Neues » He plans to retire at the end

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Abbotsford Heat hope a last-minute goal keeps their season alive for more than one extra game. Marcus Granlund scored a power-play goal with a minute left in regulation as the Heat staved off elimination with a 2-1 win in Game 3 against the Grand Rapids Griffins. Corey Locke also scored for the Heat, who still trail 2-1 in the best-of-five series with Game 4 scheduled for Friday in Grand Rapids. "We came here and got the first one, and we need two more," Granlund said. "Were taking it day by day, and game by game, and we have to keep going. We have to keep pushing and win the next game, too." After dropping the first two games on their home ice, the Heat returned the favour by rallying in the final period for a pair of goals to erase a 1-0 deficit and earn the critical road win. "Our backs are against the wall, we realize that," Abbotsford coach Troy Ward said. "We came on the trip knowing we would play 20 minutes at a time, and the good thing about our team is were never too high or too low. "We felt good about Game 1, and obviously we stubbed our toe in Game 2, but we felt pretty good about ourselves coming in tonight." Granlunds game winner came after Grand Rapids Jeff Hoggan was whistled for high sticking with 1:20 left to put the Heat on the power play. Former Griffin Chad Billins delivered the pass to Granlund, who knocked it past Grand Rapids goalie Petr Mrazek. "It was a great pass by Billins, and I just shot it and it was a goal," Granlund said. "It was very exciting." Abbotsford went 1 for 9 on the power play in Games 1 and 2, and was 0 for 3 in Game 3 before the final goal. "Our power play has struggled so far in the series, so that was the bright eyed part of the game," Ward said. "It was a good play by Granlund, and hes been probably our catalyst all year." Grand Rapids, the defending Calder Cup champions, grabbed an early 1-0 lead on a power-play goal with 2:33 remaining in the first period when Tomas Jurco scored on a wrist shot off a pass from Riley Sheahan. Heat goalie Joni Ortio helped keep it a one-goal game with 19 stops through the first two periods and the Heat finally broke through less than six minutes into the third. Locke ripped a shot past Mrazek to tie the game before Granlunds goal at 18:58. "I thought as the game wore on, we skated better," Ward said. "I thought we had a couple really good pushes in the second there and I thought that made a difference with our confidence coming out in the third. We just picked it up after that. "This game had a lot of the same characteristics as Game 1. We got fortunate bounces at the right time and Ortio played a good game again." Ortio stopped 34 shots, while Mrazek finished with 23 saves. 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Air Max 97 Günstig Kaufen . -- Jerel Worthy and his Michigan State teammates charged across the field, holding four fingers in the air while celebrating another sweet victory over their biggest rival.MOSCOW - The Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League saw itself as the oil-rich rival to the NHL, offering a tempting, if less prestigious, alternative to playing in North America.As the league planned to expand as far as Britain, the money on offer even attracted Russian stars like Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Radulov, who walked out on lucrative NHL deals to return home.Then came the crash of the ruble this week.The financial crisis has threatened the plans of players like former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Curtis Sanford, who came to Russia to save for his retirement.Its just really happened all of a sudden, the 35-year-old Sanford told The Associated Press. These are some things that you dont expect when you sign a contract. Right now, you just have to ride the rolls of how its going and hopefully it stabilizes and gets better.The ruble had been sliding against the dollar for most of the year against the backdrop of low oil prices and economic sanctions against Russia, but went into freefall Monday and Tuesday. Following a slight recovery, it has still lost almost half of its value against the dollar this year.With KHL rules stipulating ruble-only contracts, that is bad news for the many U.S., Canadian and European imports on the rosters of the leagues 22 Russian teams. Russias economic woes are starting to spread into neighbouring nations like Belarus and Kazakhstan, potentially shrinking the incomes for players on KHL teams there.Some players have already started to rebel. Revealing that he had not been paid for three months at Russian club Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk, except small amounts to buy food, forward Ilari Melart told the Ilta Sanomat newspaper in his native Finland that he was not in Siberia for charity.Another Finn, goaltender Mikko Koskinen, was accused by Russian media earlier this month of having refused to play for Sibir Novosibirsk because his ruble salary had dropped. Koskinen, who denies the claims, was traded to SKA St. Petersburg two days later.For the first time since the league was founded in 2008, KHL management has been forrced to deny the league could collapse.ddddddddddddThe leagues financial situation is stable and were looking calmly at the current economic situation. The season will be finished as planned, league president Dmitry Chernyshenko told local media after meeting with club heads Thursday. He also dismissed rumours the league could enforce across-the-board pay cuts for players.Chernyshenko, who led the organizing committee of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, did suggest that some clubs could be removed from the league if they lacked the money to function properly.There are completely clear criteria for taking part in the league, including financial guarantees, he said. Well demand . that the financial guarantees are provided and not just that some pieces of paper are handed in.Smaller KHL teams like Yugra, which depend on the generosity of benefactors in Russian regional government and state-run companies, have long struggled financially. Delays in paying players have been common in recent years, but have reportedly increased this season as government budgets come under strain and Russian state oil and gas companies struggle with low prices for their products.Without large-scale subsidies, many clubs could become financially unstable. Compared to players wages, income from ticket sales and TV rights is typically far from enough to keep a club viable. Despite posting league-record crowds last season and reaching the KHLs Gagarin Cup finals, Czech team Lev Prague withdrew from the league for financial reasons in July.Sanford, who tends goal for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, says he has received all his pay on time. Regardless of what happens to the ruble, Sanford will be heading back to Canada soon. He plans to retire at the end of the season and acknowledges that the falling currency is playing on his mind.My wife and I, we try to do our best with how we save and how we use our money, Sanford said. Weve done pretty good concerning that and obviously well have to try and do even better for the foreseeable future and just try and hope things work out. ' ' '