Flyers Sign 2 First Rounders

Downie & Giroux Inked

Philadelphia, PA- The Flyers announced that they will be using their 1st & 2nd round picks to protect & sign Steve Downie (1st) & Claude Giroux (2nd).

Downie's 32 games will definitely be utilized on the RW. PHI's NHL 1st round (29th Overall) in 2005. Scored 6 goals & 6 assists.

Giroux, PHI's NHL #1 pick (22nd overall) in 2006, will be ineligble to play in the HBMHL this coming season due to his Junior status. Career: Has registered 120 goals and 183 assists for 303 points and 144 penalty minutes in 179 regular season games in three seasons with Gatineau (2005-06 through 2007-08).

At press time, the Flyers said they are still in talks with prospect RW/LW Denis Tolpeko who appeared in 26 NHL games scoring 1-5-6, who has been discussing a return to Russia.

Sabres Snare Stanley Cup

The Buffalo Sabres won the Stanley Cup finals by beating the Minnesota Wild four games to one. For the second consecutive season they reached the finals having lost the previous year to Ottawa. The Sabres had a league high 122 points and in the playoffs beat Pittsburgh 4-3, New Jersey 4-3 and Nashville 4-2.
There were some high light reel performances in the playoff games. Including a five goal game by Thomas Vanek against New Jersey the same night that J.P Dumont recorded 8 points with a hat trick and 5 assists and Chris Drury also scored a hat trick.

In the 25 game playoff run the Sabres out scored the opponents 105-69. Netminder Ryan Miller went 16-8 with 2.67 GAA with two shutouts and 10 games of allowing 2 goals or less. The Sabres offense was top rated in the regular season and maintained it in the playoffs as well with Thomas Vanek leading the playoffs in goals with 24 goals and 9 assists. His linemate Derek Roy led in assists with 5 goals and 28 assists and other linemate J.P. Dumont led in points with 11 goals and 25 assists. The first line did score the most but the scoring was nicely distributed from the whole team and the minutia breaks down as follows: (Goals - Assists)
Vanek-Roy-Dumont 40 - 62
Semin-Drury-Pominville 32 - 32
Hecht-Briere-Stafford 20 - 44
Kotalik-Zubrus-Satan 9 - 14
Defensmen 4 - 51

Only one rookie made the playoff roster and that was Drew Stafford and he really came in to his own busting out with 11 goals and 8 assists on just 56 shots, He was really sniping and making things happen out there on the ice. He scored the game winning goal in both game sevens. A surprising statistic was from Alexander Semin as he led the forwards in the playoffs in plus/minus with +10 even though he is rated D1.

In the finals versus Minnesota, games one and three were won by Buffalo in Overtime by scores of 6-5 and 3-2. Both overtime goals were scored by Alexander Semin who went on to score 2 more goals in the deciding game 5 that won the Buffalo Sabres the HBL Stanley Cup.