It's here. The teeth crunching begins! The Stanley Cup Playoffs are here. Round one kicked off this past week with a total of eight teams battling for the playoff berth. The sixteen teams competing are as follows:

Vancouver & Los Angeles

San Jose & St Louis

Chicago & Phoenix

Detroit & Nashville

Ottawa & New York

Washington & Boston

New Jersey & Florida

Philly & Pittsburgh

The Sticks are flying and the saves were staved as the sixteen teams battle for an end goal during round one of the playoffs.

Several players were carried off the ice including Chicago Blackhawks Forward Marian Hossa. Hossa was blindsided by Coyote's Raffe Torres who was suspended from the league indefinitely.

More to come, stay tuned to hockey-hockey.com

Hockey Scores and more at http://www.nhl.com

SCAHA Standings and Presidents’ Day Tournaments

The standings for the 2011-12 Season in SCAHA have so far been a really close race for the top spots. In the 16U Midget division, OC Hockey is in first place with an 11-1-0 record closely followed by the Wave with a 10-1-2 overall record. In the 18U Division, the Junior Gulls are atop the standings with a record of 10-0-2 with number two spot is held by OC Hockey with 10-2-0.

How to Balance Hockey and Homework

While all good athletes must balance schoolwork and their extracurricular activities, hockey presents a unique challenge to student athletes. It is the only sport that in the top tiers requires travel and possibly even living away from home. In particular, once players get to Midget age there will more than likely be many road trips and long hours spent on the bus to and from weekend games and tournaments.

The Strait Pirates Defeated the Glace Bay Junior Miners tonight by a whopping score of 3-1. Scoring for the Pirates this evening were Jeremy Sheppard and Nick Allard. Pirate action continues through this weekend as they prepare for another hometown rivalry against the Cumberland County Blues. Game time for the game VS Cumberland is 7:30 at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Center.