PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?! DAY 9

They laughed at Louie Armstrong when he said he was going to the moon, and now he's laughing at them from up there.

Stars 1 Canucks 0 in overtime (Vancouver leads series 3-2): Dame Fortune made the Canucks her bitch -- Dallas almost put their puck in their own net in the third period with Marty Turco on the bench for an extra skater during a delayed penalty, but the puck grazed the post. After Turco stoned Daniel Sedin with about 2:35 left to keep it at 0-0, the Canucks got a too-many-men penalty in overtime, setting up Brenden Morrow's tip-in winner.

A too-many-men call in overtime -- this either a hilarious twist or the beginning of a torturous week for the Canucks. Everyone's going to talk to about the near own goal, but the Canucks might have missed their chance when Turco made that stop on Sedin, along with a sliding stop on Trevor Linden earlier.

Oh, and By the way, yes, Harry Neale did refer to the Canucks' Henrik Sedin as "Sundin." Hey, he had four of the letters right. Remember, when you match four numbers in the 6/49, that's a couple thousand dollars in your wallet.

Flames 3 Red Wings 2 (Series tied 2-2): Miikka Kiprusoff might steal this series yet.

Ducks 4 Wild 1 (Anaheim wins series 4-1): Corey Perry -- 16 minutes of ice time, seven shots on net, including the clinching goal. By the way, who wants to be at rinkside for the first Ryan Getzlaf-Dion Phaneuf collision when the Ducks face the Flames in Round 2?

Senators 3 Penguins 0 (Ottawa wins 4-1): This was just a formality; the Pens were flatlining after Anton Volchenkov's winner and the plug was pulled when the flightless birds floundered on a pair of 5-on-3s. Incidentally, four guys whom our man Jean-Pierre Allard called out after Game 4 had good games -- Dany Heatley (game's first goal), Mike Fisher (some big hits), Antoine Vermette (a beautiful breakaway goal) and Ray Emery (nice pad save when it was still 0-0 and people had to give Pittsburgh a puncher's chance).

So does Jordan Staal get the call to play for Team Canada in the Worlds?

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.