Spurs Take Gm1

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO

The Spurs took game one of the Jazz (aka USA) Conference semis from the defending CCHL Cup Champion Dayton Musicmen 4-3 in comeback fashion. The story of the game was not all world netminder Marty Brodeur for the Spurs but rather his youthful backup, Joey MacDonald. Brodeur went down 4 minutes into the game and was replaced by MacDonald. MacDonald turned in a stellar performance in stopping 27 of 29 shots (.931 SvPct.).
The Spurs were down 3-2 after the 2nd but scored two unanswered goals in the 3rd for the 4-3 win.
Scoring for the Spurs in the 1st period was Ryan Smyth (4) on the power play with assists from Sakic and Selanne.
Smyth (5) struck again in the 2nd assisted again by Sakic and Selanne. In the 3rd, blueliner McCabe (1) from Lecavalier and Hossa followed by Tkachuk (7), the game winner, assisted by Paul Stastny.
Scoring for the Musicmen was Gaborik (6,7) in the 1st and 2nd period. Keith, Michalek, Datsyuk and Meszaros assisted on Gaborik's goal. The other goal for the 'men was scored by Datsyuk, unassisted, in the 1st period.
Gaborik's second goal was on the power play in the 2nd period.
Dasher Notes
At press time Brodeur's injury was undisclosed, but it is a definite that Joey MacDonald will be between the pipes for the Spurs in game 2. Hopefully he can repeat his game 1 heroics.

Selanne Answers for the Spurs!

- The Nest - Portland, OR, USA

The improbable happened as the Spurs won game 6 in Portland 7-4. In doing so, they won all 3 games on Portland's home ice while only being able to take 1 of 3 at the Coliseum in Denver. In game 6 they found a chink in the armor of the Owls' Nik Backstrom in being able to put 6 past the stellar rookie netminder. The Spurs struck for 3 in the 2nd and 4 in the 3rd while the Owls put 2 in the 1st and one in both the 2nd and 3rd past Spurs' goalie Marty Brodeur. The Spurs were 1 for 4 on the PP, while the Owls were stifled by the PK units of the Spurs going
0-6 with the man advantage. Coach Q was very pleased with the PK efforts in this contest considering the woeful performances earlier in the series.
The Owls had a 3-0 lead by 00:58 of the 2nd period on goals by Satan (1), A. Ward (1) and S.Kozlov (3) before the Spurs got on the board. At that point it was looking like a game 7 back in Denver but then the Spurs kicked the pony into high gear.
Scoring six consecutive goals for the Spurs from the 2nd into the 3rd period were Malik (1), Selanne with a HAT TRICK (3,4,5), Tkachuk (6), Hossa (2) and John-Michael Liles (1), an empty netter.
Vanek (3), scored Portland's 4th goal at 18:21 of the 3rd with Liles empty netter coming 5 seconds later.
Dasher Notes
One opening round series still needs to be decided in the Blues Conference, that being the matchup between Karlstad and Quebec. Advancing in the Jazz Conference are the Spurs, Sandblasters, Musicmen and Express. In the Blues Conference so far it's the Donuts, Chinook, Ibex. The Spurs will face the defending CCHL Champs Musicmen in the Jazz semi-finals while the Sandblasters will face the Express.

