Stanley Cup Playoffs: First Round, Day Ten

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Three teams were on the verge of elimination tonight. Two teams were locked in a series tie and would have to go to multiple overtimes to solve. What happened?

Flyers at Capitals

Back to Washington, with another must win for Philly. They’re down three games to one, and took game four at home.

The Capitals came to play in the first, getting 14 shots against Neuvirth, despite being on the penalty kill four times — three of those penalties were on Justin Williams — one being a double minor. Neuvirth, again, was lights out, stopping a great scoring chance by Jay Beagle. The Flyers got a great look while Williams was serving his double minor, but Braden Holtby shut Wayne Simmonds down.

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The Flyers only took 6 shots in the first.
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The second period has the Caps challenging Neuvirth frequently. Williams landed in the box again, this time for high sticking Claude Giroux. The Capitals killed the penalty, and shortly afterward (in the vulnerable minute), Colin White scored a greasy goal, screening Holtby.
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Neuvirth held it together for the Flyers in the second, robbing Washington on several occasions. Neuvirth made 16 saves in the second period.

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In the third period, it was more of the same: Washington didn’t let up, and Neuvirth held it together for the Flyers. Chris VandeVelde scored on an empty net with 31 seconds to go.

Flyers win 2-0. Neuvirth made 43 saves, and Holtby made 9. The Flyers’ 11 shots is the least number of attempts they’ve made in a playoff or regular season game this season.

Philadelphia stays alive, and the Capitals are leading the series 3-2.

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Phew.

Islanders at Panthers

What is there to say about this game? It seemed that for long stretches of this game neither team wanted to actually win nor let the other team win. It was like a game of (Fancy) cat and also (Fancy)cat.

First Period:

The Panthers commit a couple of penalties against the Islanders which don’t really matter. Isles’ forward Frans Nielsen scores the only goal of the frame on a rebound from a shot by Thomas Hickey at 13:39.

Second Period:

There was a lot of this:

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At some point, Islanders Captain John Tavares chirps Jussi Jokinen after Slashing him. He’d go for two minutes to the box to feel shame.

Third Period:

Alexander Barkov finally scores for the Fancy Cats at 1:59.

Florida’s solitary score in the Third is controversial. Even with the cameras on the blue lines, there can still be evidence that is “inconclusive”. Looks off-side to me.

This game would go into Overtime and Serious Overtime.

Overtime:

Calvin de Haan closes his hand on the puck and throws the puck backward, away from the goal, which is not a good thing to do and a two-minute penalty for Covering the Puck in the Crease. Florida is awarded a rare penalty shot that would win the game…

… and which does not.

Serious Overtime:

John Tavares gets beat up in this period. First he’s tripped by Jaromir “I’m Old Enough to be Your Father” Jagr and later slashed by Derek MacKenzie. This last one is the important one since it allows the for the Islanders to have the man advantage when Alan Quine scores the game-winning, Power Play goal at 16 minutes.

In case you missed the reaction on the Panthers bench:

So Game 6 will happen sometime on Sunday back north in Brooklyn at the Barclays. I can’t wait to see the car again!

Wild at Stars

First, The Minnesota Wild’s Twitter account is observing proper tribute to the untimely passing of Prince.

Minnesota starts scoring early when Mikael Granlund shoves it in on Antti Niemi at 3:32.

Jordan Schroeder, who is playing his first playoff game this season, adds a tally at 5:16.

Dallas Stars’ resident Frenchie jerkface Antoine Roussel is causing trouble, again.

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He jumps off bench to make contact with Chris Porter and Matt Dumba goes to back-up his teammate.

Roussel and Dumba each go to the box for Roughing at 7:59. The team splay 4-on-4 for 14 seconds before Jared Spurgeon goes for Tripping Patrick Sharp. Dallas has a Power Play which is basically wasted.

Mikko Koivu has a great scoring opportunity but a splayed Niemi prevents the puck from going in.

Having not scored a goal in 54 games, Johnny Oduya was due. Oduya scores a much needed goal at 17:18 on a slap shot. This is all made possible due to the major effort Ales Hemsky made to moved the puck down into the offensive zone.

Second Period:

Sound guy is playing “One Step Beyond” by Madness. Always fun.

Many good saves by Devan Dubnyk and Antti Niemi but watching this game is like this:

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You could say it’s pretty

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Third:

At one minute in the period Jamie Benn scores the tying goal when Mikko Koivu fails to clear the puck out

Less than a minute later at 1:50 Nino Niederreiter scores to put the Wild ahead again.

Jason Spezza ties the game up again at 8:28. Dallas takes the lead on an Alex Goligoski score at 8:28.

The crowd has awakened!

With 6 and change left, Dallas presses in the Wild’s zone and Dubnyk makes many scrambling saves. Ray Ferraro says that the Wild can thank Dubnyk for keeping them only down by one. Indeed.

At 16:51, Koivu ties it up again, four-all.

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This game would go into OT . At 4:55, Mikko Koivu nets his second of the night and game winner.

This stupid series is going on for far too long. Dallas has made the classic mistake of underestimating their opponent and not playing as well as they can. If they’re not careful, this series will go to seven games and the Wild will take it. Dallas, get to it.

Sharks at Kings

Kings at Staples Center for a VIG (Very Important Game). Go big, or go home, literally.

So what do they do?

Why they get themselves into a three goal hole they need to dig themselves out of.

And then they actually come back and tie the game. Three unanswered goals! Everyone starts talking about Patrick Marleau’s missed penalty shot opportunity and how that might come back to haunt them.

But nope. Sharks pull ahead in the third and go on to win with a final score of 6-3.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The Kings were totally outplayed and gave the Sharks way too many opprtunities on the power play.

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carvinbass18
Editor
carvinbass18

This Dallas series has gone on 2 games too long now

Recch0Bag skate 
April 24, 2016 7:02 am
phonymahoney
Editor
phonymahoney

Seriously, and they’re not really fun games.
comment image

Recch0Bag skate 
April 24, 2016 10:52 am
the german hammer
Admin
the german hammer

It is the worst series because neither team is playing their best at the same time. Dallas has taken games off, they rushed Seguin back for the second game and now he’s out again, the Wild look like they don’t really belong in the same league as the Stars at times. Terrible, awful series to have to watch and I do it all for you jerks.

Recch0Bag skate 
April 24, 2016 12:50 pm
Satan81
Admin
Satan81

Seguin’s out again? Oof. The Stars had better be really, really, really careful with that.

Recch0Bag skate 
April 24, 2016 3:22 pm
the german hammer
Admin
the german hammer

He was in for 1 game- Game Two, They were going to play him sparingly- which they didn’t. He should have played 4th line minutes, ended up playing 15+ without much effect.

Recch0Bag skate 
April 24, 2016 4:37 pm
the german hammer
Admin
the german hammer

You’re telling me.

Recch0Bag skate 
April 24, 2016 12:48 pm
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