Wolves win first in Calder Cup series , 5:4

The night started with a familiar ritual marked by old superstition. The league was there to present the conference championship trophy to the Wolves, sort of a hollow presentation, for none on the winning team was willing to touch the silver. A long held superstition is that once you touch a lesser trophy in a contest that's the one you will ultimately end up with. As we all know it is quite an honour to take home a conference championship, however everyones eyes are on the lovely Calder at this point. Maybe Mr. Andrews should have waited until the end of the series and presented it to the Wolves before the final ceremony for who ever takes the final silver home. Just a thought, athletes are a superstitious lot, deal with it!

Shortly after this awkward trophy presentation the game started in earnest. It was fierce, both teams came out fighting from the get go. However the Wolves seemed to have John Curry's number in the first frame scoring a total of three times. at 7:15 (Jesse Schultz), 15:06 (Kevin Doell)and 18:31 (Jordan Lavalle) The Wolves went into the locker room to a standing ovation and the Baby pens with eyes that looked like saucers. Whatever WBS coach,Todd Richards said to his team to bolster them must of worked because it didn't take log for the Pens to answer. At 1:11 Alex Goligoski fired one past Ondrej Pavelec and a second followed at 2:26 by Kurtis McLean silencing the previously exuberant crowd. Yes, there was a reason the Baby Pens were here and for the rest of the game they would be happy to show everyone in the Allstate on and off of the ice just why.

For the rest of the game the crowd was treated to a nail biting, palpitation inducing period and a half ending in a hard fought win just the way playoff hockey should be! Before the game I confidently predicted that the Wolves would take the series in 6. After seeing these two teams square off and feel each other out. My more informed opinion now is that the winner will be the team that simply plays 60 minutes+ of hard hockey and stays out of the box. Four out of the nine goals scored last night were on PP. The Wolves impressive PK may have met it's match in the Baby Pens- just stay out of the box guys and save the legs for the dump and chase.

Now here are some images of Calder Cup 2008' Game 1, all rights are reserved, images are the property of Jane Rickard and Powderhornhockey.





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