WHOAAAAAAAAAAA NELLY!! The PCOHL playoffs are HEATING UP and the playoff picture is coming into focus. But first, last night’s games….

Early Game – Slovenia vs Scotland

Many pundits, predictors, and prognosticators say that this game is a preview of the Gold Medal Final and with the way these two squads have cruised through the playoffs, it’s hard to disagree. So what would this potential preview reveal about how these teams stack up at season’s end.

League senior statesmen Leo Brideau broke a 9-minute stalemate and beat Rispoli the Goalie to make it 1-0 for the kilts. A minute later teammate Mike Paciuc doubled Scotland’s lead. Slovenia battled back but then WHAM, the Scots added three quick ones (Tim Randa, Enzo Ianno, Matt Goddard) to stun the Slovenians and finish the period with a 5-0 lead.

Now followers of the league will recall that Scotland was ahead of Portugal last week 6-0 but allowed the Portuguese to score 5 straight goals. Do these Scots get overconfident? Would Slovenia capitalize? These were the questions on every sportscast during the intermission.

Both teams came out fighting in period two, but it was Scotland’s Steve Boyle who struck first to make it 6-0 and then with seven minutes left Tim Randa picked up his second to make it 7-0.

OH. MY.

Slovenia’s Greg Platt broke Stu Henderson’s shutout 9 seconds later, but that was all for period two which ended in a 7-1 lead for Team Scotland.

Injured Bob King made it 7-2 halfway through the third, but the Scots played stingy defence and managed another Leo Brideau goal at the 6 minute mark.

Peter Freeman scored a nasty with four minutes to go, but it was too little, too late as Scotland hangs an old fashioned Glasgow beating on the Slovenians.

Peter “Too little too late” Freeman is Slovenia’s Player of the Game while Tim Randa leads the band for the streaking Scots.

Late Game – Ireland vs Italy

The late game was just a tune-up for Ireland, who already know they will play for bronze no matter what happens. For Italy, however, the game is massive. While Ireland’s final position is cast in stone, Italy could still end up ANYWHERE. Gold medal game? They could still make it. Bronze game? A definite possibility. A 5th place finish where they don’t play at all on Champ Day? Absolutely possible. The answer lay heavily on what they could do in this 4th round game.

Tony Cioffi subbed in for Ireland’s Tomi Nieminen and he and Italy’s Senkowski were TIGHT in the first period. Not a single goal for the first eighteen minutes and this one was looking like it might be a very low-scoring affair.

But what a last two minutes. First, Ciro Napolitano scored to make it 1-0 for Italy. Then — SEVEN SECONDS LATER — Napolitano scored again? How?? And then Patty Sharp scored with 18 seconds left. What happened to the shut-down goaltending?? 2-1 for Scotland after one!!! Would Ireland come back and dominate the second period?

ehm. no.

There’s no other way to say it. The second period was a beatdown. While last year’s Conn Smythe winner Senkowski BLANKED the Irish offence, his team scored FIVE UNANSWERED GOALS. Two each for Napolitano and Wodar and a single from Rukavina and this one was blown WIDE open. A stunned Irish squad goes down 7-1 after two periods, just like Slovenia did in the early show.

League MVP Steve Davis made it 8-1 late in the third, followed by a three goal flurry (3 in 45 seconds) with Kevin MacDougall adding more Scottish padding and Patrick Sharp picking up his second snipe of the night. But again, it was too little, too late. An absolutely dominating performance by the late-surging Italians who now threaten to knock Slovenia out of the gold medal game.

Ireland’s Player of the game was Dwayne Tygesen, who made another visit to Brenda’s box, giving him a dominating lead in the “Playoff Bad Boy” category. Ciro Napolitano and Art Senkowski share the honours for Italy.