WBS Eliminated, NHL Eastern Conference Final

The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins held a 3-0 lead in the third period against the Charlotte Checkers in Game 6 of their conference semifinals, ready to force a game 7 in Wilkes-Barre. The Baby Pens then began a historic collapse, falling 4-3 and ending their season.

Nevertheless, it was quite a successful season for WBS. They had the best regular season record in the AHL, and were without many of their best players for the majority of the season due to the number of players that had to be called up to Pittsburgh. Brad Thiessen took over the majority of the starting goalie position over from John Curry, and was voted as the best goalie in the AHL.

The NHL's Eastern Conference Semifinals are over before anyone would have predicted. Washington and Philadelphia were swept by Tampa Bay and Boston. The deciding factor in each series would come down to goaltending. Michal Neuvirth gave the Caps pretty consistent goaltending, but it was never enough to match 41 year old Dwayne Roloson.

Philadelphia continued their rotating Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher, and neither of them were able to find success. Tim Thomas remained a wall for the Bruins, showing that he can still get it done.

In the West, Vancouver and San Jose have been unable to close their series.

San Jose had a 3-0 series lead that is now down to 3-2 after Detroit's 4-3 comeback win last night. The Red Wings just hang around like they always do. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Holmstrom are extremely productive, and as usual, they have plenty of role players to back them up. Jimmy Howard's been pretty solid in net as well.

Vancouver just can't seem to close a series. They have a 3-2 series lead on the Predators going into game 6 tonight. I keep repeating this, but the goalies will decide this series. Luongo's been pretty great, but Vancouver hasn't been able to win. The Sedin twins aren't producing very much, Ryan Kesler has been carrying the offense.

If the Predators win this series, Pekka Rinne will be the biggest reason why. Nashville doesn't have much of an offense, Rinne has to keep the Vancouver at only 2 or 3 goals at most for the Preds to have a chance. Nashville has received some unexpected goal-scoring from Joel Ward.

Also, Wheeling is down 3 games to 2 in their conference finals against the Kalamazoo Wings, Game 6 is tomorrow night. Go Nailers