Late push not enough for Pens in Game 6: 'We were that close …

June 5th, 2008

PITTSBURGH — No one called any shots for the Penguins this time. Their goaltender was not their savior. No last-minute goal sent the game into overtime.
None of the things that helped the Penguins extend their Stanley Cup Finals series with the Red Wings was a factor in Game 6 on Wednesday night at Mellon Arena.
But the Penguins didn’t go down without making it interesting. They gave their fans one more chance to cheer at home, but couldn’t give them another victory. The Wings won, 3-2, to finish off the Penguins.
“I’m almost speechless,” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. “We were that close. It is really tough, because this is a group that gave what they got. They deserve a lot of respect. We got beat by a quality team. They showed it all through the regular season and through the playoffs. They played really well. They were tough to play against, and the hockey god was not on our side tonight. But they deserved to win the Stanley Cup.”
Hart Trophy finalist Evgeni Malkin finally scored a goal in the series, but it was too little, too late. Malkin, who didn’t have a point in the series until assisting on the game-winning goal in Game 5, scored late in the second period of Game 6 to cut Detroit’s lead to 2-1.
Marian Hossa’s power-play goal at 18:33 of the third made Wings fans tense up one last time. But the Pens couldn’t produce the tying goal, not even when Hossa made a desperate stab to tie the game as time expired on a rebound from a shot by Sidney Crosby.
Hossa’s shot “was close,” Crosby, the Penguins captain, said. “We kept battling. I thought the chance might have been there. Unfortunately, it didn’t go in.
“That’s the way guys have been all season. We’ve been a battling team. It doesn’t surprise me that we didn’t give up.”

freep.com


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English lesson from China: My long weekend in Zibo

May 13th, 2008

In her latest e-mail update, Carleton County school teacher Sharon Kitchen, who is currently teaching in China, tells about her visit to a local friend's family home.
I hope spring is coming to New Brunswick. Yesterday I thought it was approaching summer here, today it is wet - a rarity in Yantai - and chilly: I never know what to wear!
There has not been anything new for me, after seven years it is like living at home.
Last week was a long weekend – Tomb Sweeping day. The Chinese visit the tombs of their ancestors – this seems to really only go back to grandparents – and clean the tombs, leave food for the spirits and burn money (pretend) for the spirits to use. This is the duty of the son of the family, I guess with the one child policy this will soon become the daughter's duty.
Before you read on you will need to know who Diane is. When I first came to China she was in her second year as a student here, along with the man she married this winter. After graduation she went to work in our office. She and I are like mother and daughter – I would not have minded having her for a daughter-in-law! I spoke at her wedding before going to Australia.
Last the three-day weekend to honour ‘ Tomb Sweeping”, I went to Diane's parents place. Since Diane went on Thursday – she had visit government offices in the city of Zibo, near her village, to get papers to move her personal registration from there to Yantai. She can do this now because she is married to a Yantai citizen.
Diane's younger brother, a student at Yantai University, and I went by train on Friday.
Zibo, the second largest city in Shandong, has a lot of heavy industry, mainly porcelain and chemical. If your toilet was made in China it probably came from Zibo. Although it was a warm, sunny day, you could not see the sky because of pollution.

bugleobserver.canadaeast.com


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Yahoo! HotJobs Local Search

March 14th, 2008

The Writers Guild of America strike was a tough 100 days, both for the writers and for viewers. But who’s to say we couldn’t live another minute without a new episode of the broadcast sitcom “Two and a Half Men”? On the other hand, viewers of the best shows on cable were sweating over whether those shows would be back. With the return of “The Riches” on Tuesday nights, cable television fans can breathe a little easier.
The show’s two British imports, Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, return as Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, who have been impersonating Doug and Cherien Rich, a wealthy couple who died on the way to their new suburban tract mansion in a Southern master-planned community called Eden Falls. Wayne and Dahlia, along with their three children —- Cael, Di Di and Sam —- are “travellers,” a group of itinerant con artists who discover that life in Eden Falls living with the “buffers,” or non-travellers, has some perks: a nice house, nice cars and friends at school. If only the Riches’ friends weren’t trying to find out what happened to the couple, and the Malloys’ family members weren’t blackmailing them to get their share of the prize.

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