Sabres-Whalers, Game 7, Live!Blog!: 3rd Period

20:00 3rd Period - The Oilers can book their plane tickets to Raleigh. Congratulations (grudgingly) to the Carolina Hurricanes.

19:09 3rd Period - Jason Williams scores on a beautiful passing play. In basketball, I believe they would refer to that as "the dagger".

18:58 3rd Period - One minute left. This is gonna be good.

17:25 3rd Period - Perhaps the Sabres were doing it on purpose, because having a full two minutes only resulted in their being made to look silly by the Carolina penalty kill.

15:xx 3rd Period - Jason Williams gets called for hooking and Buffalo their third chance to not take a dumb penalty twenty seconds into their power play. This could be the game right here.

11:22 3rd Period - Rod Brind'amour buries the loose puck in front for the power play goal, giving the 'Canes a 3-2 lead. And Buffalo fans everywhere suddenly agree with me.

10:18 3rd Period - As Campbell takes a seat in the box for a delay of game penalty, I'd like to take this chance to voice my dislike of the rule regarding shooting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. It seems to me like a way for the NHL to artificially increase the number of power plays (and by extension, increase scoring).

7:12 3rd Period - Kevyn Adams breakaway defended beautifully by the Sabres

6:24 3rd Period - The more exciting this gets, the less I'm likely to update.

1:34 3rd Period - Doug Weight scores on a great feed from Ray Whitney below the net.

0:00 3rd Period - Please let this game go to overtime.

Sabres-Whalers, Game 7, Live!Blog!: 2nd Period

2nd Intermission - The dearth of highlight-reel goals in this game certainly can't be good as far as selling the sport to non-hockey fans. Two goals on seemingly harmless shots from the point and one of the back of Cam Wards leg after he failed to squeeze the post.

2nd Intermission - That? Was exciting as hell. Halfway through I found myself getting bored, and then as soon as I write that it's getting boring everything started kicking into gear. Up until the last five minutes, I though Carolina was pretty dominant.

19:96 2nd Period - Jochen Hecht scores from behind the net to give Buffalo their first lead of the game. Ryan Miller's big save earlier in the period is looming large now.

15:50 2nd Period - Doug Janik scores on the ensuing 4-on-4 to tie the game on a blast from the point that passed by four players, making it nearly impossible for Cam Ward to see it coming. This just got really interesting.

15:24 2nd Period That is, until Daniel Briere gets called for hooking to end the power play.

14:41 2nd Period - Another great chance for Buffalo and another great save by Cam Ward. The guy is on fire. Bret Hedican picks up the interference penalty to give Buffalo their first full power play.

12:06 2nd Period - No sooner have I said it than Buffalo gets their best scoring chance of the game, and then Carolina quickly goes the other way and scored their second goal of the... wait... Ryan Miller stopped it?! Are you kidding me?! What a save.

10:22 2nd Period - The second period has not been nearly as entertaining as the first. Hence the fewer updates.

4:00-4:04 2nd Period - What a great move by Rod Brind'amour, and what an even better save by Ryan Miller, and then a wild scramble in front of Buffalo's net. Carolina has the advantage so far in the period.

Sabres-Whalers, Game 7, Live!Blog!: 1st Period

Yeah, I'm live-blogging it. I'm kind of a loser that way.

1st Intermission - Ugh. Listening to Bill Clement wax poetic about the meaning of "Versus" makes me want to hurl something at my television. Which is bad, because I don't have enough money to replace a TV with a shoe lodged in it.

1st Intermission - Great 1st period. In spite of the score, I thought Buffalo actually had the edge. However, one has to wonder how well their defensive corps will hold up given the pace of the game.

20:00 1st Period - Just 12 stoppages in the first period. If I had access to those sort of statistics, I'd be interested to compare the average number of stoppages this year against the last few years before the lockout.

16:28 1st Period - This whole live-blogging thing is made significantly harder by the fast pace of the game. Not that I'm complaining.

13:34 1st Period - Buffalo still with alot of momentum in spite of Carolina's fluky goal. Cam Ward is going to have to be brilliant to keep the 'Canes in this, I think.

12:05 1st Period - Or not. Commodore shoots and it pinballs around in front of Ryan Miller before ending up behind him. 'Canes up 1-0.

11:04 1st Period - Buffalo finally starts getting some quality chances. All of a sudden, they've got some momentum.

10:03 1st Period - I get that it's called the Outdoor Life Network (for now), but an ad for Progressive Boat Insurance? During a hockey game? That seems a little silly.

