In a somewhat shocking turn of events, the
Rangers' power play helped them keep the series going. Brian
Boyle tied the game at 3-3 with a blocker-side shot from the slot
10 minutes into the third period. It was New York's first power-play
goal since Game 4 against the Washington Capitals and snapped a
0-for-23 drought. New York is 3-for-42 on the power play in the
playoffs. The Bruins were lamenting their mistakes and miscues in the
losing dressing room. They had a 2-0 lead on power-play goals from
Nathan Horton
and Torey
Krug, but Rask fell down in the crease and didn't get enough
leverage with his right leg tucked behind him to stick his stick out
far enough to stop Carl
Hagelin's slow, trickling, deflected backhanded shot from the
slot at 8:39 of the second period. Stepan scored the next big goal
when he swiped the puck from an unsuspecting Zdeno
Chara and wrapped it around the left post to tie the game at 2-2
with 18:45 to play in regulation. Tyler
Seguin was hoping he had erased the mistakes when he scored his
first goal of the playoffs to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead 8:06 into
the third period, two seconds after Ryan
McDonagh's goalie interference minor expired. However, the
Rangers got a power play 49 seconds later when the Bruins were called
for too many men on the ice. New York made it count.
Chicago v Detroit 0-2 - Game 4 - The days of thinking this was going to be a
rebuilding year for the Detroit
Red Wings are over. The days of thinking this was going to be an
amazing finish to an incredible season for the Chicago
Blackhawks, well, those could be numbered. Jakub
Kindl scored a power-play goal midway through the second period
Thursday night and Jimmy
Howard made 28 saves, stealing Game 4 at Joe Louis Arena from the
top-seeded Blackhawks in a 2-0 victory and a 3-1 lead in this Western
Conference Semifinal series. The seventh-seeded Red Wings could
finish a most improbable upset of the Presidents' Trophy winners
Saturday at United Center (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS). After falling
behind three times in the Western Conference Quarterfinals to the
second-seeded Anaheim Ducks, the Red Wings have won five of their
past six postseason games. Chicago began this season with a record
24-game streak without a regulation loss. The Blackhawks lost only
seven times in regulation in the 53 games (including a first-round
series victory against the Minnesota Wild) before this series, but
they've now lost three in a row to the rival Red Wings, all in
regulation, and have never won a postseason series after losing three
of the first four games. This is also the first three-game losing
streak of any kind for Chicago this season. Kindl put the Red Wings
in front with a power-play goal at 10:03 of the second period. Johan
Franzen shot the puck from the right wall and hit it Justin
Abdelkader in front. Abdelkader kept Niklas
Hjalmarsson from clearing the puck by playing it to the left
wall, then won a battle for it behind the net when Kindl sent it
along the boards. Abdelkader left the puck for Pavel
Datsyuk, who eschewed the simple stuff try from behind the net,
and deked Marcus
Kruger out of position in the process, before the puck worked its
way back to Kindl, who shot it through a screen provided by
Abdelkader. It was Kindl's first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal.
Defenseman Carlo
Colaiacovo, who sent a D-to-D pass to Kindl, also collected his
first point of this postseason.
The goal came with one second left on a penalty to
Chicago captain Jonathan
Toews, the second of three straight penalties he took in the
period. It also ended Chicago's perfect penalty-killing streak, the
Blackhawks had erased 30 consecutive extra-man chances to start this
postseason. Toews has not scored a goal in this postseason. He has
been asked about it every time he meets with the media, which, as the
guy who wears the "C" on his sweater, is often. He was
visibly upset about two of the calls, and his physical battle with
Zetterberg continues to be one of the highlights of the series. The
two captains have jostled after the whistle on multiple occasions.