Spurs Split Games 4 & 5

(AP) Denver, CO

The Spurs took Gm 4 of the opening Jazz Conference playoff series in Portland and when they returned home with the chance to put the series away, lost Gm 5 on home ice. Go figure these Spurs.
They took Gm 4 over the Owls and goalie Martin Gerber 5-2 with 3 unanswered tallies in the 3rd period enroute to the win. They actually scored 4 unanswered goals after the Owls took a 2-1 lead at 6:19 of the 2nd period. The Owls tallies were netted by Glen Murray (3) and Dumont (3).
Lighting the lamp for the Spurs were Smyth (2,3), Hossa (1), Lecavalier (2) and Tkachuk (5).
Gerber stopped 42 of 47 (.894) shots while Brodeur stopped 22 of 24 (.917).
Game 5 at the Coliseum in Denver saw the Portland Owls facing elimination. In a wild back and forth contest they came out on top 5-4! Goals were scored in every period by both clubs with each netting 2 a piece in the 3rd period. The Spurs penalty killing units went asleep again as the Owls hit on 3 of 7 man advantage opportunities. The last two coming in the 3rd period to tie and win the game! Both coming while Ian Laperriere was serving a 5 minute major and was not available for penalty killing duty. It appears that Craig Adams may not be able to pick it up in Lappy's absence.
Scoring for the Owls were Lang (1), Dumont (4,5) - left pic, Kozlov (2) and Vanek (2).
Denting the twine for the Spurs were Sakic (2), Lecavalier (3,4) and Selanne (2).
Nik Backstrom (right pic), back from his injury, stopped an impressive 52 of 56 shots (.929) in helping the Owls stave off elimination.
His counterpart, Marty Brodeur of the Spurs, stopped 22 of 27 (.815) in the loss.
Noticing a pattern with Brodeur?
Dasher Notes
The Owls had some bad news during the contest when winger Glen Murray went down with what looked like a possible high ankle sprain when he went hard into the boards behind the Spurs net. Word is that he could be out for an extended period. No penalty on the play on what was deemed a legal check by the refs. The Owls, of course, are not too happy with Spurs blueliner Bryan McCabe.
Game 6 is in Portland next with the Spurs leading 3 games to 2. Can the Owls stave off elimination again and send the game back to Denver for a game 7? Stay tuned!

Spurs Take Game 3

- The Nest - Portland, OR, USA

The Spurs came into the Nest intent on taking game 3 and indeed they did in convincing fashion 6-3 with 4 goals in the 1st period and 2 goals in the 3rd. After two periods, however, it was 4-3 Spurs and at that time it didn't look so convincing.
Scoring in the first period for the Spurs (all first time scorers in the playoffs this year) were Lecavalier, Sakic, Smyth and Selanne. The Portland Owls answered in the second period with goals from Slava Kozlov, Vanek and Legwand, all firsts this playoff season for them also.
In the 3rd period Keith Tkachuk continued his hot hand for the Spurs scoring his 4th of the playoffs which was also his 4th in two games. Closing out the scoring for the Spurs was Craig Adams with his 1st of the playoffs at 17:54 of the third.
The Owls had some bad news when their rookie of the year candidate, goalie Nik Backstrom, was injured in a goal mouth scramble three minutes into the 3rd period. Martin Gerber came on in relief and gave up the Spurs' two 3rd period goals. The extent of Backstrom's injury was not known at press time but it appears he may not be available for Game 4 in Portland.
Ian Laperriere and Tim Gleason had a heckuva toe to toe midway through the 3rd with Gleason getting a 2 minute minor and game misconduct in addition to the fighting major. Keith Tkachuk scored on the subsequent power play essentially putting the game away.
Dasher Notes
The leading scorers for the Spurs in the game were Ryan Smyth and Teemu Selanne (right pic). Each had 3 points on 1 goal and 2 helpers.

Tkachuk's Hat Trick Wns Gm2

- Denver Coliseum - Denver. Colorado

What a difference a day makes as the Spurs take Game 2, 4-3! Re-uniting Tkachuk with Lecavalier & Hossa certainly paid dividends in Game 2 with Tkachuk registering a hat trick! Without it, the Spurs may not have taken Game 2 from the Owls. Owls' goalie Backstrom played well but couldn't stop the freight train known as Keith Tkachuk. Tkachuk scored at 14:09 of the 1st from Hossa and Liles, at 18:30 of the 1st from Liles and Lecavalier and the game winner at 6:13 of the 3rd from Sakic and Selanne.
Backstrom stopped 38 of 42 Spurs' shots and nearly backstopped his club to another victory.
On the other hand, Marty Brodeur might start to be called the Cardiac Kid by the Spurs faithful after he allowed the Portland Owls to score 3 goals on only 21 shots. Another less than acceptable SvPct of .857.
'Ol Marty will again be spending some quality time with goaltender coach Curtis 'CuJo' Joseph.
Dasher Notes
Coach Q said there would be not be a lineup or line assignments change for Gm3 in Portland. Other than the possible line juggling once in a while as the game play dictates.
Coach Q also said, "I'm not concerned about Marty since some in the media seem to think I should be. He's one of the primary reasons we had the season we did. He's our #1 goalie throughout the playoffs. Period."
Well, you can't get more of a vote of confidence than that...eh

