The Bulls
are out of the playoffs, but there are a handful of other teams left fighting
for the dwindling spots available.
Here are the
results for the Quarterfinal games:
Florida
Everblades advance, winning their series over Elmira Jackals 4-2 games
Reading
Royals advance, winning their series over Greenville Road Warriors 4-1 games
Cincinnati
Cyclones advance, winning their series over Toledo Walleye 4-2 games
Gwinnett
Gladiators advance, winning their series over South Carolina Stingrays 4-0
games
Ontario Reign
advance, winning their series over Utah Grizzlies 4-0 games
Idaho
Steelheads advance, winning their series over Colorado Eagles 4-2 games
Stockton
Thunder advance, winning their series over Las Vegas Wranglers 4-3 games
Alaska Aces
advance, winning their series over San Francisco Bulls 4-1 games
Most of the
wins in the First Round were predictable, but there were a couple surprises.
One of them was Stockton’s ability to overtake the Wranglers coming from two
games behind and win the series. That was some battle of a First Round for
them; one the Thunder fans won’t soon forget.
San
Francisco fought hard and surprised Aces fans who may have thought the games
would be easy wins.
The Utah
Grizzlies battled but in the end were overtaken by the stronger Reign, my
favorite to win the west.
Gwinnett
swept South Carolina. I expected them to win, but sweeping the Stingrays
surprised me a little.
Reading won
their series, even with a major change in team ownership and switch over NHL
affiliation (they’re now affiliated with the Washington Capitals). I’m
impressed with their ability to maintain their focus to get the job done.
Toledo kept
up with Cincy as much as they could, but the Cyclones won in overtime in the
Sixth game.
The Semifinals
start Friday night:
Florida
Everblades vs Reading Royals in Reading
Gwinnett
Gladiators vs Cincinnati Cyclones in Gwinnett
Stockton
Thunder vs Alaska Aces in Anchorage
Idaho
Steelheads vs Ontario Reign in Ontario
My favorites
to win this round are Ontario, Alaska, Florida and Gwinnett, but anything can
happen! This is hockey at its best. Every team, every player, every coach
deserves to be there. They’ve worked hard for their place and I commend them
for it. Good luck to all! Hockey is the greatest team sport there is. Thank you
for making it even better!
