Archives for April 1, 2006

‘”It’s almost like a mini-playoff,” said Mike Murphy, the NHL’s vice president of hockey operations. “It’s great for the fans in the sense they can hate a team twice as long. There’s physical play, tough play, and there seems to be more urgency.”‘

‘Sabres have killed off 50 of 55 penalties (91 percent) over the past eight games.’

Leafs game day at Toronto (National Post)

Buffalo (45-22-6) at Toronto (34-32-6) (AP)

Sabres can clinch playoff spot vs. Maple Leafs (Sportsticker)

Buffalo Sabres (45-22-6) at Toronto Maple Leafs (34-32-6) (The Sports Network)

‘Ruff has opted to keep the Sabres in Toronto between games rather than go back down the QEW to Buffalo. “The schedule has been a real grind so it’s just one less travel day for the guys, even though it is a short ride,” Ruff said. “We know this won’t be easy, playing in Toronto on Hockey Night in Canada. At the same time the guys should not have any problems getting up for the game.”‘

‘But Buffalo picked defenseman Dmitri Kalinin No. 18, left wing Andrew Peters No. 34, right wing Norm Milley No. 47 and left wing Mike Pandolfo No. 77.’

Proud Amerks light up Crunch (Rochester D&C)

McMorrow is a surprise sparkplug for Amerks (Rochester D&C)

Amerks clobber listless Crunch (Syracuse Post Standard)

Rochester 9, Syracuse 4 (AP)

One Night Stand (RNews.com)

Amerks crunch Syracuse 9-4 (Amerks.com)

Game Notes (SyracuseCrunch.com)