Blackhawks Sign Flick

The Chicago Blackhawks have signed London, ON native Rob Flick to a 3-year contract. Any further terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Flick was drafted in the 4th round, 120th overall in the 2010 draft by the Blackhawks.

He played 3 seasons in the OHL for the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors, accumulating 99 points and 393 penalty minutes in 181 games.

He then spent this past season between the Rockford Hogs of the AHL, where he amassed 13 points and 91 penalty minutes in 45 games and the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL, where he recorded 10 points and 43 penalty minutes in 17 games played.

Although he has yet to suit up in an NHL game, he played for the Blackhawks' rookie tournament a few years ago in London where I went out and saw him, and he looked pretty good.

Signing Rating: B. While it is hard to rate the deal without the full terms disclosed, it is good for the Blackhawks to sign the 21-year old so he can continue to develop his 6'2", 208 pound frame into a gritty forward.

Also, fun fact, my dad plays pickup hockey with Flick's dad. Small world.

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Iiro Tarkki signs a KHL contract

Iiro Tarkki has reportedly signed a 2 year contract with Salavat Yulaev of the KHL. He was set to become a restricted free agent this summer after his one year contract with the Anaheim Ducks expires on July 1st.

The 26 year old goaltender spent the 2011-12 season in the American Hockey League playing for the Ducks affiliate; Syracuse Crunch. He posted a record of 24-17-4 with a 2.45 goals against average, .925 save percentage and two shutouts. He led the Crunch into the playoffs but they lost in the first round. He did make his NHL debut on January 8th, 2012 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He played 41 minutes of the game because he took over from Jonas Hiller who was hurt late in the first period. He allowed 3 goals on 10 shots. That was his only NHL action that he saw all year.

Prior to being signed by the Ducks and playing in the AHL, Tarkki played parts of 6 seasons in the SM-liiga in his native country of Finland.

Salavat Signing Rating: B+,  solid goaltender but still has room to improve

IIHF Quarter Final Preview: United States vs Finland

Helsinki Division

(2) United States - (4-2-0-1)  vs  (3) Finland - (5-0-0-2)

Preliminary Round Game:

United States : Finland

5 : 0 

The United States surprised the Finnish and defeated them 5-0, but that score does not reflect how the Fins normally play. They had a disappointing game and the United States will not be taking them lightly in the Quarter-Finals.  

United States Scoring Leaders	Finland Scoring Leaders
1. Max Pacioretty - 12 points	1. Valterri Filppula (below) - 9 points
2. Paul Stastny - 9 points	2. Mikko Koivu - 8 points
3. Justin Faulk (below) - 7 points	3. Jussi Jokinen - 7 points

United States played a strong preliminary round but they did have a few bad periods throughout the first 7 games. They started the World Championships off great by defeating France 7-2 and then defeating Canada in overtime 5-4. They had a rough third game as Slovakia defeated the United States 4-2. USA rebounded against Belarus and won that game 5-3. The 5th game may have been the most disappointing game for the United States as Kazakhstan was able to take them to overtime where Justin Faulk bailed them out with only 22 seconds left in overtime to defeat the Kazakhs. They did  win the game, yes, but Kazakhstan was the worse team in the World Championships with a record of 0-0-1-6. Again, after a disappointing game the United States were able to rebound and dominated the host team; Finland in a 5-0 victory. The United States finished 16 points, sitting second in the Helsinki division behind Canada.

Finland started off the preliminaries very impressive with back-to-back 1-0 wins over Belarus and Slovakia. Finland continued to roll through their 3rd and 4th games with a 5-2 victory over the Swiss and a 7-1 win against France. Finland was looking as a favorite to repeat again after they started off 4-0 but they had yet to face Canada and the United States. Finland's 5th game was against the Canadians. The Finns started out strong and were up 2-0 after the first period, but they began to self-destruct in the 2nd period which led to tied 3-3 game through two periods. Canada continued to dominate Finland in the third period and the Canadians won the game 5-3. Finland's miserable play continued into the next game as they lost to the Americans 5-0. Finland managed to end the preliminaries on a positive note with a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan. With their home fan support the Finnish ended up third in the Helsinki division with 15 points.

This game will really be fast paced as both teams have a lot of skill and speed up front but they play a different defensive game. The Americans are very offensive minded on the blueline with the likes of; Justin Faulk, Alex Goligoski, Cam Fowler and Jack Johnson and the Finnish defenseman are more of a shutdown team on the back-end.

Who to Watch:

Justin Faulk - Just finished rookie season in the NHL for Carolina, looking very good for the United States

Max Pacioretty - has had the best offensive output so far for an American at the World Championships that we have seen in a long while

Kari Lehtonen/Petri Vehanen - The Finnish goaltending tandem is in an interesting situation as Lehtonen was slotted in to be the number one goalie but Vehanen has outplayed him thus far

Prediction:
The United States win 4-2

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IIHF World Championships Statistical Leaders

updated  6:45 PM Eastern 15/05/2012


Points Leaders (* -- defenseman)

Patrick Thoresen	Norway	16
Evgeni Malkin	Russia	14
Henrik Zetterberg	Sweden	13
Max Pacioretty	United States	12
Loui Eriksson	Sweden	11
Per-Age Skroder	Norway	11
Duncan Keith*	Canada	11
Valtteri Filppula	Finland	9
John Tavares	Canada	9
Paul Stastny	United States	9
Morten Ask	Norway	9
Philip Gogulla	Germany	9
Johan Franzen	Sweden	8
Ryan Getzlaf	Canada	8
Mikko Koivu	Finland	8
4 others	tied at	8

Goal Scoring Leaders

Evgeni Malkin	Russia	7
Patrick Thoresen	Norway	6
Ales Hemsky	Canada	5
Mats Trygg	United States	5
Johan Franzen	Czech Republic	4
Jordan Eberle	Canada	4
Loui Eriksson	Norway	4
Justin Faulk*	Finland	4
Jonos Holos*	Finland	4
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	Canada	4
7 others	tied at	4

Assists Leaders

Henrik Zetterberg	Sweden	11
Duncan Keith*	Canada	10
Max Pacioretty	United States	10
Patrick Thoresen	Norway	10
Morten Ask	Norway	7
Loui Eriksson	Sweden	7
Evgeni Malkin	Russia	7
Per-Age Skroder	Norway	7
Philip Gogulla	Germany	7
Daniel Alfredsson	Sweden	6
7 others	tied at	6

Most Penalty Minutes

Goran Bezina*	Switzerland	29
Jannik Hansen	Denmark	29
Sacha Treille	France	27
Andrei Kostitsyn	Belarus	27
Koba Jass	Latvia	27
Dmitri Kalinin*	Russia	25
Marc Methot*	Canada	25
2 others	tied at	16

Save Percentage Leaders (Goalies with more than 40% of their teams total minutes)

Name	Country	Minutes Played	Save Percentage
Petri Vehanen	Finland	187:36	.968
Semyon Varlamov	Russia	260:00	.947
Jakub Kovar	Czech Republic	244:50	.934
Jan Laco	Slovakia	359:27	.931
Jakub Stepanek	Czech Republic	170:14	.927
Vitali Koval	Belarus	266:26	.920
Edgars Masalskis	Latvia	340:00	.920
Cam Ward	Canada	301:47	.915
Lars Haugen	Norway	364:53	.914
Jimmy Howard	Canada	361:19	.912

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