Oilers beg fans to calm down

Edmonton Oilers tough guy Georges Laraque says he's saddened that a handful of hooligans are soiling the reputation of some of the world's best fans.
And he hopes the escalating post-game havoc on Whyte Avenue stops before it reaches a full-scale riot.
"It's sad to see some of the incidents that happened," Laraque told Sun Media yesterday. "I hope it won't come to the point that it will ruin everybody's celebration."
The latest spate of hooliganism late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, which included bonfires, smashed telephone booths, flying beer bottles and broken windows along Whyte has garnered nationwide media attention.

Laraque says he's been doing his best to ignore the media reports because he finds them depressing during a time that should be sheer jubilation for the city.
The team's enforcer also believes the thugs behind the Old Strathcona mayhem aren't hockey fans.
It's people who are caught up in the moment and they want to cause trouble," he said, adding he still thinks the Oilers have the best fan base in pro hockey.
"I love the fans. I think we have the best fans in the world."
The Oilers are planning a series of public service announcements asking Edmontonians to behave themselves during their final run for the Stanley Cup.
Team president president Patrick LaForge said the Oil will work with the city and the Edmonton Police Service to produce print, radio and television spots calling on hockey hooligans to lay off.
"They don't represent our ethics or our morals or our pride in the city," said LaForge.
"I think they're using the Oilers' celebration of success to let their crazy demons out."
The city's mayor, police chief and probably a couple of Oilers will ask rowdies to stay at home for the remainder of the Stanley Cup run.
Forward Ryan Smyth told reporters Sunday: "Obviously we would like everybody to be safe and have fun, but be responsible too."
Oilers legend Al Hamilton, who retired in 1980, said the events on Whyte are overshadowing the teams accomplishments.
"It'd be nice if everybody just walked away from the whole thing (on Whyte) and didn't have the big celebration there, but that's not likely to happen," said Hamilton, 59.

Oilers Beat Ducks for 2-0 Lead in NHL Western Conference Final

Fernando Pisani, Chris Pronger and Michael Peca scored goals as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 3-1 to take a two-games-to-none lead in the National Hockey League's Western Conference Finals.
Pisani scored his eighth goal of the playoffs with 2:51 left in the second period to snap a 1-1 tie at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California, and help Edmonton to its sixth consecutive win.
The Oilers, the eighth seed in the Western Conference, will host the next two games of the best-of-seven series. Game 3 is scheduled for May 23 at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, where the Ducks have lost 12 straight games.
Edmonton, the first eighth seed to reach the third round since the NHL's current playoff system was adopted in 1994, is 18-0 all-time when holding a 2-0 lead in a postseason series. The Oilers were last in the conference finals in 1992.
Pronger opened the scoring for the Oilers today, getting a power-play goal with 6:52 left in the opening period.
The Ducks, the sixth seed in the West, tied it 6:12 into the second period on Jeff Friesen's third goal of the playoffs.
Dwayne Roloson made 33 saves for the Oilers, including 10 in the third period. Peca added a short-handed goal with 18 seconds left to give Edmonton its second straight 3-1 win. The Oilers have won 12 of their past 13 games against Anaheim.

And a Child Shall Lead Them

By Mike Brody
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Rookie goaltenders have had success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs before – most notably with Ken Dryden in 1971 and Patrick Roy in 1986, both leading the Montreal Canadiens to the Cup – but never before has a crop of rookie goalies dominated the playoffs like they have this season.

Of the five remaining teams in this year’s playoffs, three are led by rookie goalies and another by a first-year starter. Carolina’s Cam Ward, Buffalo’s Ryan Miller, Anaheim’s Ilya Bryzgalov, and San Jose’s Vesa Toskala have all enjoyed incredible playoff success thus far.

Seven-year veteran Dwayne Roloson of the Edmonton Oilers, who was acquired in a mid-season trade with the Minnesota Wild, is the only experienced goaltender left. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that, especially with the presence of such big-name goalies as Martin Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff, and other veteran backstops or NHL powerhouses like Detroit’s Manny Legace, Dallas’s Marty Turco, and Colorado’s Jose Theodore, among the contenders.

The New Favorite

Thanks to a surprisingly easy 4 games to 1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, and a dominating performance winning four straight games over Montreal after losing the first two in Round 1, the Carolina Hurricanes have emerged as the new favorite to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. Despite finishing the regular season with 112 points, just 1 behind Eastern Conference leader Ottawa, the Hurricanes’ odds of winning the Cup entering the playoffs were posted at 10-1. That was before the oddsmakers had seen Ward turn away almost every shot he’s faced.

In 10 playoff games, the 22-year-old rookie has allowed just 17 goals while posting a 1.77 goals against average (GAA). Ward let in just five goals in Carolina’s four victories over New Jersey as he outplayed his boyhood idol Brodeur. With his stellar play, and the Hurricanes’ opportunistic offense, led by 100-point scorer Eric Staal, Carolina will be tough to beat.

