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Entries by Dan Hickling (107)
May 4 Providence/Portland Gm 5
PORTLAND, Maine -- Somewhere between the first and second hop, an exhausted Simon Ferguson turned his head and turned tail for the Portland Pirate bench. When the puck that Ferguson had so purposefully dumped in to the Providence zone took it’s final bounce and slithered through the pads of Bruin goalie Tuukka Rask, the hard-nosed Pirate winger knew something good must have happened. In fact without even looking, Ferguson had delivered the Pirates a 3-2 overtime win, to square their best of seven Atlantic Division final series at two games apiece. Portland which suffered severe thrashings in the first two games, now have a chance to take a 3-2 lead, when the teams meet in Game 5, here, tomorrow night. Thanks in large part to Ferguson’s gambit, the hockey equivalent of the Hail Mary.
Apr. 19 PORTLAND Me Hartford @ Portland
PORTLAND, Maine -- Pirates win a hard fought playoff "classic", 3-2 over the Hartford WolfPack to take a 2-1 lead in their Atlantic Div Semi...and while Portland was given a huge boost by the return of both Bobby Ryan (from Anaheim) and Drew Miller (from injury), I thought a key to the Pirates' success was the large contribution made by their fourth line --which featured rookie Matt Caruana between Michal Birner and Darryl Bootland-- which spent much of the night in the grill of Hartford goalie David LeNeveu....between them they had three shots (all of them by Birner) and kept WolfPack forwards honest...Of course, in the regular season, when AHL teams can only dress 17 players, there is no true fourth line. However, with 18 dressing in the playoffs, teams that have the personnel (such as Portland) can roll unit after unit, which had a wear down effect on the Pack (whose fourth line consisted of three players from the ECHL)...."When you're four deep," said Portland coach Kevin Dineen, "it's like baseball. Your line up's a little deeper. It's like a 3-4-5 hitter. I think it should be 18 and 2 (goalies) all year long. I wish they would. They say 'aw, then they'll just dress another tough guy.' But we're a development league now, and you're stealing a (roster) spot. We're a development league, and players should get a little better opportunity."
Dan Hickling
in Hockey, Anaheim Ducks, Portland Pirates, American Hockey League
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Apr. 19 PORTLAND ME
PORTLAND, Maine -- One of the joys of covering hockey is getting to the rink early...getting a early taste of the ambience...an h'ockey h'ors doeurves if you will...90 minutes before puck drop for tonight's Atl Div Semi between Hartford and Portland at the CCCC...no one in the seats....the ice is an unspoiled canvas awaiting the brush strokes of sharpened skates....who knows...maybe something I've never seen will happen...actually, I'm counting on that...Hockey, indeed, is a gift from a loving God....
Portland ME Apr 11
PORTLAND, Maine -- I may be the last living American to have seen live baseball this year, but it's good to be back in the park...back in Hadlock Field. I'm not the only one to make his first showing on Park Ave. (Portland style). The Portland Sea Dogs finally made their 2008 Hadlock Field debut, too. Too bad for them that their bats didn’t come along with them.
Jan 27 BINGHAMTON NY License and Registration, please..
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- If you should happen to hit 102.1 on a radar gun, you'd better have a good explanation for the statie who pulled you over, or one heck of a slapshot. Fortunately for Mark Mancari of the Rochester Americans, he is the possessor of the latter. He's also the new owner of the record for the hardest slapshot in an AHL All-Star Skills Competition, having hit that aforementioned mark, tonight, eclipsing Kurtis Foster's five year old standard (101.0) set back in 2003. Winding up for his second of two attempts, Mancari split the heart of the net with his drive. And when the supersonic clocking was announced, the full house at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena went nuts.
Dan Hickling
in Hockey, Los Angeles Kings, Manchester Monarchs, American Hockey League
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