Spurs Lose Playoff Opener

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO

The Spurs and Marty Brodeur were soundly beaten by the Portland Owls tonight 4-1. While the Spurs peppered opposing netminder Nik Backstrom (pic) with 53 shots, they were only able to get one by the stellar rookie. We all know a hot 'tender can take a team through the playoffs. Hopefully for the Spurs, that doesn't turn out to be the case here. Marty Brodeur was less than adequate in this one for the hometown Spurs, allowing the 4 goals on only 27 shots for a paltry .852 SvPct.
Coach Q had no comment when pressed by the local media after the game. GM Poelker, however, wasn't as gracious in defeat. Poelker said, "I'm totally embarrassed for our great fans and the City of Denver. To allow Portland to come into our barn and kick our collective butts like this is totally unacceptable. This group of overpaid under achievers better get it in gear...NOW!"
Well, he didn't leave anything open to interpretation...eh
Dasher Notes
Game 2 is tomorrow night, here in Denver. Coach Q said he was going back with Tkachuk as 1st line LW, where he played all season with linemates Lecavalier and Hossa. The top line with Smyth at LW was absolutely horrendous tonight. Smyth will go back to the 2nd line playing with Captain Joe and Teemu Selanne. Ian Laperriere is also going back to 1st line PK with Mike Peca after the PK units only killed off one of two power play chances for the Owls.

End Of Regular Season

- Ice House - Beverly Hills, CA, USA

The Spurs ended their CCHL '07-'08 regular season on a high note defeating the division rival Lawmasters 5-0 at the Ice House in Beverly Hills. They'll enter the playoffs on a 3 game winning streak which is always good. Netminder Martin Brodeur turned in his 4th shutout of the season in his 78th game played. He was so hot he was melting the ice in the Ice House!
Lighting the lamp for the Spurs vs. lawmen goalie Mikka Kiprusoff were Selanne (38), Arnason (5), Stastny (26), Giordano (2) and Svatos (5). Hopefully Marty Brodeur and his Spurs teammates can continue this type of effort in the upcoming second season.
Dasher Notes
Congrats to the Wisborg Donuts in taking the President's Cup and regular season Blues Conference crown. They now have the all important home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
The management of the Spurs also wish to extend congratulations to the Hawaii Sandblasters on their taking the regular season Jazz Conference crown giving them home ice advantage through the Conference Finals.
Of course, congrats to all the playoff teams and ALL the CCHL franchises on another fine season!
The Spurs open the playoffs Monday night at the Coliseum versus the Portland Owls.
Denver was 7-1 vs. Portland in the season series while outscoring them 51-19 in the eight games.
But, as they say, the playoffs are the 2nd season and anything can happen! Stay tuned....

Hossa Pots 50th!

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO

Marian Hossa dented the twine for his 50th goal of the season in the Spurs 5-2 win over the visiting Portland Owls on Friday night. The goal came at 12:15 of the 2nd period assisted by rearguard Malik and Captain Joe. Rearguard Marc-Andre Bergeron potted two (17,18), while Captain Joe (46) and Vinny Lecavalier (55) closed out the scoring for the Spurs.
Slava Kozlov (24) and Legwand (13) lit the lamp for the visiting Owls.
Netminder Marty Brodeur gave up his customary 2 goals in backstopping the Spurs to the win. His counterpart, Marty Gerber of the Owls, faced 30 Spurs' shots in allowing the 5 markers.
Dasher Notes
The Hawaii Sandblasters have clinched the Jazz Conference title coveted by the Spurs. Congrats to GM Niclas Selberg and his Master Blaster Sandblasters. The 'blasters could also clinch the coveted President's Cup with a win tonight vs. Lahr at home coupled with a Wisborg Donuts loss on the road to Stockholm. However, the Donuts look mighty determined to bring the President's Trophy and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs home to Wisborg!
Hossa joins teammates Lecavalier (55) and Smyth (51) in reaching the 50 goal plateau this CCHL season. Certainly a high water mark for the Denver Spurs' franchise!

