Some local stuff, actually

Frans Nielsen gets a pop on the Isles' Web site. Eurohockey.net has Tomas Malec back home to HC Ocelari Trinec. It also has Eric Meloche off to Germany, and maybe most interestingly, it has Gerry Cantlon reporting that Hartford captain Craig Weller will play in either Germany or Austria next year. Bruce Berlet says the same thing in the Courant, along with some fun and straightforward speculation about Ken Gernander taking over as head coach.

Looks like a kooky finish to Game 1 in the East: WBS cuts it to one on a short-hander, then allows an empty-netter, then scores with under four seconds to go -- too late. Robert Nilsson had a couple of points, including the second assist on the short-hander. Elsewhere, Manchester came back strong, and Iowa probably would rather forget this. Two Stars were on the ice for more goals than either goalie.

Remember Jason Cirone? Today, he led Italy to the second round of the Worlds with two goals, including one in overtime. This, notes the AP story, is the first Worlds with overtime in the round-robin; Cirone and Italy would have been dead without it. Germany sneaked past Norway, too; former Wolf Packer John Tripp got the winner. Up in the big time, Canada avoided uproar with a 5-4 win over Slovakia, pending Parliamentary investigation; Rick Nash scored the winner after the Slovaks came back from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits. And Sweden uncomplicatedly beat the tar out of Switzerland. (David Aebischer picked up a misconduct for the Swiss, which doesn't seem very neutral of him.)

Germany, Slovakia and Canada are in the United States' second-round pool. Canada and the Czechs are 2-0; the Americans and the Slovaks are 1-1; Germany and Belarus are 0-2. And as today's result makes it timely to remember, three points for a regulation win, two for an OT win, one for an OT loss.