HOT CORNER: Fans have been waiting for Capitals-Edmundston series

SUMMERSIDE – This is the playoff series that local hockey fans have been waiting for.
The Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Summerside Western Capitals are in Edmundston, N.B., to start their much-anticipated Eastlink North Division final series with the high-flying Blizzard. The first two games are Saturday and Sunday in Edmundston, N.B., before switching back to Summerside for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Playing four games in five days will be a tough task for both teams, especially this time of year with the added pressure of playoff hockey. It will be a survival of the fittest over the next five days, and the team that can have a series lead after Wednesday will quite likely win the series, unless of course there is a series sweep.
Only nine points separated the teams in the regular season, making a sweep by either team highly unlikely. Both clubs will quite likely use two goaltenders in this series as even the pros would not expect their No. 1 to play four games in five days.

Click here for preview of Caps-Blizzard series:

The depth the Caps have in nets may turn out to be the deciding factor in this series as head coach Billy McGuigan has the luxury of having two No. 1 goalies. Alex Bishop was superb in their five-game series win over Campbellton, and Dominik Tmej must be champing at the bit to get back in there after being lifted early in Game 1 against Campbellton, which was the Caps’ only loss of the series.
It will be a dandy series, and we know that games in Edmundston will have sellout crowds of almost 2,800 in their new facility. The Caps drew over 1,800 fans to Game 5 versus Campbellton, and that number will only get higher as this next series progresses, especially if the Caps can get a split or better in the first two games on the road.
Good luck to the Caps!

World curling championship
The 60th world men’s curling championship starts in Las Vegas on Saturday, with 13 countries taking part. Defending world champion Brad Gushue is representing Canada, and will try and become only the fifth team in the history of the event to win back-to-back world titles. If he does it, he will be joining some curling legends, including the great Ernie Richardson, who did it twice in 1959 and 1960 as well as 1962 and 1963.  
Ron Northcott (1968-69), Don Duguid (1970-71) and Randy Ferbey (2002-03) were the other back-to-back world champions. Canada has won 36 of the 59 world titles, and finished on the medal podium 52 times. With success like that, curling could be called Canada’s other national sport.
Team Gushue, which includes Charlottetown’s Brett Gallant, opens play Saturday against Russia and Scotland. They will meet Sweden’s Niklas Edin on Friday at noon in a matchup of last year’s world championship final that was held in Edmonton. These two teams will quite likely meet once again in the final.

Stanley Cup playoffs
The Stanley Cup playoffs are just over a week away, and picking a Stanley Cup winner is getting tougher by the year. Teams are so close that almost any combination of Eastern and Western Conference teams could meet in the Stanley Cup final.
A lot of Canada will be rooting for an all-Canadian final, and there is a good chance that could happen. Toronto and Winnipeg are the only Canadian teams in this year’s playoffs, and each has a legitimate shot at winning their respective conferences. One can only imagine the excitement in both cities and across the nation if that did happen.
The last all-Canadian final was in 1989, when Calgary beat Montreal in six games to win their first Stanley Cup.

Golden Knights
The list of possible opponents for the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL playoffs is getting narrowed down to the point where they will quite likely play any one of four teams – Los Angeles, Anaheim, Colorado or St. Louis. Any one of the four will be tough, but it would be great to meet St. Louis – if for nothing else but the earlier start time for local fans to watch.
Happy Easter!

Joe MacIntyre is a Summerside resident. His column appears every Saturday. Comments and suggestions can be sent to [email protected].