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The Hershey Bears proved to be too much for the Admirals, besting Milwaukee 5-1 last night at the Bradley Center to win the Calder Cup in six games. The Bears jumped out to an early lead once again, with net minder Pekka Rinne giving up two goals in the first six minutes of the game. Head coach Claude Noel decided to pull Rinne after that, but reliever Brian Finley fared little better, allowing another goal in the opening frame and one apiece in the final two periods. Darren Haydar came up with Milwaukee’s lone point on a power play in the second.

Despite falling short of the Cup, it was a good run for the Admirals, winning 49 games in the regular season to win the West Division title. Haydar led everyone in the playoffs with 18 goals and 17 assists, while Simon Gamache came up with 12 goals and 16 assists. I would suspect they might get a shot at making the Predators roster next year.

Speaking of youngsters playing hockey, the NHL Draft is coming up June 24, and there are some Badger names to keep an eye on. Derrick LaPoint, a defenseman for Eau Claire North High School, is considered a possible second round pick this year, while Ben Street, who scored 10 goals and had five assists for the NCAA champion Badgers this year, is also a top prospect. And representing the Hawkeye state, Keye Okposo is seen as a first rounder. Actually, Okposo is from St. Paul, but he helped lead the Des Moines Buccaneers to a Memorial Cup trophy back in May.

The Calder Cup finals are all even after this weekend’s games in Pennsylvania. Milwaukee recorded a 2-0 victory over the Hershey Bears on Saturday night with Darren Haydar scoring a power play goal in the first and then getting an assist on a goal by Simon Gamache in the second. Pekka Rinne had 21 saves in the shutout. Last night, though, it was all Hershey as the Bears powered their way to a 7-2 win with four goals scored during a three and a half minute span in the first period. The Admirals and Bears resume the series tomorrow night.

In the big leagues, I was happy to see the Edmonton Oilers strike back and get one win at least, even if it came by way of a garbage goal. Even though it was a “controversial” call, it was definitely a goal and pretty neat the way Lady Luck shined down on the Oil. Edmonton and Carolina play Game 4 tonight.

The Milwaukee Admirals got off to a good start last night in their bid to win a second Calder Cup in three years, outlasting the Hershey Bears 2-1 at the Bradley Center. Scottie Upshall and Darren Haydar scored for Milwaukee in the first and the defense, anchored by goalie Pekka Rinne, hung on to take a 1-0 lead in the series. According to the Journal Sentinel, it sounds like the Bears are a bigger team than the Admirals, so Milwaukee will need to rely on speed and good skating to get through this championship series.

I’ve actually been getting back into pro hockey this season now that the lockout is over. It’s good to see at least one Canadian team made it to the Stanley Cup finals; it is their Cup after all and they only have six teams left, so bully for them. Plus, the Edmonton Oilers were the bottom seed in the Western Conference and are coming on strong at the right time. How can you not root for them? Not to mention some of the Oilers fan blogs are pretty great, like Covered in Oil.

There does seem to be some blacklash out there against pro hockey, though, and I don’t quite understand why. I’ve seen more than a few reports in the mainstream sports media pointing to the NHL’s low TV ratings and saying that it’s high time we stopped treating hockey like a major sport. What they fail to take into account, though, is that most of the games have been shown nationally on OLN, which not everyone gets on their cable system, and even the people that do have access probably don’t know where it is on the dial since there’s nothing else to watch on that network (unless you’re really into bull riding and hunting shows). Attendance at the games has actually been better than before last year’s strike and ratings in the markets that have hockey has been pretty good. Let’s wait and see how NBC does with the finals before we write off an entire sport.

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team swept Michigan Tech this weekend at the Kohl Center, advancing to the second round of the WCHA tournament. On Friday night the Badgers recorded a 4-1 victory with four different players reaching the net. Three of those came early in the game against goalie Michael-Lee Teslak, who was replaced after the first period. Wisconsin goalie Brian Elliott had 21 saves. Saturday night the Badgers won 1-0 as Elliott notched his fifth shutout of the season with 19 saves, while Joe Pavelski extended his scoring streak to 11 games with his 19th goal of the year. UW will play their semifinal game in St. Paul against an opponent to determined today as other teams complete their best-of-three series.

