The Toronto Gladiators will be moving on after defeating the Calgary Hitmen tonight by a score of 5-2 and winning the series four games too one.

Both the Hitmen and the Gladiators looked like they could take game five with multiple scoring chances on both sides along with some stellar goaltending by both Miika Kiprusoff and Rick Dipietro. At least that's the way the game played out until the third period.

Once the third period got underway, the Gladiators took total control playing a very tight defensive minded game, allowing the Hitmen on one shot in the entire period. Although the Gladiators only had eight shots of their own, they were able to connect on three of them putting the game far out of reach.

Despite the victory, the Gladiators did lose forward Corey Perry too and undisclosed injury after an apparent spear by Hitmen forward Chris Kunitz. Kunitz was ejected from the game. It's unclear how long Perry will be out of action, but initial reports indicate that he could miss five or six days.

Although most in the league would have predicted the North Carolina Eagles too defeat the Baltimore Bandits, the Bandits did not get that particular message.

Tonight in defeating the Eagles for the third consecutive game, they have taken a 3-1 advantage in the series with the Eagles, putting them on the verge of elimination.

Tonight's game saw the Bandits win by a score of 4-2 with Adrian Aucion being named the games first star. Aucion scored a goal and added an assist for two points on the night with nearly thirty minutes in ice-time. He also recorded five hits on the night, the most of any player on the team.

"Adrian was a monster out there tonight," said teammate Steve Staios after the game. "He lead our team tonight in every aspect of the game, and prooved too everyone in our dressing room how valuable he is."

The Eagles with now head home, where they will host the Bandits on Friday night and try to get back into the series.

After a disappointing season in which the Sydney Ice Breakers missed the playoffs, General Manager Atif Asif has stepped down from his general manager duties.

The Ice Breakers missed the playoffs by only three points, but were very inconsistant all year long and never seemed too generate that team chemistry that most teams look for. As such, Asif felt that he needed to take a break from the game in order to figure out what went wrong and regain that passion that he lost.

Whatever his reasons for leaving, Asif did a fantastic job of preparing this team for the future ahead. The Ice Breakers will have a solid draft pick in the upcoming 2007 entry-draft as well as an unprecedented ten first round picks in the 2008 entry-draft, which may turn out too be one of the deepest in years.

General Manager Jared Stephen imagined his team going far into the playoffs despite the average regular season where they just made it into the post season on the last day.

In the end, the Canucks could simply not stop the Edmonton Roadrunners who defeated them 2-0 tonight at the Pacific Coliseum to finish off the series in four straight games and earning them a trip to the next round.

The Canucks ran into a hot goalie in this series in Martin Gerber who stopped all twenty-one shots he faced on this night including thirteen in the first period alone. Gerber has been by far the best goaltender in the playoffs in posting a .971 save percentage and .75 goals against average.

"Gerbs was incredible out there tonight," Mike Knuble said. "He really stepped up his game in this series and looked like a mountain of a man out there. I can only imagine how the Canucks must feel after seeing the way he played in this series."

The Roadunners will now have some much needed rest as they await their next opponent, while the Canucks will now reflect on what went wrong in the first round in the hopes on not making the same mistakes next season.

Hoston Rockhounds fans started leaving the game near the end of the second period tonight as their team was embarrassed by the visiting Detroit Phantoms 8-0.

Steve Konowalchuk, Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Williams, Keith Ballard, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Pavel Datsyuk all scored for the Phantoms, taking a 2-1 lead in the series.

The Phantoms broke the game open early in the first period, with Datsyuk scoring two goals in just under three minutes. By the end of the first period the score was 4-0 in favor of the Phantoms giving the Rockhounds little chance of recovery.

"We were not a very relaxed team tonight. We didn't shoot the puck enough or well enough when we had the opportunity," said Rockhounds coach Ken Hitchcock after the game. "We were looking too make the perfect play and it backfired on us every time.

Houston has now played two very poor games in this series, and will need to get their act together if they hope on taking this series away from Datsyuk and the Phantoms.

The Yellowkinfe Ice Dragons and Roberto Luongo in particular were very poor if the first two games of their series with the Quebec Remparts. The team was outscored 8-4 with Luongo posted an uncharacteristic 4.00 goals-against-average.

Tonight, the Ice Dragons paid a visit to Quebec where they would play the first of two games in the city. For whatever reason, the team that took the ice tonight, looked nothing like the team that lost on Friday evening. Luongo was extremely good in allowing only one goal on twenty-five shots with the team coming away with a 5-1 victory.

Quebec still has a two games too one advantage in the series, but will now need too find that fight and desire that they showed in the first two games when they were by far the dominant team.

Playing in front of a sold out crowd of 19,500 fans, the Manhattan Warriors defeated the Hartford Whalers 4-1 tonight, taking game one in the series. Stepping up for the Warriors was the line of Sidney Crosby, Peter Forsberg and Darcy Tucker who combined for six points with Tucker getting two goals.

"We just couldn't seem too control them out there," said Whalers defenseman Brent Sopel after the game. "For whatever reason, the three of them did a great job of controlling the puck in our zone. We need too do a better job next game, if we're going to win this series.

As it turns out, both teams played fairly well tonight with the Whalers actually outshooting the Warriors 34-27, including a 12-6 margin in the first period. Turnovers and bad play in their own zone were the main reason for the loss.

Another factor in the game was Evgeni Nabokov who outplayed Whalers goalie Tomas Vokoun. Nabokov was never out of position and never allowed any juicy rebounds off of his pads.