Semi Finals Set

Sorry for the delays folks, but the wireless connections here in Vancouver have been poor the past few days. Here's what's been happening:

-Team Ireland finished in 1st place after going 3-0 in the preliminary round. Pat King and Mark Hendricks are tied for the lead in scoring with 21 points each through three games.
-The other three teams besides Ireland that earned byes were the Czech Republic, Russia, and Sweden.
-In the qualifying games, Georgia upset Belarus, Germany upset Finland, and the favored Americans and Canadians beat the Slovaks and Japanese.
-In quarterfinals play, team Ireland squared off against Germany, and defeated the Krauts 8-0 in a lopsided affair. It was Scott Hoefer's first loss in anything since 2003. The Swedes handled Belarus as well, despite giving up a late second period goal from beyond center, they were able to rebound and score four unanswered in the third to win 6-3. Both the Czech/USA and Russia/Georgia games required overtime, with Jack Bauer scoring for the Americans and Giorgi Giorgigigi scoring for the Georgians.

So, the semifinals are as follows:
#1 Ireland vs #7 USA
#4 Sweden vs #6 Georgia

The remaining Red Army players (current and ex-pats) are the Hendricks brothers (sans Neal), Hand and King. Hand faces off against Mark and King today at 3 pm while Peter faces off against Beege at 7 pm.

That's it from Vancouver for now.