhamatti Aaltonen had the go-ahead goal, which ultimately was the game-winning one. Team Slovakia had some chances throughout the game but were unable to capitalize on any of them. Finland survived the final power play and they will face Sweden on Saturday. Russia-USA 3-8 Bryzgalov 20 SA, 16 SV, 38:12 Carle 0+0, 19:19 TOI, +2 The most entertaining game of the day took place in Helsinki …

Image courtesy of Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images

2013 IIHF World Championship – Group battle ends

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/16/2013 at 8:31 am

5/12/2013 USA-Germany 3-0 Carle 0+0, 18:33 TOI Noebels 0+0, 13:18 TOI The Americans won easily against Germany. They got off to an early lead with two goals scored by Butler and Stastny. Gionta added the last one in the third stanza. Gibson made 30 saves and earned his first shutout after letting only one goal against Finland. Canada-Czech Republic 2-1 Giroux 0+0, 17:46 TOI, 72.73% FO Read 0+0, 13:33 TOI, -1 Schenn 0+0, 7:55 TOI, 25 PIM Simmonds 1+0, 14:08 TOI, -1 Voracek 0+0, 17:25 TOI, 2 PIM, -1 The Czech team lost the last game before playing the crucial …

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2013 IIHF World Championships: Giroux excels, Gustafsson logging near 30 minutes

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/12/2013 at 3:36 pm

5/10/2013 Slovakia-Austra 1-2 SO Radivojevic 0+1, 16:54 TOI, +1 Austria beat Slovakia after 17 years and made another big surprise at the World Championships. Slovenia-Czech Republic 2-4 Voracek 0+2, 17:29 TOI Slovenia played more than an equal role for the first 40 minutes of the game. The struggling Czechs couldn’t find a way to score against team Slovenia. Luckily team Czech Republic scored two quick power play goals in the third which helped them to gain another important three points in the standings. Russia-Finland 2-3 Vaananen 0+0, 15:43 TOI, 2 PIM Kukkonen 0+0, 11:36 TOI Bryzgalov – backup This was …

2013 IIHF World Championship: Read with two assists, Schenn with a goal, Gus remains strong

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/10/2013 at 6:42 pm

5/7/2013 Austria-Germany 0-2 Slovenia-Switzerland 1-7 A red hot Swiss team won another game against Slovenia. That was the fourth straight win for them after beating Sweden, Canada, and struggling Czech Republic. Swiss forward Hollenstein was the best player of the game recording four points (two goals and two assists). USA-Finland 4-1 Carle 0+0, 17:48 TOI Vaananen 0+0, 12:52 TOI, -1 Kukkonen 0+0, 8:43 TOI Team USA strengthened their hopes for the quarterfinals after a victory over Finland. The US team is now in second place in Group B. Finland is third. 19-year-old rookie John Gibson showed strong performance allowing only …

IIHF World Chamipionship Day 4 and 5: Giroux shines, Gus making progress, Bryz being Bryz

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/08/2013 at 2:00 pm

5/6/2013 Germany-Slovakia 2-3 Noebels 0+0, 2:48 TOI Radivojevic 0+0, 17:05 TOI Team Slovakia won their third game against Germany 3-2 despite losing twice in that game. Team Germany has only one point so far, while Slovakia has six points. Czech Republic-Switzerland 2-5 Voracek 0+1, 19:18 TOI, -2 Team Czech Republic lost the second straight game when they couldn’t beat the red-hot Switzerland. The Czechs made it more difficult for themselves to advance into the playoffs. But the schedule looks quite good for Jakub Voracek’s team – games against Denmark, Slovenia, Canada, and Norway are coming up. Czech Republic started very …

World Championship Day 2 – Giroux, Voracek, Gustafsson with assists, Bryzgalov gets the shutout

By Filip Strych
Posted on 05/05/2013 at 5:45 pm

The second day of the IIHF World Championship is in the books. I’d like to summarize the most important moment of the past 24 hours. USA – Austria 5-3 Matt Carle 0+0 17:48 TOI Austria led the game by two goals just six minutes into the first period. Team USA overcame a bad start and eventually won the game 5-3. Sweden – Czech Republic 2-1 Jakub Voracek 0+1, 16:02 TOI, -1 Erik Gustafsson 0+1, 22:13 TOI, +1 After a good first game against Belarus, team Czech Republic lost to Sweden. The Czechs under performed in the first half of the game and …

Then and Now: Lasse Kukkonen

By Craig F
Posted on 10/03/2012 at 9:00 am

One of the many trades Paul Holmgren made during the 2006-2007 season was one that resulted in Lasse Kukkonen coming to Philadelphia from the Chicago Blackhawks. In exchange for Kyle Calder, the Flyers acquired Kukkonen and Chicago’s third-round draft pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, with which Philly picked Garrett Klotz. After he posted five goals and nine assists in 54 games for the Hawks, Kukkonen went pointless in his first 20 regular season games for his second different NHL team. In May of 2007, Kukkonen signed a two-year contract to stay with the Flyers. The blue liner cost Philly a cap hit of $875,000 for both of the seasons …

Then and Now: Mika Pyorala

By Craig F
Posted on 07/04/2012 at 9:42 am

Mika Pyorala was signed by the Philadelphia Flyers in June of 2009. Even though the Finn never played a game in the NHL, the Flyers believed Pyorala proved himself enough in the SM-liiga and Elitserien to earn a shot in North America. With a cap hit of $500,000 for the 2009-2010 season, Pekka Rinne’s brother-in-law posted pretty decent numbers for the Flyers and the Phantoms. In his 36 games with the Orange and Black, Pyorala had two goals and two assists. His first goal as a Flyer was important, as he potted one in a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on November …

The ‘How’ of Homer

By Marcello De Feo
Posted on 11/23/2011 at 12:27 pm

When Paul Holmgren took over as the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers on October 22, 2006, I received numerous messages from my friends who grew up as fans of the Hartford Whalers. Those messages ranged from, “Good luck with that,” to “What a terrible choice” to the simple but poignant, “Bwahahahahaha.” These were people jaded by the abysmal record that the Whalers posted during his tenure as Hartford’s coach and his brief stint as GM in the years that eventually led up to Hartford’s relocation to Carolina. (His DUI and stint at Betty Ford likely did not help matters …

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