sharks led 3-0 less than 4 minutes into the game in the first period. then, a flames player elbowed marleau (no penalty, surprised!) and that started their comeback. after flames closed the gap to 3-2, i said to myself, is this going to be 'edmonton' all over again? for this game, it is. i hope not for the series. hopefully the sharks come back stronger next tuesday and win this physical series.
OTTAWA (AP)桬vgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night to complete a four-game sweep of their first-round series.
Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds remaining and had an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which got its first sweep in 16 years and its first playoff series win since 2001.
Cory Stillman scored for Ottawa, which was swept out of the first round for the third time in its 11 consecutive playoff appearances.
The sweep was a measure of revenge for the young Penguins, who were knocked out of last year抯 playoffs in five games by the Senators. Ottawa went on to make its first Stanley Cup finals appearance in modern franchise history, losing in five to Anaheim.
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Sidney Crosby (#87) of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 2008 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals on April 16. Crosby had a goal and an assist in the Penguins' 3-1 victory over Ottawa.
(AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Phillip Maccallum)
The Penguins also became the first team to advance to the second round. Pittsburgh will face Boston, if the Bruins overcome their 3-1 series deficit against Montreal to advance, or the winner of the New Jersey-New York Rangers series.
Injured Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson played his second straight game and was reunited with linemates Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley, but it wasn抰 enough.
Malkin scored his second goal of the playoffs 1:40 into the second. The 21-year-old Russian opened the scoring during the Penguins
DENVER (AP)桾he Minnesota Wild kept on insisting all they had to do to take the series back home was clone their effort and energy from Game 5, because, really, there was absolutely no way Jose Theodore could duplicate his otherworldly performance in the net.
Wrong.
Theodore and the Colorado Avalanche withstood another onslaught from the relentless Wild for a series-clinching 2-1 win Saturday night. Theodore stopped 34 shots, including a glove save off Kim Johnsson抯 shot with 21 seconds left and the underdog Avs took the series in six games.
The Wild won their first division crown this season but Minnesota held a lead in the series for only 4 minutes, 31 seconds out of a possible 384:23, and not a single second on this night.
Ben Guite and Ryan Smyth scored goals for Colorado, which heads into the second round riding a three-game winning streak and a red-hot goaltender.
The Wild lost their cool in Game 4, when they were whistled for 111 penalty minutes in Denver, and they never recovered, losing the next two despite regaining their discipline and peppering Theodore with plenty of pucks.
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Colorado Avalanche right wing Ben Guite checks Minnesota Wild defenseman Keith Carney (3) into the boards during the third period in Game 6 of the teams' NHL first-round playoff series in Denver, Saturday, April 19, 2008. The Avalanche beat the Wild 2-1 to win the series and advance to the second round.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)桾he Detroit Red Wings can take a couple days to rest up. The NHL抯 best team in the regular season won抰 miss the Western Conference semifinals this year.
Nicklas Lidstrom and Jiri Hudler each scored, and the Red Wings closed out their opening series by beating the Nashville Predators 3-0 in Game 6 on Sunday.
Brian Rafalski added an empty-netter with 4.8 seconds left. Goalie Chris Osgood stopped 20 shots for the shutout in his second straight playoff start as top-seeded Detroit became the first road team to win in this series.
With the victory, Detroit passed Toronto for second on the list of playoff series won with its 59th.
Nashville had hoped to use hot goalie Dan Ellis and an earsplitting crowd to force Game 7 in Detroit on Tuesday night. But the Predators missed their best scoring chance when David Legwand hit a post in the first period, and they failed to advance out of the first round for a fourth straight postseason梕ach time on their home ice.
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Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski (28), left, checks Nashville Predators left wing Vern Fiddler (38), right, off the puck in the third period of a first-round NHL hockey playoff game in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, April 20, 2008. The Red Wings won 3-0 to win the series.
(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
The eighth-seeded Predators had no pressure in a series few thought they抎 get a chance to play in. Their season featured a change in owners and the unloading of several top players under previous owner Craig Leipold. Nashville couldn抰 capitalize on a soldout crowd that tried to help by screaming and waving free towels at every opportunity.
Ellis stopped 40 shots after setting a franchise playoff record with 52 saves in Friday night抯 2-1 overtime loss in Detroit. That was the most through regulation in a postseason game since May 24, 1996, when Tom Barrasso had 56 for Pittsburgh in an Eastern Conference final loss to Florida.
But neither Ellis nor the fans could score.
Detroit, however, always seemed to find someone to put the puck in the net.
It started Sunday when Lidstrom took a shot from past the red line in the second. Ellis came out to the edge of the crease only to see the puck bounce a few feet in front of him and into the net for a 1-0 lead at 13:44 of the second.
Nashville had a chance to answer. The Predators went on the power play and had 54 seconds of a 5-on-3 after a tripping penalty on Kris Draper at 14:43. Detroit killed off the penalties.
Then Hudler sealed the victory at 3:52 in the third, flipping a shot past Ellis
DALLAS (AP)桾he Dallas Stars are taking their chase of the Stanley Cup into the second round of the playoffs梐nd the reigning champs aren抰.
Stephane Robidas, playing with a cage covering his broken nose, scored the tying goal on the power play early in the third period then set up Stu Barnes for the go-ahead goal 52 seconds later, sending the Stars past the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 Sunday night to end their first-round series in six games.
The Ducks are the fifth straight defending Stanley Cup champions to fail to make the second round. The NHL hasn抰 had a repeat winner since Detroit in 1997-98. No champion has even taken a title to the finals since the Stars in 2000.
