whew!

Now, they rest.

What a win.  What a full 60 minute effort with all the lines contributing.  I don't care if it was for Neal, for themselves, for Santa Claus, it was a great win.*  I know they were tired, and tired of seeing those damn Bruins, but they played hard, and they played to win.

I hope they take these days off before Round Two against either Vancouver or Kelowna to work on the power play and the penalty kill, those are still areas of weakness, though the PK was great last night.  I also hope they spend some time resting up, recouperating, eating lots of noms, drinking Gatorade, whatever they need to do to recharge for Round 2.

"It was a good series," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "It didn't surprise us it was as hard as it was. It was good hockey for six games. It has been an intense 10 days. Now it's time to take a breath and get ready for the next pressure cooker."

"This was a tough series," said Bruins coach Marc Habscheid. "You have to expend everything, and we left everything on the ice. It seemed like the guys were spent -- we didn't have that little extra bit. The last five games took a lot out of them physically and emotionally."

"Going into the series, we were the underdog," said Chilliwack defenseman Matt Delahey. "Going into the third, we still believed we could do it. This is not what we wanted to have happen."

"It was a good one to seal the deal," Macek said. "It's nice to win this one. They put up a fight and it was competitive to the end."

"I was a little shaky the last couple of games, but today I felt good from the drop of the puck," Owsley said. "They are a good team and they played us tough. The first round is always the hardest to win."  (Herald)

I hope Drew's right, that the 1st round is the hardest, because that one WAS difficult.  And that's coming from a fan, I can only imagine how hard it was for the boys to be that physically and emotionally invested in it, especially with the changes that needed to be made with the loss of Prokop.  And you know that was hard for them to stomach too.  I think seeing him yesterday was just what they needed to remind them they needed to really give it their all.  Here's to hoping that momentum can carry into round 2!

*that's bullshit, I'm totally glad it was for Neal.