Montreal @ Tampa Bay 4-1 - The Canadiens are heading home hoping they won't have to make a return trip here until next season. But they are also going home knowing just how fragile a 2-0 series lead can be. Rene Bourque scored two goals and Carey Price made 26 saves in a 4-1 win against the Lightning in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Friday. The series now shifts to Bell Centre in Montreal for Game 3 on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS, SUN) and Game 4 on Tuesday. Price was the starting goaltender in 2011 when the Canadiens swept the first two games on the road in their 2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the Boston Bruins. Five teammates who were in uniform Friday played in that series as well. After going home with a commanding lead as the underdog in the series, the Canadiens won once in the next five games and lost the series in seven. The Bruins went go on to win the Stanley Cup. Defenseman P.K. Subban, who assisted on the first two Montreal goals Friday, remembers that series well and vows to learn the appropriate lessons from it this time around. Price, who allowed four goals on the first 14 shots he saw in a 5-4 overtime win in Game 1, was a rock in the Montreal net. His best save came a little after the 15-minute mark of the second period with the Canadiens leading 2-0 when he made a post-to-post pad stop on Lightning rookie Cedric Paquette. The Lightning face a daunting task going into one of the NHL's most intimidating buildings in an effort to save what has been a remarkable season. But coach Jon Cooper is not afraid, in fact, he's looking forward to it and fell just short of suggesting the pressure might in fact be on the Canadiens to play well in front of their demanding fans. It will be considerably more fun for the Lightning if they are able to find a solution to what Subban referred to as the Canadiens "suffocating" forecheck and defensive play thus far in the series. The Lightning have been outshot 70-52 in nearly seven periods of hockey. David Desharnais' first goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs early in the second period snapped an 0-for-27 drought for the Canadiens' power play dating to March 25, perhaps eliminating what has been the only part of Montreal's game that has not been at a high level thus far in the series. Bourque's first goal of the game turned out to be the winner; he scored on a spectacular breakaway off a feed from Thomas Vanek to snap a nine-game goal drought. Bourque's two goals came after a difficult season where he scored nine times in 63 games, but he has been engaged in both games of the series thus far with his physical play and creating opportunities around the net. Bourque has four goals in seven playoff games in a Canadiens uniform. Brendan Gallagher scored his third playoff goal in his seventh game to make it 3-0 at 11:46 of the third period, ending the night for Lightning goaltender Anders Lindback. Lindback, starting in place of injured Ben Bishop, stopped 20 of 23 shots and has allowed eight goals on 67 shots in the series for an .881 save percentage. He was replaced by Kristers Gudlevskis, who stopped his first shot by Bourque but allowed the next to go in. Bourque collected his rebound, wheeled around the net and scored on a wraparound with 5:21 remaining to make it 4-0. The Lightning, playing without leading scorer and potential Calder Trophy nominee Ondrej Palat, played better than they did in Game 1 when they were outshot nearly 2-to-1. Tampa Bay began the game with purpose, taking the play to Montreal and getting nine shots on Price before the game was nine minutes old. The Canadiens began to take over in the second period. Desharnais opened the scoring at 2:34, tipping home a Subban shot. Max Pacioretty got the second assist for his first career playoff point. Bourque made it 2-0 at 10:35 when he took a no-look pass from Vanek in stride in the neutral zone, split Lightning defensemen Eric Brewer and Sami Salo, and beat Lindback after the goaltender missed a poke check. The Canadiens were up 4-0 in the third period when Teddy Purcell broke Price's shutout by scoring a power-play goal with 1:59 to go. But shutouts are of little importance to Price and the Canadiens. At this point, their focus is going home in front of their rabid fans and maintaining what has worked so well for two games in Tampa in the hopes they won't have to play here again.
Detroit @ Boston 1-0 - The Bruins and Red Wings constantly urged everyone to ignore the seedings for
their Eastern Conference First Round series. The Red Wings, who made
the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second and final wild card in the
East, showed everyone in Game 1 on Friday why the regular-season
standings didn't mean much. Pavel
Datsyuk scored with 3:01 remaining to lift the Red Wings to a 1-0
win against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins at TD Garden to
take the early series edge. Jimmy
Howard made 25 saves to earn his third career postseason shutout.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC) back
at the Garden. Detroit right wing Johan
Franzen dug the puck out of the Red Wings zone and dished it
ahead to Datsyuk, who pulled it between his legs at the Detroit blue
line and skated up the ice on a 2-on-2. After crossing the Boston
blue line, Datsyuk crisscrossed with linemate Justin
Abdelkader. With Abdelkader driving to the net, Datsyuk beat
Bruins goalie Tuukka
Rask high to the glove side with a wrist shot from the top of the
left circle. Moments earlier, Howard survived the Bruins' best
scoring chance. Lucic tipped an Iginla pass that went off Howard's
glove and just wide of the goal. The Bruins were without two of their
top four defensemen, Kevan
Miller and Matt
Bartkowski, and two forwards, Chris
Kelly and Daniel
Paille, because of injuries and illness. Rask stopped 23 of 24
shots in the loss, which was the Bruins' fourth in five tries against
the Red Wings this season. After two periods with no goals, Rask made
his best save early in the third period when he flashed out his right
pad to stop a point-blank chance by Red Wings forward Darren
Helm. That preserved the tie before the Bruins' first power-play
opportunity. Howard then grabbed the spotlight with a couple key
saves on Bruins forwards Reilly
Smith and Carl
Soderberg, who couldn't stuff in a loose puck at the top of the
blue paint. Rask, though, was victimized by Datsyuk's magic later in
the period. The first period had a roller-coaster feel and ended with
the teams still in search of the first goal. Detroit outshot Boston
11-9 and had the only power play of the period. Defenseman Zdeno
Chara was called for boarding against Brendan
Smith. With their top penalty-killing defenseman in the box, the
Bruins were able to kill off the penalty, allowing one shot. The
second period closely resembled the first, but Boston outshot Detroit
7-5. The Red Wings again failed to capitalize on a power play, this
time with Bruins defenseman Torey
Krug in the box for holding. The Bruins had not been shut out in
a playoff game since April 14, 2011, when the Montreal Canadiens
blanked them behind Carey Price.
