Alumni in the Playoffs - 2010

[Jim Hyla]

ECAC Website has article on P. C. Drouin leading the Ft. Wayne Komets to the IHL title with 2 goals.

[RatushnyFan]

ECAC Website has article on P. C. Drouin leading the Ft. Wayne Komets to the IHL title with 2 goals.

P.C. is still scoring a lot.  How watered down is the IHL versus what it used to be?  P.C. has 74, 98 and 82 points over the last three regular seasons with Fort Wayne.  Well done P.C.

[Josh '99]

ECAC Website has article on P. C. Drouin leading the Ft. Wayne Komets to the IHL title with 2 goals.

Wow, did I ever miss him entirely.  When I was looking through rosters to see who was still bouncing around the minors, I didn't even think to look that far back.  Serves me right!  Drouin led the Komets in scoring with 98 points as a 34-year-old in 2008-09, and was second on the team with 82 points this year; he also led the team with 18 points (5 G, 13 A) in 12 playoff games this season.  Drouin and the Komets have actually won the IHL championship each of the last three years.  His teammates there include Dartmouth alum and eLynah "favorite" Nick Boucher.  Incidentally, Parris Duffus, who lives in Fort Wayne and is a firefighter, played 31 seconds as an emergency backup goalie for the Komets earlier this season; Duffus retired from professional hockey after his final season with the Komets in 2002-03.

To answer RatushnyFan's question about how "watered-down" the IHL is, it's not the same league as the IHL that existed until 2001 and played at about the same level as the AHL.  Rather, it's a seven-team league with all teams located in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and it's the same league that used to be called the UHL until 2007.  It's a third-tier league, comparable to the CHL (where David McKee was playing this year) and probably a small step down from the ECHL.

[Trotsky]

The Habs have been justly punished again for sitting O'Byrne.  Meanwhile DougLAS is touching a lot of puck early.

[amerks127]

There is more to gritty Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray than meets the eye.

[Jim Hyla]

There is more to gritty Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray than meets the eye.

Maybe he has sleep apnea?::snore::

[Roy 82]

There is more to gritty Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray than meets the eye.

Maybe he has sleep apnea?::snore::

Don't know but I did want to say that Douglas was gong all out at the end of the game last night trying to get some offense going. He doesn't usually skate the puck into the zone but last night he was dragging the puck along the boards and knocking down people who got in his way. That is not the usual approach to offensive puck control but it seemed to be working. He helped generate some decent chances.

[Jordan 04]

There is more to gritty Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray than meets the eye.

Maybe he has sleep apnea?::snore::

Don't know but I did want to say that Douglas was gong all out at the end of the game last night trying to get some offense going. He doesn't usually skate the puck into the zone but last night he was dragging the puck along the boards and knocking down people who got in his way. That is not the usual approach to offensive puck control but it seemed to be working. He helped generate some decent chances.

I love watching him break out of the defensive zone. It often appears that he purposely waits an extra fraction of a second to get rid of the puck so that he can obliterate the forechecker who thinks he's going to get a shot in on Murray.

[Jim Hyla]

There is more to gritty Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray than meets the eye.

Maybe he has sleep apnea?::snore::

Don't know but I did want to say that Douglas was gong all out at the end of the game last night trying to get some offense going. He doesn't usually skate the puck into the zone but last night he was dragging the puck along the boards and knocking down people who got in his way. That is not the usual approach to offensive puck control but it seemed to be working. He helped generate some decent chances.

You can say that again.

[CowbellGuy]

As per Darren Dreger, O'Byrne will be back in the lineup.

[Josh '99]

Updates:

The prospect of a Murray-O'Byrne matchup in the Stanley Cup finals aren't looking so hot right now.  The Sharks lost their second consecutive home game to open up their series against the Blackhawks 4-2, and now trail the series 2-0.  Murray was +1 (on the ice for Patrick Marleau's late goal to make it 4-2) with 3 shots on goal and a roughing minor (during which UND product Jonathan Toews scored Chicago's third goal).  Games 3 and 4 are in Chicago tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon.

