STORM BLITZ ISSUE #44 Friday 6 June 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail simonsm@storm-u-net.com any time. --------------------------------------------------- In this issue : * Finnie leaves Storm - three new netminders * Morin returns * New player rumours * Swindon bid put on ice * Red Wings storm to 3-0 lead over Flyers * Red Wings go 2-0 ahead in Stanley Cup Final * Download back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > FINNIE LEAVES STORM - THREE NEW METNINDERS John Finnie will not be playing at Storm next season, as new coach Kurt Kleinendorst did not renew his contract. Three other netminders have been signed - no details who yet. He thinks he'll be playing for another UK team next season. John has left a message on Into the Storm's guestbook as follows: Entry number 71 -- Name: John Finnie E-mail address: micaballo@aol.com Team supported: Man City Comments: To All Storm Supporters: First of all, I would like to extend my gratitude to all of the truly loyal Manchester Storm fans. I wish the players the best of luck, however I feel that the organization as a whole has taken a step in the wrong direction by more or less starting over with basically a new crop of players and especially a new coach and general manager. John Lawless was very good for British ice hockey. He admits to not being the best coach, but he always seemed to put together a winning side. He had one bad season out of many and it's what have you done for me lately. It's difficult to establish chemistry with all new players. All of the players whose contracts were not renewed will find another team, but I don't think it's fair that we are in this position. I want to thank John Lawless for everything. Bye for now. Date: Tue Jun 3 11:19 Remote Host: ww-td02.proxy.aol.com > MORIN RETURNS The North Manchester Express newspaper writes that Mike Morin will be returning to Manchester Storm next season. > NEW PLAYER RUMOURS On a German ice hockey newsgroup it was commented that a player called Stefan Ketola was on their way to Manchester Storm. He is a Swedish winger who last season played for Timmendorf (German 1st division North). He scored quite a lot of points and was a fan favorite. He has previously played for Swedish team Brynas Gaevle. He was born on 2 September 1972, is 1.75m tall, and weighs 80kg. Apparantly he signed for Iserlohn in the same league as Timmendorf in mid-May but Storm have made him a better offer and so he is on the way here. He is a former member of the Swedish national junior team, and played in two World Junior championships. In 1991-92 he played in Canada for Saskatoon, then moved to Germany to play for Fuessen. He then returned to Sweden, joining the Elite League side Brynas where he spent two seasons before joining Timmendorf last season. Stats: 94-95 in the Swedish Elite League (for Brynas): 44 games, 12 goals, 13 assists, 25 points, 30 PIM. 95-96 in the Swedish Elite League (for Brynas): 36 games, 10 goals, 11 assists, 21 points, 24 PIM. 96-97 in the German Division 1 North (for Timmendorf): 51 games, 40 goals, 58 assists, 98 points, 56 PIM. This information was taken from the Iserlohn web site at http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/1613 > SWINDON BID PUT ON ICE The following appeared in the Swindon Evening Advertiser on 3 June: The man behind the bid to take control of ice hockey in Swindon says he is pulling out of negotiations. Bob Thomas had led a bid to secure ice hockey in the town by setting up a new team, Swindon Steamers, with IceLords favourite Karry Biette as player-coach. And Thomas, who has been responsible for running the sucessful U-19 team, the Cougars, since 1992 and is a former director of the IceLords, had proposed a five year plan which also included the development of sport at junoir levels. But now he says he will not become invloved in behind-the-scenes squabbles over the right to run the Link's teams next year. "We have had two very substantial offers to run ice hockey for the next five years turned down," said an angry Thomas. "Thats it. Our offers have now definately been withdrawn." Thomas was angry that two scheduled meetings with the IceLords and the council