Dallas @ Anaheim 2-3 - Ryan
Getzlaf completed a dizzying 48 hours in heroic fashion. Corey
Perry ended three years of frustration. Andrew
Cogliano capped it with his shorthanded mastery. The storylines
could not have unfolded much more neatly for the Anaheim
Sucks in a 3-2 win against the Dallas
Stars on Friday night at Honda Center. The Sucks took a 2-0 lead
in the Western Conference First Round series. Game 3 is Monday at
American Airlines Center (9:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, RDS, TSN, KDOC, TXA
21)."Every once in a while you need your best players to step it up when the rest of the guys are losing their composure a little bit," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "[Getzlaf], with what's happened to him in the last three days, and to come and get two points, and a plus-3, is a sure reason why he's hopefully going to be nominated for the MVP."
Cogliano got what proved to be the game-winner when he scored a shorthanded goal at 5:09 of the third. He tied up defenseman Sergei Gonchar behind the Dallas net and roofed Getzlaf's return pass for his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal. Dallas owned the third period and pulled to 3-2 on Ryan Garbutt's first career playoff goal with 10:02 left before Anaheim closed it out behind rookie goalie Frederik Andersen, who made 34 saves. The day ultimately belonged to captain Getzlaf, who welcomed his third child, daughter Willa, early Friday morning, nearly 24 hours after he received numerous stitches for a deep laceration on his face from a Tyler Seguin slap shot in Game 1. He went to the hospital when his wife, Paige, went into labor.
"I was in there icing my face as she was trying to push a baby out," Getzlaf said he didn't get to save the puck for his new daughter. "They don't give them to me, ever. I'll probably grab one for her, that's for sure. This afternoon I was able to go over and see her again and hold her for a couple of minutes, and obviously it worked out tonight. Our guys played great."
Getzlaf, wearing a partial cage, fulfilled the heroic storyline with a first-period goal that revived Anaheim after a weak start. He knocked down Erik Cole's pass, drove the right side and snapped the puck high to the short side past Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen at 17:14.
"That's what he's done his whole career - in big games he's made big plays," Perry said of Getzlaf. "He's a leader on this team for a reason."
Perry grabbed a Dallas turnover and unleashed a slap shot that beat Lehtonen to the stick side at 16:15 of the second period to put the Ducks ahead to stay. Perry was under the microscope when he went scoreless in seven games of last season's conference quarterfinals loss to the Detroit Red Wings, and the pressure was mounting. His previous postseason goal was almost three years ago to the day, on April 20, 2011. He appeared to let out a big yell in his celebration.
"It's exciting when you finally get one and you get that monkey off your back," Perry said.
The downside for Anaheim was another late-game lapse after the Ducks nearly blew a 4-0 lead in Game 1. Asked about his team's sense of when to close out a game, Boudreau said, "I wish they'd do it sooner. I do think that in a lot of games we bend, but we don't break.
"You see sacrifice going on at the end. As many mistakes as we were making, giveaways and turnovers that were unforced; we're blocking shots and getting in the lanes and doing the things that are necessary to win, and the goalie is making the big save at the end. I'd like to play different. I'd like it not to come down to that, but I think that's what it is."
The line of Getzlaf, Perry and Devante Smith-Pelly also did a terrific defensive job on Dallas' top line. Seguin had three shots, and Benn's one shot came in the final minute. Seguin's errant pass to Benn led to Perry's goal. Dallas coach Lindy Ruff put Alex Chiasson at right wing in place of Valeri Nichushkin on the top line to provide scoring depth, and Nichushkin did not have a shot on goal playing with Cody Eakin and Cole Ruff is guiding an inexperienced playoff team but he sees improvement. The Stars outshot the Ducks 15-2 in the third period. Dallas pulled Lehtonen for an extra attacker but Nick Bonino got a big faceoff win and obstructed a shot at the left point in the final seconds. Andersen helped the Ducks weather pushes by the Stars in the opening minutes and late in the second period.
"We didn't capitalize on some of their big mistakes, which was the difference," Ruff said. "But I actually like where our team was at, the pressure they were putting on. There was a lot to like. We missed the net on a couple of big mistakes and you got to give them credit. We handed them a couple. They didn't have a lot but what we handed them, they took advantage of."
Dallas outshot Anaheim 7-1 to start the game and took the lead on Chiasson's power-play goal, his first career playoff goal, at 7:40 of the first period. It was the Stars' fourth consecutive goal of the series.
"I think we started better, definitely," Gonchar said. "But it doesn't matter. We have to make sure to keep playing like this. All game, 60 minutes is what counts. I think we have to be consistent with that."
Dallas defenseman Brenden Dillon and Anaheim left wing Matt Beleskey sat out with lower-body injuries.
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