Minutes ago, Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk scored in overtime after Rick Nash’s delay of game penalty to lift the Russians over Canada, 5-4, for the gold medal in the world championships in Quebec City.

The Wild’s Brent Burns was named the tournament’s top defenseman. Burns finished with three goals (two in the gold-medal game) and nine points in nine games. He led all players in the tournament with a plus-14. He had 27 shots. He led the entire team in ice time (18:58).

Burns wasn’t on for a goal against today.

Finland won the Bronze. Mikko Koivu led the Finns with nine points in nine games. He also led the Finns in average ice time (20:34). Niklas Backstrom was 6-2 with a 2.11 goals against average and .922 save percentage. …

Chris Simon’s hockey career hasn’t ended.

He’s found a job in … Russia.

Simon, acquired in February by the Wild in a much-maligned trade with the Islanders, has signed to play next season in with Vityaz Podolsk Chekhov.

Simon, 36, had no points and 16 penalty minutes in 10 regular-season games with the Wild and scored no points in two playoff games.

Simon was suspended 30 games this past season for stomping down on Pittsburgh’s Jarkko Ruutu. The incident came nine months after Simon was suspended 25 games for slashing the Rangers’ Ryan Hollweg in the face. …

Think former St. Cloud State forward Ryan Malone’s going to make a fortune as a free agent this summer?

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.