Over in women’s hockey, the Badgers blew away St. Cloud State 9-0 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis to advance to the WHCA championship game. They’ll play Minnesota this afternoon for the title, a rematch from last year’s championship game which UW lost in overtime.

Like with the Badgers, I turn my head for a minute to watch the Olympics and my Cyclones have some tough luck thrown their way on the ice. ISU went into the CSCHL tournament last weekend as the #3 seed and knocked off host Western Michigan 4-3 in the first round. Then in the second round, the Cyclones battled #2 Illinois to a 1-1 draw in regulation, but Illini goal tender Mike DeGeorge stopped 12 shots in overtime before the Illini managed to get one into the net for the win. The disappointing loss carried over into Sunday when Iowa State fell to Robert Morris 4-3 in a shootout. Illinois eventually won the tourney, beating Ohio 2-1.

The Cyclones need to rebound and get their confidence back quickly though, because the ACHA tournament in West Chester, PA, starts in just four days. ISU comes in as the #5 seed and opens the tourney Thursday against #12 Oklahoma.

It was a cruel awakening after endless days of Olympic curling and speed skating to find out that the UW men’s hockey team has continued to struggle through the latter part of their schedule. When I last checked in, the Badgers had won 4-2 in the Frozen Tundra Hockey Classic over Ohio State at Lambeau Field. Andrew Joudrey scored the game winner at the seven minute mark in the final period and Robbie Earl sealed the win with a goal in the final minute. Goalie Shane Connelly had 18 saves. The next weekend, Wisconsin beat Michigan Tech 5-0 in the Friday night match as the Badgers outshot the Huskies 64-20. Defenseman Davis Drewiske scored twice in the contest, his first two of the season. But then on Saturday, UW played the Huskies to a 4-4 draw with Brian Elliott in front of the net. This weekend, though, spelled real trouble for the Badgers as they dropped a pair to Minnesota State. The Mavericks of Mankato won 6-4 on Friday and then 7-3 on Saturday.

With two games remaining in the regular season, UW is in third place in the WCHA standings with a 15-8-3 conference record. Overall, they’ve won 21 games. Last season, the Badgers made it into the NCAA tournament with a 23-13-4 record, so let’s hope they play well against St. Cloud State next weekend on home ice.

As if the opening of the Winter Olympics wasn’t enough to get cold-weather sports fans going, there’s plenty of college hockey action this weekend as well. ISU opens a series against the University of Illinois tonight with an eye on extending their streak of eight games without a loss. This will be their final two games before heading into the CSCHL tourney next week at Western Michigan. Illinois has a 23-5-0 overall record and is just two points ahead of the Cyclones in the CSCHL standings. More importantly, a good showing could edge Iowa State ahead of the Illini in the ACHA rankings in their bid for a good seed in the national tournament.

The UW Badgers, meanwhile, are playing their final non-conference game of the season on Saturday against Ohio State in the Frozen Tundra Hockey Classic at Lambeau Field. That should be a sight to behold, hockey on the hallowed ground of the Frozen Tundra. You can check out the rink preparations on the Lambeau Field Web cam.

Speaking of the Olympics, Wisconsin’s Chris Witty will be carrying the flag for the US team during the opening ceremonies in Torino tonight. The 30-year-old native of West Allis is trying for another gold medal in speed skating after winning the 1,000 meters in Salt Lake in 2002. She also won silver and bronze medals at Nagano in 1998. Looks like she was keeping a blog, but you can get the whole rundown on her career at the NBC Olympics site.

