Sharks Take Game 1
Big win on the road to open up the CPHL Finals for the Sharks! Unfortunately, for the 3rd time these playoffs, Belfour goes down to injury AGAIN as the opposing Canes attempt to take out our star goaltender early in the series. Lucky for us Osgood has played great hockey in Belfour's absense and there should be no cause for alarm just yet.
Cheechoo opened the scoring 6 minutes into the 2nd period from a nice tic-tac-toe play with Hossa and Sedin. It was his 9th goal of the playoffs as he attempts to challenge Hossa for the team lead in goals. The score remained 1-0 until halfway through the 3rd when Sedin picked up his second point, assisting on Sturm's 6th goal of the playoffs.
With Afinogenov nursing an injury received in the final game of the last series, Anson Carter stepped up to the 2nd line and managed to get involved in the scoring, assisting on Kariya's 4th goal and basically putting the nail in the coffin for the 1st game of the series. Although he played well, Carter is expected to be back on the 3rd line next game as Maxim is back at 100% and has been a very good playoff performer thus far.
Sharks will now prepare for game 2 of the Cup Final, again in Carolina. Although the guy between the pipes will be different to start the game, the results will hopefully mirror those of game 1.
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