Meanwhile, Chicago's power play remains a problem. The Blackhawks
scored on their first man-advantage of the series midway through the
first period, but the Red Wings have killed off 14 straight Chicago
power plays. The Blackhawks had three chances in this contest, the
first two for either team and then one in the final five minutes of
regulation. What's worse is they put only one shot on goal with the
man advantage and none during the final power play. In fact, after
Howard corralled a point blast from defenseman Duncan
Keith with 5:49 left in the third to get the Red Wings to the
final TV timeout, the Blackhawks did not register another shot on
goal. Daniel
Cleary added an empty-net goal with 38.2 seconds remaining to
send the standing-room crowd of 20,066 into a frenzy. The Blackhawks
created several great chances in the first period. But just as he was
in the previous two games, Howard was outstanding. He turned aside
all 14 shots he faced, including top-level chances by Toews, Sharp
and Patrick
Kane. While Chicago players were breaking in alone on Howard,
those are all shots he can see. The Blackhawks had few chances near
the crease during scrums, and second chances again were hard to come
by. The Blackhawks dominated Game 1 en route to a 4-1 victory, but
the Red Wings returned the favor in Game 2 with a 4-1 triumph of
their own. Game 3 was an evenly played contest, but one six-minute
spurt from Detroit and the combination of a controversial no-goal
call on Chicago followed by a world-class snipe by Datsyuk gave the
Red Wings a 3-1 victory and their first lead in a series in this
postseason. The Red Wings, younger than they've been in a long time,
continue to improve as this postseason moves along. For the
Blackhawks, this is certainly not going according to plan.
San Jose v Los Angeles 0-3 - Game 5 - Anze
Kopitar was struggling to put the puck into the net. Slava
Voynov was having issues defensively. The Los
Angeles Kings looked ready to drop a game at home for the first
time in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. But a physical 60-minute
effort in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals turned those
notions on their ear. Kopitar broke out of his scoring slump with a
late second-period goal and Voynov added a seeing-eye goal on point
shot early in the third to propel the Kings to a 3-0 victory night
against the San Jose
Sharks on Thursday night. Jonathan
Quick made 24 saves for his third shutout of this year's Stanley
Cup Playoffs as L.A. took a 3-2 series lead. The Kings can advance by
winning Game 6 on Sunday at HP Pavilion (NBCSN, TSN, RDS). After
back-to-back 2-1 losses at San Jose, the Kings stepped up their game
to a level the Sharks couldn't match. Los Angeles came out hitting
everything in sight, the Kings finished with a 51-24 edge in hits,
and extended its home winning streak to a franchise-record 13 games,
including six in a row in these playoffs. L.A. has won its last seven
playoff games at Staples Center, including the Cup-clinching 6-1 win
against New Jersey last June. Six Kings registered at least four
hits. Dustin
Penner bumped Logan
Couture so hard Couture's helmet came off, and Matt
Greene knocked down T.J. Galiardi in a tone-setting opening
period in which L.A. was credited with 24 hits to San Jose's 12.
Quick earned his seventh postseason shutout and passed Kelly Hrudey
as the franchise leader in playoff wins with his 27th. He was
masterful in the third period, making his best stop of the night on
Joe Pavelski's
shot from the right side with 40 seconds left. Quick has stopped 313
of 330 shots in the postseason for a .948 save percentage. San Jose
coach Todd McLellan didn't recognize Quick's performance as the
difference after San Jose found itself on the losing end of a
low-scoring game following back-to-back 2-1 wins in Games 3 and 4.
San Jose needed to live off its power play but went scoreless on
three chances. The line of Joe
Thornton, Brent
Burns and T.J. Galiardi were a combined minus-4 and Thornton put
three shots on goal. Couture was a minus-3. Although Thornton won 20
of 29 faceoffs, Los Angeles was better than 50 percent (37-35) on
draws for the first time in the series.
Though Thornton won 69 percent of his draws, it
was a faceoff he lost to Trevor
Lewis that led to Voynov's goal 53 seconds into the third period.
Lewis muscled the puck back to Voynov, who fired a shot through
traffic and past Antti
Niemi for his second goal the series, helping to atone for key
turnovers in Games 3 and 4. Sustained pressure off a San Jose
turnover led to Kopitar's goal. Voynov pinched and Kyle
Clifford sent a shot from the right point that squirted cleanly
to Kopitar, who easily nudged it into the open net with 1:52 left in
the second period. Kopitar's last previous goal was Game 4 in the
conference quarterfinals, which ended a 19-game scoring drought. The
Kings could have enjoyed a first-period lead if their shooters had
been on target, both Kopitar and Voynov missed the net on great
chances. San Jose spent most of the period icing the puck and getting
knocked down. The Sharks put a wrinkle in their lineup and went with
seven defensemen as Jason
Demers played forward in place of the scratched Tim
Kennedy. McLellan didn't say whether he would make any more
changes for Game 6, but did say extending the series to a seventh
game would be a 20-man job.
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