The wife and I spent most of the weekend getting ready for yesterday’s Super Bowl party, so I missed a lot of other sports action this weekend, but looking at the scores maybe it was best I did. The UW basketball team lost to Purdue on Saturday 70-62. Purdue? You mean formerly 1-8 Purdue? Yes, that Purdue. The Badgers went cold once again, shooting just 38% from the field, and they committed 14 turnovers. Tucker was the only bright spot for Wisconsin, scoring 22 points, but the three-game losing streak has left the Badgers in sixth place in the Big 10 with a 5-4 conference record. They host #22 Indiana on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Badgers hockey team managed to end their losing streak on Friday by beating UM-Duluth 7-2, but then they dropped Saturday’s contest 4-1. Ben Street scored twice in Fridays match while goalie Shane Connelly had 28 saves. Saturday, though, Joe Pavelski scored the lone point among Wisconsin’s 32 shots on goal. The Badgers face Ohio State this coming Saturday in the Frozen Tundra Hockey Classic at Lambeau Field.

The ISU Cyclones fared a little better, beating Colorado 96-79 on Sunday to climb back to .500 in the Big 12. Rahshon Clark and Curtis Stinson both scored 24 points against the Buffs to snap their three-game slide. The Clones travel to Kansas State on Wednesday to face the 12-7 Wildcats.

The Cyclones hockey team also enjoyed a successful weekend, taking a pair from Missouri. They beat the Tigers 7-1 on Friday night and won 5-2 on Saturday, with Mike Murtaugh scoring twice in Friday’s win and getting a hat trick the next day. With the wins, Iowa State advances its overall record to 31-5-2 and could climb to #4 in the next ACHA rankings.

Marquette, though, got topped by #4 Villanova 72-67 even though the Golden Eagles out shot the Wildcats 49% to 31% from the field, but a 12-0 run late in the game gave Nova the win. Marquette drops to seventh in Big East witha 6-4 conference record. They play at Rutgers (13-9, 3-6 Big East) on Sunday.

Finally, and I do mean finally, the Bucks found a way to win on Saturday, beating Memphis 88-78 behind Michael Redd’s 23-point effort. Jamaal Magloire scored 17 with 11 rebounds and Andrew Bogut added 12 points and 10 boards. Just not sure how they were able to do that while scoring just eight points in the second quarter. Jeeze. Milwaukee plays at 27-19 Cleveland tonight.

Whew!

Before we get to the big game on Sunday, there’s plenty of other stuff going on to get yourself warmed up after a long week. The Badgers hockey team will try and turn things around when they travel to Duluth to face the UMD Bulldogs. UW and Minnesota-Duluth are both tied with Denver atop the WCHA standings with records of 13-5-2, but Wisconsin needs to snap out of their funk and end their current four game slide. It won’t be easy, though, against a Bulldogs team that leads the league in scoring with 73 goals.

The ISU hockey team, meanwhile, hasn’t lost in six contests and will try to extend that streak this weekend at home against Missouri State. The Ice Bears are currently in second place in the Mid-America Collegiate Hockey Association with a 12-4-3 record and ranked 10th in the ACHA Division II Central Region, so you can’t overlook them, especially when you’re running up to the CSCHL tourney in a couple weeks.

The UW hockey team suffered its second sweep in a row this weekend, losing again to Minnesota on Saturday 3-1. The Badgers only score came early in the first period on a power play goal by Tom Gilbert, but Minnesota’s Ryan Potulny tied the score in the second frame. Ben Gordon made the winning goal midway through the final period, while Phil Kessel added the Gophers final score two minutes later. The loss drops Wisconsin’s record to 18-6-2 overall and 13-5-2 in the WCHA; the badgers are now tied with Minnesota and Denver for the top spot in the league with nine regular season games to go.

It was a good weekend for Cyclones hockey, though, as they swept Kent State on the road. On Friday, ISU defeated the Golden Flashes 4-2 and followed up with a 4-3 victory on Saturday. Rob Tauer scored two goals in the contests, while Matt McLin scored once with two assists. Trent Baker had 22 saves in Friday’s win and Matt Johnson stopped 19 shots last night. With the wins, ISU improves to 27-4-5 overall and 11-2-1 in league play. The Cyclones hold on to their second place position in the CSCHL behind league champion Ohio State; they are currently ranked fifth in the ACHA.

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