7:46 1st Period - Much has been made of McKee's ability to block shots. Buffalo's lack of it doesn't seem to be hurting them, as they kill off Carolina's first full power play with relative ease.

5:46 1st Period - What a great start. Great pace to this game, I think the only stoppages have been for penalties. Speaking of which, Jason Pominville just got whistled for bowling over Cam Ward. 'Canes power play.

1:46 1st Period - That would be the best way to kill a penalty. The amazing thing is that Williams kept going through the hook and got an excellent scoring chance.

1:13 1st Period - Hurricanes take the first penalty of the game (Aaron Ward, roughing)

0:00 1st Period - And away they go.

7:29 PM EDT - Doc Emerick makes me think that maybe I don't use the mute button often enough.

7:24 PM EDT - OLN is currently showing a retrospective of the career of Bobby Orr. Say what you will about OLN and its coverage of hockey, there is simply no way anything like this happens if the NHL is still on the Worldwide Leader.

7:19 PM EDT - I just started my first of several loads of laundry for the evening. Juggling laundry and live-blogging should be interesting.

7:14 PM EDT - Jay McKee is out for Buffalo, leaving them with just two of their regular starting defensemen. Seeing as how I'm pulling for the Sabres a little bit, this is distressing news.

End of 3rd Period

Onward we go to Sudden Death Overtime. To have this game end any other way would have simply been wrong. Also, anything other than a Buffalo win to force a Game 7 is unacceptable.

Carolina-Buffalo, 16:09 3rd Period

Few things in the world annoy me more than fans in the front row at hockey games who feel compelled to bang on the glass. The preponderance of this phenomenon at HSBC Arena tonight is causing me to almost root for the Whalers, in spite of the fact that they are a division rival.

Carolina just tied it, by the way.

End of 2nd Period

Score still stands at 1-0 Buffalo. Still an exciting, physical, fast-paced game. I don't care if these are two small market teams, this is some of the most exciting hockey I've seen in a while.

Also, for those who wanted to know, I ultimately went with egg salad for dinner.

Carolina-Buffalo, End of 1st Period

Wow... great pace to this game. Buffalo is on fire.

It is exceedingly difficult to watch hockey with the melodious aroma of my roomate cooking his "top secret" barbecue sauce. I don't think I've ever smelled a more gorgeous smell in my life. I was going to fix myself a sandwich for dinner, but suddenly anything I could make pales in comparison to the big vat of amazing barbecue sauce sitting on the kitchen counter.

Anaheim @ Calgary. Game 7. Live!

10:10 PM EDT - Teemu Selanne opens the scoring at 5:12 of the second period. What an amazing shot.

10:12 PM EDT - The Flames fans' "Sea of Red" thing is really impressive. For a split second I thought all the seats were empty, then I realized it wasn't the seats that were red, but the people. I doubt any team in the US, in any sport, could pull off something like this.

10:16 PM EDT - Chris Simon is kind of a badass, and I really miss having him here in Washington.

10:25 PM EDT - The Flames get their first shot of the second period... At 12:42.

10:34 PM EDT - Directly over Flames' coach Darryl Sutter's shoulder? A Red Sox cap. They're everywhere.

10:36 PM EDT - Ruslan Salei scores to make it 2-0 at 19:01 of the period. Wow.

10:38 PM EDT - Huge save by Kiprusoff against Chris Kunitz on a breakaway to close out a dismal second period for Calgary.

11:08 PM EDT - Sorry folks. Got distracted. But I'm back now.

11:16 PM EDT - At the start of the game, I was impressed with the constant-ness and volume of the "Go, Flames! Go!" chant at the Saddledome. Now, with the Flames down 2-0, there are two horn guys trying to prompt a chant and no one is buying it.

11:19 PM EDT - Atrocious. Just atrocious. I have no dog in this hunt, but I have to say that the officiating has been questionable at best, and it seems to be favoring the Ducks moreso than the Flames.

11:34 PM EDT - Former Capital Jeff Friesen with the empty-netter at 19:40 of the third period to provide the final score of 3-0 Anaheim, as the Ducks move on to face Colorado in the second round.

11:37 PM EDT - I wanted to say something blasting the flat-footed, unemotional showing from the Calgary Flames, but the fact of the matter, I think, is that Anaheim just wanted it more. Every loose puck ended up on a Duck's stick, and Teemu Selanne came up big when it mattered. Its entirely possible that Calgary was flat and unemotional, but to make a complaint about it would be to take away from the excellent performance by the Mighty Ducks tonight.