had been put off in the last week. Swindon IceLords owner Bob Dewar shocked the fans at the end of their Championship winning season by announcing he would stand down if he was unable to secure major sponsors. But Dewar is angry that Thomas is trying to force the issue when the IceLords are still negotiating a possible deal for next season. "There is no comment right now from the IceLords" said Dewar "This is a major distraction and the business community in Swindon is confused as to the events of the last few weeks. We are hoping to make a decision by the end of the week, depending on how our negotiatings have gone." > RED WINGS STORM TO 3-0 LEAD OVER FLYERS Sergei Fedorov had two goals and two assists and Martin Lapointe also scored twice as the Detroit Red Wings moved within one win of ending their 42-year Stanley Cup drought with a 6-1 rout of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Red Wings, whose last championship came in 1955, can complete a four-game sweep at home on Saturday night. The Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 are the only team to win the Cup after losing the first three games in a final series. Ironically, Detroit was the Leafs' victim. If the Red Wings win Saturday, it would be the third consecutive Finals sweep. Colorado swept by Florida last season and New Jersey only needed four games to dispose of Detroit in 1995. "We are three-fourths of the way, that is the way to look at it," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. "There is no other way you can look at it really. People are going to write and say things. The people that are going to decide the game are in the two (locker) rooms and I told the team about getting the right focus. You don't win a series with three games, there's not three out of five series. Obviously, we are going to try to show up (Saturday) like we did tonight." "Playoff hockey, you never know what can happen," Lapointe said. "Three-zip for us, but I'm sure they won't come here Saturday night and let us walk away with it. So we've gotta make sure we're ready." "The odds are tough, but they are still just odds," said Flyers center Eric Lindros, who has been held in check during the Finals after three stellar series. Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman had the other Detroit goals. The Red Wings also got two assists from Vyacheslav Kozlov and one from Viacheslav Fetisov, improving to 15-0 in the playoffs when a member of its "Russian Five" records at least one point. The Red Wings also broke a seven-game home losing streak in the Stanley Cup Finals dating back to 1964. Fedorov, who has six goals and seven assists in the last two playoff series to make a bid for the Conn Smythe Trophy, put Detroit ahead for good with 8:55 to go in the first period and scored again early in the second to open a 4-1 cushion. That was more than enough for another Conn Smythe candidate, Mike Vernon, who stopped 21 shots. Vernon has given up just 11 goals in nine home games in the postseason. He turned aside the last 18 shots after giving the Flyers their first lead of the series on John LeClair's rebound of Eric Desjardins' slap shot on the power-play at 6:10 of the first period. LeClair's goal extended his points streak to 10 games, tops in the playoffs. The lead lasted exactly two minutes. Detroit got its lone power play of the opening period at 8:44 on a holding penalty to Desjardins and tied the game 19 seconds later. Kozlov centered from the right boards to Yzerman, who was left alone in the high slot and snapped a shot between Ron Hextall's pads for his seventh playoff goal. Yzerman has one goal in each game of the Finals. It took the Red Wings only two more shots to grab the lead and they did it off another Flyers' turnover. Defenseman Karl Dykhuis lost control of the puck at his own blue line, Fedorov stripped him, broke in alone and flipped a shot off Hextall's glove for his seventh postseason goal. Hextall, who was benched in favor of Garth Snow after Game One, returned as the starter for Game Three. He got little help from his defense as he allowed all six goals on 29 shots. "We have got to find a way to stop the bleeding," said Philadelphia coach Terry Murray. "No doubt that the game tonight, it was an embarrassment. Detroit came out and really took it to us. ... We have got to find a way, a complete total effort from everybody. We've just got to find a way to get the job done here for one game." Detroit Red Wings 6, Philadelphia Flyers 1 1ST 2ND 3RD FINAL --- --- --- ----- PHILADELPHIA 1 0 0 1 DETROIT 3 2 1 6 FIRST PERIOD -- SCORING: 1, Philadelphia, LeClair 9 (power play) (Desjardins, R Brind'Amour), 7:03. 