Ryan O'Byrne was again out of the lineup as the Canadiens also fell behind 2-0 in their series against the Flyers, losing 3-0 on Tuesday night.  Ville Leino led the Flyers with two points (1 G, 1 A) and Michael Leighton continued his hot play, stopping all 30 shots he saw.  The series heads to Montreal for games 3 and 4 tonight and Saturday afternoon.

Raymond Sawada and the Texas Stars needed overtime to do it, but cut the deficit in their AHL Western Conference finals to 2-1 with a 5-4 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs in Austin last night.  The Stars led 3-1 late in the second period, and again 4-3 late in the third, but Ryan Russell's power play goal at 18:27 of the third tied it up before Michigan State alum Ethan Graham won the game for the Stars 2:13 into overtime.  Graham's fellow Spartan Andrew Hutchinson led the Stars with three assists including the primary assist on the game-winner.  Sawada had an assist on Warren Peters's goal that gave the Stars a 4-3 lead, and was +2 (he was also on the ice for the overtime goal).  The Stars will have a chance to take a lead in the series with games in front of their home crowd tomorrow and Saturday nights.

Finally, the Idaho Steelheads hope to be on the comeback trail in the ECHL's Kelly Cup finals against the Cincinnati Cyclones; after losing the first two games at home, they closed the gap to one game with a 4-3 win in double overtime in Cincinnati on Tuesday night.  The Steelheads looked set to win in regulation, until Notre Dame grad Mark Van Guilder tied the score with a power play goal with about three and a half minutes left to play.  Evan Barlow was the game's first star, scoring two goals including the winner 48 seconds into the second overtime.  Mark McCutcheon had an assist on St. Cloud State alum John Swanson's goal that opened the scoring 13:51 into the first period.  Doug Krantz was once again out of the lineup for the Cyclones.  Games 4 and 5 are in Cincinnati tonight and tomorrow night.  (For what it's worth, though I should've mentioned this sooner, there's free online audio and video through B2 for all the ECHL playoff games.)

[Josh '99]

I'm sure it's been noted before but, these updates are OUTSTANDING.  Thank you very much for all the work, it is appreciated.

My pleasure.  I'm keeping tabs on these guys anyway, and this is about the outer limit of my sportswriting acumen, so the two seem to have dovetailed nicely.  :-)

[Roy 82]

There is more to gritty Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray than meets the eye.

Maybe he has sleep apnea?::snore::

Don't know but I did want to say that Douglas was gong all out at the end of the game last night trying to get some offense going. He doesn't usually skate the puck into the zone but last night he was dragging the puck along the boards and knocking down people who got in his way. That is not the usual approach to offensive puck control but it seemed to be working. He helped generate some decent chances.

You can say that again.

Indeed.

He also took a few nice Freudian slappers near the end.

[ebilmes]

Matt Moulson tours the NHL offices and meets Gary.

http://islanders.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=-6&id=69115

[Josh '99]

I should add that both McCutcheon and Barlow are among the top scorers in the ECHL playoffs.  McCutcheon is tied with Cincinnati Cyclone/former Princeton Tiger Dustin Sproat for third with 18 points, one point back of Stockton Thunder/RPI grad Oren Eizenman.  Barlow is one point back at 17, tied with Cincinnati Cyclone/former Niagara Purple Eagle Barret Ehgoetz and Stockton Thunder/Quinnipiac grad Jamie Bates.  (There are a lot of former NCAA players in the ECHL, if you couldn't tell; the leading scorer in the playoffs, with 24 points, is Reading Royal Ryan Cruthers, who played two years for Army and then transferred to Robert Morris for his last two.)  It's worth noting that McCutcheon and Barlow have played significantly fewer games than most of the other guys, though, because the Steelheads, who had the best regular season record in the league, had a bye into the second round of the playoffs.  For instance, they've both played 13 games, whereas the two guys on the Cyclones have played 22.