Summer class

The professor was not kidding when he said that 15 weeks were compressed into five during the summer, in this case for Applied Microeconomics. The first of two tests in on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. after only two weeks of the course. Unfortunately for me, my Wednesday afternoon is already booked with doing set-up in Allentown for the Force, so I wil have to get all studying finished by Tuesday night. This should be fun!

I'm looking forward to being able to watch game five of the Stanley Cup Final after missing games one, three, and four; I watched some of four the next day on NHL Network. This has been a good series to cap off a good playoffs overall, which I have missed by being in Portugal, doing work, and spending time with good friends. Good thing that two of those things were time well-spent with others rather than watching television by myself or with my dad.

NHL ECF Game 4: Penguins @ Hurricanes

The Hurricanes face elimination as they trail three games to zero. Goaltender Cam Ward is 5–0 when facing elimination and he has never lost a playoff series.

First Period: The Hurricanes are playing well, but they can't afford to keep making turnovers, especially with Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby on the ice, which is over three-quarters of the time in this game because they are rotating with the open spot on the fourth line. The Hurricanes are 7–0 in the 2009 playoffs when Eric Staal scores a goal, and he scored the first goal on a quick wraparound, but the Penguins came back to take the lead 2–1, with their second goal coming on a deflected shot by Maxime Talbot that floated over Ward's glove.

Second Period: Crosby makes a beautiful pass off of another turnover to let Bill Guerin potentially put the Hurricanes away for the season. The Hurricanes had 16 shots on goal in the second period, but not too many quality chances. A sign held up by a fan said "Miracles Cam Happen" and it will take a miracle for the Hurricanes to win this game. I fully expect them to come out strong in the third period despite Marc-Andre Fleury stopping every opportunity after the first soft goal.

Third Period: Carolina came out with a valient effort, but it's more of the same from Fleury in goal. I was more interested in watching Livan Hernandez finish his 127-pitch complete game for the Mets, giving up one run as the Mets scored six, paced by Gary Sheffield's three-run home run. When I turn back to hockey, the Hurricanes still can't find the back of the net and the Penguins are going back to the Stanley Cup Final after scoring an empty-net goal to make it a 4–1 victory.

Side note: The end of the NBA Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 2 was unbelieveable. That's the only word I could utter after Hedo Turkoglu and LeBron James traded buckets in the last second.