The Upstart Challenger

The Sabres’ Miller is the only U.S.-born goalie among the Fab Four. He hopes to duplicate the feat of another rookie American goalie, Ron Hextall, who led the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1987. After a shaky start in Game 1 against Ottawa, Buffalo’s defense and Miller shut down the Senators the rest of the way, allowing two or fewer goals in each of the last four games. The Michigan native has a 2.25 GAA and a .921 save percentage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Buffalo’s defense has been stellar in front of Miller. Defensemen Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder lead all playoff performers in plus/minus at plus-13. The Sabres’ offense has been scoring in bunches. Buffalo has a team-leading 43 goals scored in 11 games and is riding high after winger Jason Pominville’s shorthanded, overtime goal clinched the series against Ottawa.

Mr. Perfect – Almost

Anaheim’s Bryzgalov has been the most surprising and impressive of all the rookies. Bryzgalov didn’t even enter the playoffs as the Ducks’ No. 1 goalie. That honor went to Jean-Sebastian Giguere, who led Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003, his second year in the league, and was named the Conn Smythe winner as the MVP of the playoffs that season.

After splitting their first four games against Calgary in Round 1, the Ducks made the switch to Bryzgalov and they haven’t regretted it. The 24-year-old Russian has practically stood on his head as he is sporting a ridiculous 0.87 GAA and .967 save percentage. He recorded three straight shutouts, including Game 7 at Calgary to clinch that series. In doing so, Bryzgalov set a rookie playoff record, holding opponents scoreless for 249 minutes, 15 seconds. Only Montreal’s George Hainsworth, 270:08 in 1930, has had a longer playoff scoreless streak.

The Final Four

San Jose’s Toskala is hoping to join his fellow first-year netminders in the conference finals. After an excellent series against Nashville in Round 1, including a shutout in Game 2, and two 2-1 victories to open the Edmonton series, Toskala and the Sharks find themselves on the ropes as the Oilers have stormed back to take a 3-2 series lead. Edmonton will try to close it out at home on Wednesday night.

San Jose’s offense is led by Patrick Marleau, who leads all playoff goal scorers with nine. The Sharks will need to get an early lead and help Toskala protect it to force a Game 7 at home on Friday.

The Finals

The matchup between Ward and Miller should be as entertaining as it gets. Both are capable of stealing a game or two for their respective teams. Carolina is the favorite, but Buffalo has a lot of momentum and Miller has shown he can win the close games with four one-goal victories against Ottawa. Look for the Sabres to get to the Finals.

The Ducks have had a long time off after unexpectedly sweeping the Avalanche. Anaheim may be a little rusty to start the conference finals, but the Ducks have good veteran leadership in Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne and will ride the stellar play of Bryzgalov past either the Oilers or the Sharks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

San Jose Sharks vs. Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers have embraced the underdog role throughout the playoffs. They eliminated the Presidents' Trophy winner in the first round. They fell behind 0-2 in the second round. They even had their national anthem booed on the road in Game 5.
Through it all, the Oilers continue to persevere. Now they look to wrap up their Western Conference semifinal series against the San Jose Sharks and advance to the conference finals for the first time since 1992.
Despite entering the playoffs as the eighth seed in the West, the Oilers players may be the only ones who are not surprised about being on the cusp of the third round.
"Everybody believes in that locker room," Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger said. "That's the first step for us. Everybody is buying into the system. Even when we were down 0-2, we just felt we could win two home games and be right here."
After a rough start, Edmonton has righted itself to take control of this series from San Jose. The Oilers have scored 12 goals in their last two games and exploited weak penalty killing by the Sharks Sunday to post a 6-3 road victory in the pivotal Game 5.
The Sharks seemed to have every advantage that game: they were playing at home, they outshot the Oilers 24-18 and outhit them 34-16, yet Edmondton still pulled out a 6-3 win in large part to San Jose's inability to shut down the Oilers' power play.
Fernando Pisani ended a wild four-minute sequence at the start of the third period by converting a 2-on-1 from Ryan Smyth and beating Sharks goaltender Vesa Toskala to snap a 3-3 tie. Jarret Stoll and Smyth added power-play goals later in the period for Edmonton, which went 3 for 7 with the man advantage and left Sharks coach Ron Wilson looking for answers to try and extend this series to a decisive seventh game.
"We've made it obviously pretty hard on ourselves," Wilson said. "You can't blame Tosk. We gave up 2-on-1's, a giveaway, a deflection ... very easily correctable mistakes, and we have to hold each other accountable to do things right. We've got to work a heck of a lot harder."
Toskala will start this game trying to find the form from his first seven games, when he allowed 12 total goals. But he has not been the same since allowing a game-winning goal to Shawn Horcoff that ended Game 3 in triple overtime.
"I don't think we have to make a goaltending change," Wilson said. "Vesa has been a rock back there. Last night, he didn't have a chance in any one of the goals. We didn't do a good job of supporting him and our focus now is to make sure we get back to doing what we do best which is playing sound defensive hockey."
While Edmonton's power play has thrived, San Jose's has been brutal. The Sharks are just 2-for-27 (6.9 percent) in this series, a far cry from their 18.2 percent (91-for-500) success rate in the regular season.
"They are pressuring us up the ice and we're coasting back for pucks," Wilson said. "We've got some guys who might be viewing themselves as they have a right to be on the power play instead of the view that it's a privilege."
Including the regular season, the Sharks have lost seven of their last 10 games in Edmonton, but the Oilers feel the urgency to close the series out and avoid a return trip to San Jose, where they lost the first two games of the series.
"The fourth win is always the hardest. We have to come prepared," Pronger said. "They are going to bring their best game. They battled back hard. There's no quit in that team. We've got to make sure we're focused and prepared. It's going to be a battle in Game 6."
If the Sharks win, they will host Game 7 Friday. If the Oilers win, they will meet the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the conference finals.