2, Detroit, Yzerman 7 (power play) (Kozlov), 9:03. 3, Detroit, Fedorov 7 (unassisted), 11:05. 4, Detroit, Lapointe 3 (Brown, Fedorov), 19:00. PENALTIES: McCarty, Det (Obstr interference), 6:10; Desjardins, Phi (Obstr holding), 8:44; Fetisov, Det (Obstr interference), 12:14; Sandstrom, Det (Obstr holding), 12:54; Lapointe, Det (tripping), 16:43. SECOND PERIOD -- SCORING: 5, Detroit, Fedorov 8 (power play) (Kozlov, Shanahan), 3:12. 6, Detroit, Shanahan 9 (McCarty, Fetisov), 19:17. PENALTIES: Klatt, Phi (Obstr hooking), 2:24; Petit, Phi (holding), 10:14. THIRD PERIOD -- SCORING: 7, Detroit, Lapointe 4 (power play) (Fedorov, Vernon), 1:08. PENALTIES: Lindros, Phi (cross checking), 0:46; Lindros, Phi (elbowing), 8:12; McCarty, Det (Obstr interference), 8:39; Fetisov, Det (slashing), 13:02; Brown, Det (slashing), 19:41. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL --- --- --- ----- PHILADELPHIA 8 7 7 22 DETROIT 10 12 7 29 POWER PLAY: Phi - 1 of 7, Det - 3 of 5. GOALIES: Philadelphia, Hextall (29 shots, 23 saves; record: 4-2-0). Detroit, Vernon (22, 21; record: 15-4-0). Referee: Fraser. Linesmen: Scapinello, Schachte. Attendance: 19,983. > RED WINGS GO 2-0 AHEAD IN STANLEY CUP FINAL Brendan Shanahan scored twice and Mike Vernon continued his solid play with 29 saves as the Detroit Red Wings took a commanding 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals with a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Red Wings won both games in Philadelphia and return home for Game Three Thursday. Only three teams have come back to win the Cup after losing the first two games of the Finals and only two have done it after dropping the first two games at home. Kirk Maltby and Steve Yzerman added goals for Detroit. Rod Brind'Amour scored both Flyers' goals on power-play deflections and Garth Snow, replacing Game One starter Ron Hextall, made 28 saves. DETROIT RED WINGS 4, PHILADELPHIA FLYERS 2 1ST 2ND 3RD FINAL --- --- --- ----- DETROIT 2 1 1 4 PHILADELPHIA 2 0 0 2 FIRST PERIOD -- SCORING: 1, Detroit, Shanahan 7 (unassisted), 1:37. 2, Detroit, Yzerman 6 (power play) (Murphy, Fetisov), 9:22. 3, Philadelphia, R Brind'Amour 12 (power play) (Niinimaa), 17:42. 4, Philadelphia, R Brind'Amour 13 (power play) (Niinimaa, LeClair), 18:51. PENALTIES: Coffey, Phi (holding), 4:29; Coffey, Phi (hooking), 7:24; Lapointe, Det (charging), 10:21; Fetisov, Det (high sticking), 17:09; Larionov, Det (hooking), 18:37. SECOND PERIOD -- SCORING: 5, Detroit, Maltby 5 (Kocur), 2:39. PENALTIES: Coffey, Phi (roughing), 6:54; Maltby, Det (roughing), 6:54; Detroit bench, served by Brown (too many men on the ice), 9:03; LeClair, Phi (elbowing), 12:13. THIRD PERIOD -- SCORING: 6, Detroit, Shanahan 8 (Lapointe, Fedorov), 9:56. PENALTIES: Dykhuis, Phi (roughing), 10:27; Lapointe, Det (roughing), 10:27. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL --- --- --- ----- DETROIT 14 9 5 28 PHILADELPHIA 14 9 8 31 POWER PLAY: Det - 1 of 3, Phi - 2 of 4. GOALIES: Detroit, Vernon (31 shots, 29 saves; record: 14-4-0). Philadelphia, Snow (28, 24; record: 8-4-0). Referee: Gregson. Linesmen: Bonney, Broseker. Attendance: 20,159. > DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES OF STORM BLITZ All previous issues of Storm Blitz are still available. If you didn't get them, or want them again, you can now download them from the Internet individually, in bunches of 5 in a .zip file or all at once in a .zip file. There will soon be a Web page to access them all from but currently you can get them by entering the individual URLs : http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/blitz01.txt (replace 01 with the number that you wish to see). 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