Dallas is so far removed from those glory days that the guy who scored their Cup-winning goal in 1999, Brett Hull, is now the co-general manager. The Stars hadn抰 even won a playoff series since a first-rounder in
MONTREAL (AP)桟arey Price got his second shutout and Andrei Kostitsyn scored twice to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Monday night in the deciding game of their first-round playoff series.
Price stopped 25 shots overall, including 11 shots in the opening period. He got his first playoff shutout in a 1-0 win in Game 4.
Mike Komisarek opened the scoring 3:31 in amid one of the first of countless roars from the raucous Bell Centre crowd over the course of the evening.
The Canadiens took control of the game in the second, outshooting the Bruins 17-6 while building a three-goal lead on a superb goal by Streit midway through the period and Kostitsyn抯 second goal of the series at 15:13.
Kostitsyn punctuated the win with his second of the game, a power-play goal with 2:02 remaining in the third. Sergei Kostitsyn scored with 7.3 seconds remaining.
Top-seeded Montreal will face Philadelphia in the second round, if the Flyers win their Eastern Conference quarterfinal against Washington. Otherwise, the Canadiens will face the New York Rangers.
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Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, right, stops Boston Bruins' Phil Kessel during second period of Game 7 first round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on Monday, April 21, 2008 in Montreal.
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)
Tim Thomas stopped 30 shots for Boston, which fell short in its bid to overcome both 2-0 and 3-1 series deficits for the first time in team history.
Bruins coach Claude Julien was behind the Canadiens
WASHINGTON (AP)桺hiladelphia Flyers coach John Stevens was so excited about Game 7 against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals that he skipped the team bus and took the 40-minute walk from the hotel to the rink.
MONTREAL (AP)桽cott Upshall scored with 3:04 remaining in the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers advanced to the Eastern Conference final with a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Upshall deflected Jeff Carter抯 shot past Carey Price to give Philadelphia its second and final lead of the game as the Flyers won the conference semifinal in five games.
The Flyers are the second team to reach the conference finals after the Presidents
actually, nhl can control the fights or completely ban it. but, they let it go to certain extend (no serious injury) because the fans want to watch it. that's one of the big reasons they come to the game and get seats near the glass.
well, tonight is another must-win game for the sharks. hope they can bring the series back to san jose. it's tough, really tough as no nhl team has done it in the last 30 years (only two in the history of nhl, three in all major sports in north america) but doable.
PITTSBURGH (AP)桵arian Hossa scored his second goal of the game 7:10 into overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied after giving up a two-goal lead to beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Sunday and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in seven years.
Sidney Crosby began a rush into the Penguins end with a pass to Pascal Dupuis, who attempted to give it back to Crosby. The puck trickled away but ended up on Hossa抯 stick, and he beat Henrik Lundqvist from the slot for his fifth of the playoffs to end New York抯 season. The Penguins won the series 4-1.
The Penguins, the Eastern Conference抯 worst team only two years ago, will meet the cross-state Philadelphia Flyers, the conference抯 worst team last season, in the first all-Pennsylvania conference final. The teams haven抰 met in the postseason since the Flyers
wow! what a game between dallas stars and san jose sharks. third overtime is done - 120 minutes already. 110 shots between them and only two goals! hope the sharks win. berdebar-debar ni. nabokov and turco are showing an excellent and exciting goaltending skills. both teams are out of gas.... very tired. and the game is still going on... we're on to fourth overtime. 5 hours already, including all the breaks.
DALLAS (AP)桾he Dallas Stars have finally made it back to the Western Conference finals. It took the eighth longest game in NHL history to do it.
Brenden Morrow scored a power play goal 9:03 into the fourth overtime as the Stars eliminated the pesky San Jose Sharks 2-1 in a game that ended early Monday morning梩he longest game in the NHL playoffs this season, and the longest in San Jose history.
The Stars are going to the conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they returned to the Stanley Cup finals the year after winning the franchise抯 only championship. They will face Detroit, which wrapped up its second-round sweep of Colorado on Thursday night.
After winning the first three games in the series, the Stars finally knocked out the Sharks on the third try and avoided having to go to San Jose for a deciding game. The win came after having two apparent goals disallowed following video reviews in Game 5, and Evgeni Nabokov抯 sensational glove save early in the first overtime of Game 6梬ell before midnight.
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San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov (20) of Kazakhstan catches the puck shot by Dallas Stars forward Brad Richards (91) during the first overtime period during Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinal playoff hockey series in Dallas, Sunday, May 4, 2008.
(AP Photo/LM Otero)
Brian Campbell was called for tripping close to the Dallas net before Morrow scored the winner, deflecting in a pass from Stephane Robidas. It was the fourth overtime game in the series, and the fifth game decided by one goal.
Marty Turco had a franchise-record 61 saves for the Stars. Nabokov stopped 53 shots.
San Jose thought it had a game-winner midway through the third overtime, with Ryane Clowe poking a puck around Turco. Clowe and nearby teammates wearily lifted their arms, but the puck was under the goalie抯 glove and not in the net. The Sharks even had a power play in the third overtime when Nicklas Grossman was called for hooking, but couldn抰 convert.
The game last 5 hours, 14 minutes梕nding the third-longest in Stars history. They lost the other two.
Nabokov抯 incredible glove save 1:31 into the first overtime kept the game going and prevented a series winner by Brad Richards.
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Post time 4-5-2008 04:46 PM