San Jose Sharks vs. Edmonton Oilers

The San Jose Sharks is one of the teams that ended the season playing really good. They had one of the best records towards the end. That reflected the result of the first round in the playoffs against Nashville, a series that many thought the Predators would win.Currently they are 2-0 against the Oilers and they expect to continue with the winning record in the next game that hopefully gives them the advantage to try and sweep this series and go to the conference finals.San Jose didn’t have a regular season that many expected and they barely made it to the playoffs. But here they are proving to everybody they can beat any team in the NHL and they are going for the Stanley Cup no matter what and the best part is that they have the talent and the discipline to achieve that.Recent Transactions4/18 Recalled G Nolan Schaefer from Cleveland of the AHL. 4/11Recalled F Ryane Clowe and F Tomas Plihal from Cleveland of the AHL. 4/10Recalled RW Ryane Clowe and LW Tomas Plihal from Cleveland of the AHL. 4/8Signed RW Devin Setoguchi.Much was expected from Edmonton at the beginning of the season; they had a hard time getting to the playoffs but they did. Not with the best record but they were in managing to get pass the first round against the Red Wings a team that was the favorite to win this series. As a matter of fact most sports books lines had them as favorites but they just couldn’t make it against the Oilers.Edmonton is now facing the San Jose Sharks a very physical team that won’t give any room for error and a team that’s playing really good. The series is currently 2-0 in favor to the Sharks and the Oilers needs to avoid going 0-3 because it will be their end if that happens."I really feel like home-ice advantage is going to be a big advantage in a series like this, one that has been as physical as this one's been," he said. "The hometown fans get behind (the players) and provide a lot of energy and a lot of adrenalin for the players to finish their checks. There's no doubt in my mind we'll bounce back tomorrow." –Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish.Recent Transactions5/1 Signed C Tyler Spurgeon to a three-year contract. 3/29 Recalled Brad Winchester from Hamilton of the AHL. 3/13 Recalled Marc-Antoine Pouliot from Hamilton of the AHL. 3/9 Acquired F Sergei Samsonov from Boston for Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny and a 2006 second-round draft pick. 3/8 Placed G Mike Morrison on waivers.

Oilers-Sharks

The San Jose Sharks have made a habit out of winning close games in the playoffs and not losing much on their home ice.
San Jose looks to take a 2-0 lead over the Edmonton Oilers when the teams continue their Western Conference semifinal series with a matchup at HP Pavilion.
The Sharks beat the Oilers 2-1 in Game 1 on Sunday, their third straight one-goal victory in the playoffs. San Jose has won five in a row in the postseason and 13 of 15 overall, including six of seven at home.
Edmonton, meanwhile, was 3-1 in one-goal games against top-seeded Detroit in the first round.
Patrick Marleau scored his eighth goal of the postseason and added an assist on Christian Ehrhoff's go-ahead goal to lead San Jose on Sunday.
Rookie Milan Michalek had two assists and Vesa Toskala stopped 15 shots for the fifth-seeded Sharks, who are 3-0 at HP Pavilion in the playoffs and have home-ice advantage for this round and the conference finals if they should advance.
After Ehrhoff's goal at 3:14 of the second period, San Jose's forechecking helped hold the Oilers to two shots in the period.
``I'm happy with our effort. ... We just wanted to establish a forecheck,'' Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. ''(Hitting) got contagious, the way our crowd was responding to every hit, and we just built off that.''
Dwayne Roloson made 28 saves for the Oilers, who went scoreless in the final 57:27 after Jaroslav Spacek's early power-play goal. Edmonton was held to fewer than two goals for the first time in the postseason.
``You could tell in the second period, we're on our heels,'' center Michael Peca said. ``We didn't really accomplish much. We weren't aggressive in our game. They forecheck so much.''
The Oilers failed to get a shot in the first 6 minutes of the third period, then couldn't score on a power play when Joe Thornton was sent off for tripping Roloson. Edmonton pulled Roloson for the final 90 seconds, but got just one good chance.
``We were standing still at the blue line a lot,'' Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. ``I don't know whether it was tough for our team to change the mentality (from the first round). I was really happy with our start, but they took it to us physically in the second period.''
Game 3 is in Edmonton on Wednesday night.