Your savory breakfast links:
- Recaps and other assorted musings on yesterday’s win from us, Vogs, Monumental video (Trotz, Holtby, Ovechkin, Niskanen, Chimera), NHL.com, AP, PHT, WaPo (gamer, blog), CSNW, Peerless, Frankovic, DSP, RMNB, and from the New York end of the ice, Blueshirt Banter, Newsday, NYND,
- Please to be appreciating Alexander the Great, with goals number forty eight and forty nine. Then appreciate him some more. [RMNB (48, 49)]
- Ye Olde Statement Win. [CSNW]
- NYR coach Alain Vigneault hinted after the game that defenseman Kevin Klein‘s injury may be more serious than initially thought. [Blue Line Station, nj.com]
- Haaaap-py birrrrrrrrthday Tom Wilson! Maybe his teammates bought him some pants. [Caps OT]
- From Elias: Alex Ovechkin and Jason Chimera each scored two goals for the Capitals in their 5-2 win against the Rangers. It was Ovechkin’s league-leading 14th multiple-goal game – no other player has more than eight this season – which ties his single-season high set in 2009-10.
- More from Elias: Ovechkin has 14 multi-goal games this season but they’re all two-goal games! Only two players in NHL history have finished a season with at least 14 two-goal games but no hat tricks: Jaromir Jagr in 1995-96 (15) and Charlie Simmer in 1979-80 (14).
- Still more from Elias: Chimera’s two-goal game was the eighth of his NHL career but his first since Dec. 23, 2011, when he scored twice for the Capitals at New Jersey. Chimera has scored six goals in 19 playoff games versus the Rangers (all with Washington), but he entered play on Sunday having scored only one goal in 19 regular-season games for the Capitals against the Broadway Blueshirts.
- The Week That Was, Volume 29… [Peerless, ILWT (with the Metro lowdown)]
- … and Peerless has updated his wildcard tracker. [Peerless]
- Alex Ovechkin is having another great season… which almost makes it hard to realize just how great. [FanPost]
- Congrats to Troy Mann, Bryan Helmer, and the Hershey Bears, who punched their ticket to the 2015 AHL playoffs with a 4-3 victory over Bridgeport. Andre Burakovsky and Stan Galiev each had a goal and an assist, and Dmitry Orlov had an assist on Burra’s power play goal. [Patriot-News, AHL]
- Oh hai there old friend Jeff Schultz, who returned to Giant Center ice a two-time champion with his name on both the Calder and Stanley Cups. [Patriot-News]
- Lots of prospect playoff action this weekend:
- Jakub Vrana‘s Linkoping dropped their first second-round game to Skelleftea 5-2. The teams meet again today for Game Two of the best-of-seven.
- Four prospects entered the NCAA tournament, only one advanced to the semifinals:
- Brian Pinho and the Providence Friars defeated the Miami RedHawks 7-5 and then the Denver Pioneers 4-1 to secure a ticket to Boston and the Frozen Four. They will face Nebraska-Omaha at 5pm on April 9. [USCHO, SB Nation]
- Miami played Providence without two of its top goal scorers. Blake Coleman was suspended, and Caps prospect Riley Barber was on the shelf with the knee injury he sustained in the conference tournament. Barber is a junior with a year of eligibility remaining; it remains to be seen if he wants to make the jump to pro hockey, and how he figures into the Caps’ plans.
- Travis Boyd had an assist and won 6 of 22 faceoffs on the way to a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. He is a senior and presumably eligible to make the jump to the pros. Several of his teammates have already signed with other teams. [Daily Gopher]
- The Boston College Eagles lost 5-2 to the Denver Pioneers. Freshman Zachary Sanford had an assist and four shots on goal. [Boston Globe]
- Madison Bowey and the Kelowna Rockets shut out the Tri-City Americans twice this weekend to open the first round of the WHL playoffs, by scores of 6-0 and 3-0. In those two games, Bowey is 1-1-2, +5. He was also named a WHL Western Conference 1st Team All-Star. [WHL]
- Tyler Lewington and the Medicine Hat Tigers are also up two games to none vs. the Red Deer Rebels. Lewington was suspended for the first game and was +1 for the Tigers’ 1-0 OT decision in game two.
- Finally, happy 62nd birthday to Dennis Ververgaert, happy 44th to Jamie Heward and pour one out for Doug Wickenheiser, who would have been 53 today.