Spurs Nip Homers

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO

The Spurs returned home from the long flight looking a bit raggedy. The resting of certain key players in anticipation of the playoffs almost turned into a disaster as the Spurs barely got by the visiting Homers of Springfield, 2-1.
Scoring for the Spurs were Ben Guite (2) and Martin Lapointe (8). Lapointe's was the game winner. Picking up helpers were Stastny, Paetsch and Adams.
Denting the twine for the Homers was Sykora (23) from Zubrus and Gelinas at 19:09 of the 3rd to close out the scoring in the contest.
Peter Budaj, former Spur, played extremely well in stopping 41 of 43 shots. One could tell that he really wanted to beat his old 'mates. On the other side of the ice, Marty Brodeur stopped 19 of 20 Homers' shots.
Dasher Notes
Coach Q and GM Poelker are not sure what they'll do for the next game. Suit up the key players or possibly rest more. You'll know come game time.
Next contest is Monday night, here at the Coliseum, against division rival Beverly Hills.

Smyth Scores 50th, Spurs Win!

- Ice Surfer's Palace - Honolulu Hawaii

It was a wild one in Hawaii on Friday night. When
the ice chips settled, the Spurs had come away with a 7-6 win in OT on Ryan Smyth's 51st goal of the season! He had also lit the lamp at 19:42 of the 2nd period in potting his 50th of the season. Assisting were Malik and Selanne in putting the Spurs up 5-3 at the close of the 2nd. They also assisted on Smyth's OT game winner.
Selanne put in a marvelous performance with 4 helpers.
Scoring summary follows...

# TEAM PER  TIME  PLAYER        GOAL#  ASSIST #1      ASSIST #2      TYPE
-- ---- --- -----  ------------- -----  -------------  -------------  ------
1  HAW  1  00:21  Kovalchuk       32   O.Jokinen      Alfredsson     EST
2  HAW  1  19:56  Brind'Amour     18   Alfredsson     Schneider      EST
3  DEN  2  00:57  Lecavalier      54   Liles          McCabe         EST
4  DEN  2  06:19  Mrn.Hossa       49   Lecavalier     Tkachuk        EST
5  HAW  2  09:14  Cheechoo        26   Schneider      O.Jokinen      EST
6  DEN  2  16:51  Sakic           44   Selanne        Liles          PPG
7  DEN  2  17:59  Parrish         25   Laperriere     P.Stastny      EST
8  DEN  2  19:42  Smyth           50   Malik          Selanne        EST
9  DEN  3  03:20  Liles           22   McCabe         Selanne        PPG
10  HAW  3  06:14  O.Jokinen       32   Kovalchuk      Pronger        EST
11  HAW  3  14:04  O.Jokinen       33                                 EST
12  HAW  3  18:55  Nash            40   Schneider      McDonald       EST
13  DEN  4  01:17  Smyth           51   Malik          Selanne        EST

Dasher Notes
The Spurs return home to play the Springfield Homers Saturday night at the Coliseum. Hopefully they get some sleep on the non-stop from Honolulu to DIA for tonight's contest. It's likely some players will be rested after the long plane trip with fatigue lending to the possibility of injury. With the playoffs looming, now is not the time to lose any key players to injury.

Donuts Bake Spurs

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO

The Wisborg Donuts came to town and beat the Spurs like a drum 6-3. The race for the President's Trophy is now between the Donuts and Sandblasters. The Master Blasters are one point back of the Donuts and have a 4 point lead on the Spurs for the Jazz Conference title. Yep, the Spurs are going backwards at the worst time of the season.
Following is the scoring summary from the contest.

 # TEAM PER  TIME  PLAYER        GOAL#  ASSIST #1      ASSIST #2      TYPE
-- ---- --- -----  ------------- -----  -------------  -------------  ------
1  WIS  1  00:20  Ohlund          16   Jagr           Gomez          EST
2  WIS  1  09:41  Doan            24   Zubov          Jovanovski     PPG
3  DEN  1  14:13  Selanne         34   Skrastins      Sakic          EST
4  WIS  1  16:50  Lehtinen        25   Jovanovski     Sharp          EST
5  WIS  2  17:06  Jagr            34   Gomez          Jovanovski     EST
6  WIS  2  19:26  Doan            25   Stumpel        Rolston        EST
7  DEN  3  00:11  Smyth           49   Selanne        Sakic          PPG
8  DEN  3  17:43  Mrn.Hossa       48   Lecavalier     Tkachuk        EST
9  WIS  3  19:48  Jovanovski      13                                 PPG/EN

The Spurs launched 42 shots at Donut netminder Mason (left pic),
who was up to the task in stopping 39 of 'em. Brodeur turned in
yet another so-so performance in stopping 28 of 33 shots.
Nope, that's not gonna get it done.
Dasher Notes
Next on the schedule are the Master Blaster Sandblasters at their
house in Hawaii. The outcome of this game will probably decide the
winner of the Jazz Conference.

Spurs Over Scorpions

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO

Monday night the Spurs returned home and got back on the winning track versus the division rival Southwest Scorpions.
Of the 7 goals scored in the 5-2 win for the Spurs, 6 of them came in the 3rd period. The Spurs netted 4 in the period while the Scorpions got both of theirs in the 3rd. The contest was much closer than the score indicates with two of the Spurs' tallies being empty netters.

                                  GOALS
                                 -----
  # TEAM PER  TIME  PLAYER        GOAL#  ASSIST #1      ASSIST #2      TYPE
 -- ---- --- -----  ------------- -----  -------------  -------------  ------
  1  DEN  2  08:12  Laperriere       5   Staios         Peca           EST
  2  DEN  3  05:38  Selanne         33   Sakic          Smyth          PPG
  3  SWS  3  06:26  Gill             9   Fedotenko      H.Sedin        EST
  4  SWS  3  15:35  M.Koivu         19   D.Sedin        Z.Michalek     EST
  5  DEN  3  18:00  Smyth           48   Selanne        P.Stastny      EST
  6  DEN  3  19:40  Tkachuk         38   Skrastins      Mrn.Hossa      EST/EN
  7  DEN  3  19:57  Skrastins        2   Tkachuk        Lecavalier     EST/EN

Dasher Notes
Next up for the Spurs are the league leading Wisborg Donuts on Wednesday night here in
Denver. A must win for the Spurs if they hope to challenge for the President's Trophy.

Spurs Lose Again

- Hamilton, Ontario -

The Spurs lost to the Preds tonight by a score of 3-2. Unfortunately for the Spurs, the Dominator (Preds goalie Dom Hasek) was on his game while Brodeur wasn't for the Spurs.

   # TEAM PER  TIME  PLAYER        GOAL#  ASSIST #1      ASSIST #2      TYPE
-- ---- --- -----  ------------- -----  -------------  -------------  ------
1  HAM  2  02:22  M.Holmqvist      3   Reinprecht     Streit         PPG
2  DEN  2  11:33  Sakic           43   B.Clark        Selanne        PPG
3  HAM  2  18:17  Kotalik         17   Handzus        Iginla         EST
4  DEN  3  00:54  Mrn.Hossa       47   Tkachuk        Lecavalier     EST
5  HAM  3  07:06  Souray          27   T.White        Franzen        EST

A very disappointing 1-2 road trip at the worst point in the season.
Dasher Notes
Coach Q said there isn't a lot he can do about it at this point. He'll try juggling some things.
Seems like this club doesn't want the Conference title or Presidents' Trophy. Everytime, the past several weeks, they are in a position to open some ground, they lose.
As Dayton GM & Commish Corfield said, Denver overpaid for some players.
That statement is obvious now.

Spurs Split Again

(AP) Denver, CO

The Spurs last two games were on the road. In the first contest the Spurs were soundly beaten by the defending Champion Dayton Musicmen 4-2. The score itself does not indicate that the Spurs were outplayed in all facets of the game. The PK units disappeared as the 'men went 3 for 6 on the PP, while the defense corps also was out to lunch with the 'men peppering Brodeur with 51 shots.
Pavel Datsyuk (left pic) notched 2 goals and an assist in leading the Musicmen to the win.
The second contest saw the Spurs defeat Portland 4-2 in a more closely played contest. The Spurs outshot the Owls 44-37 with blueliner John-Michael Liles (right pic) leading the Spurs with his 20th and 21st goals of the season. John-Michael was credited with the lone power play tally of the game near the end of the contest and also picked up the game winner early in the 3rd.
Dasher Notes
The Spurs pulled two points ahead of the Master 'Blasters from Hawaii for the Jazz Conference lead with the 'blasters having a game in hand.
Next up are the Hamilton Predators in Hamilton tomorrow night. That makes it 3 road games in 3 nights. The Spurs need to salvage the road trip with a win vs. the Preds.