Philadelphia @ NY Rangers 4-2 - The Cryers have made a habit of coming back late in games. In the regular season they won 11 times after trailing at some point in the third period. They didn't wait until the third period Sunday, rallying from a 2-0 first-period deficit with Jason Akeson and Luke Schenn scoring the tying and winning goals in the second period as the Flyers beat the New York Rangers 4-2 in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round Stanley Cup Playoff series. Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers, who won at Madison Square Garden for the first time in 10 tries, dating back to Feb. 20, 2011. Ray Emery stopped 31 shots for his first playoff win in exactly three years, April 20, 2011 when he was a member of the Anaheim Ducks. The series is tied 1-1 with Game 3 in Philadelphia on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, CNBC, TSN2, MSG, CSN-PH). Martin St. Louis and Benoit Pouliot scored for the Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist had 21 saves. St. Louis and Pouliot scored 4:14 apart in the first to put the Rangers ahead, but the Flyers never lost faith. The Flyers started their run on Voracek's goal. Scott Hartnell chipped a pass from center ice to Voracek on the right side. He picked up the puck at full speed, blew around Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh, pulled the puck around a lunging Lundqvist and scored at 14:14. Akeson, who took the four-minute high-sticking penalty that changed the course of Game 1, evened the score at 5:45 of the second period. Anton Stralman was called for interference 3:48 into the second, and late in the man advantage Vincent Lecavalier fired a shot from the right side that hit off Brayden Schenn in front and Akeson was there to knock in the rebound. Luke Schenn gave the Flyers their first lead of the series at 11:18 of the second. Michael Raffl carried the puck down the right side of the Rangers' zone and centered a pass to Adam Hall. Lundqvist stopped Hall's attempt but Schenn jumped into the play to poke in the rebound. Schenn had four goals in the regular season but none in 22 games entering Sunday. But with the Flyers about to get a power play he figured it was the right time to join the rush. The Rangers had chances to get back in the game, including a power play late in the second and another early in the third, but went 1-for-6 with the man advantage. The Rangers knew they were going to get a better effort in Game 2 from the Flyers, but up 2-0 they felt they should have been able to withstand their push. The Flyers' penalty killing had been one of the few constants in an up-and-down season, and it was solid again Sunday. And backstopping the effort was Emery, who is getting a chance to play with Steve Emery recovering from an upper-body injury. Mason skated before the game Sunday and is expected to skate again Monday, but his status for Game 3 remains unknown. Dirty Dog Simmonds closed the scoring with an empty-net goal with 25.4 seconds remaining. A split in the first two games of the series is something the Flyers are happy with heading into the next two games at Wells Fargo Center.
Detroit @ Boston 1-4 - The Eastern Conference's best offense got off the
mat Sunday, and now the Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Bruins and Red Wings is tied at one win apiece. After being shut out in Game
1 of their Eastern Conference First Round series, the Bruins solved
Red Wings goalie Jimmy
Howard and rebounded with a 4-1 win at TD Garden on Sunday. Game
3 of the best-of-7 series is scheduled for Tuesday night (7:30 p.m.
ET, NBCSN, TSN, NESN, FS-D) at Joe Louis Arena. The Bruins received a
huge boost from scoring the first goal after not scoring in Game 1.
Fueled by a fierce forecheck, Justin
Florek, Reilly
Smith, Milan
Lucic and Zdeno
Chara scored goals for Boston. Torey
Krug had two assists, and goaltender Tuukka
Rask stopped 34 of 35 shots. The Bruins' power play went 2-for-4
and their penalty kill was 4-for-4. Boston, which was third in the
NHL in goals per game (3.15) in the regular season, had lost four in
a row to the Red Wings, including a 1-0 loss in Game 1 on Friday. The
Bruins could not afford to head to Detroit down two games. They have
lost four in a row at Joe Louis Arena, including two losses there
this season, and they haven't won in Detroit since March 11, 2007.
Coming off his Game 1 shutout, Howard stopped 25 of 29 shots. Pavel
Datsyuk, who scored Detroit's goal in the opener, was limited to
one shot on goal. The Red Wings accumulated four roughing penalties
Sunday during a game that featured many more post-whistle scrums. Red
Wings coach Mike Babcock wasn't pleased with his team's lack of
discipline. The Bruins scored their first goal of the series 7:28
into Game 2. Howard tried to pass the puck to Brendan
Smith near the right wall while both teams were changing lines.
The puck missed the Red Wings defenseman and deflected off the wall
to Florek for a one-timer from the dot that reached the back of the
net before Howard could scramble back to the crease. It was Florek's
first career playoff goal. Florek's goal allowed the Bruins to play
looser, and Boston doubled its lead during a power play a little more
than three minutes later. The Bruins were unable to capitalize during
21 seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage, but Reilly
Smith won a battle in front of the net with the Bruins still up a
man. After Patrice
Bergeron fired a shot from the blue line and Loui
Eriksson took a hack at the rebound, Reilly
Smith found the puck behind Howard and tucked it in at 10:35 of
the first. The Bruins outshot the Red Wings 18-10 during the opening
period. Detroit beat Rask for the first and only time Sunday at 13:20
of the second. Darren
Helm went around Iginla out high and snapped a shot from the
right dot toward the front of the net. Luke
Glendening had his stick down, and the puck hit off the rookie
forward's stick and then his upper body before passing Rask to cut
the Boston lead to 2-1. It was Glendening's first career playoff
goal. Shortly after the Bruins killed off Dougie
Hamilton's tripping penalty, they went back up by two goals.
Lucic gained the Detroit zone and then handed off to Iginla at the
top of the right circle. Iginla found Lucic cutting to the net, and
the left wing's shot had just enough on it to go off Howard and
trickle into the net at 18:16 for a 3-1 lead. Chara gave the Bruins a
three-goal cushion when he stuffed in the rebound of an Iginla shot
during a power play at 2:27 of the third period.
Tampa Bay @ Montreal 2-3 - The Canadiens are one win away from the second round of the Stanley
Cup Playoffs. The Lightning are on the brink of a long offseason. Carey
Price made 27 saves and Tomas
Plekanec scored what turned out to the be the winning goal early
in the third period of a 3-2 win for the Canadiens in Game 3 of the
Eastern Conference First Round series against the Lightning on Sunday
night. Rene
Bourque scored his third goal in two games and P.K.
Subban had two highlight-reel assists for the Canadiens, who were
fueled by a raucous sellout crowd of 21,273 at Bell Centre. The
Canadiens lead the best-of-7 series 3-0 with Game 4 in Montreal on
Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, RDS, SUN). Canadiens coach Michel
Therrien has preached all season to his players to stay in the
moment, to deal with the task immediately before them and not to look
too far ahead or behind them. He sees no reason to change that now
that the Canadiens are on the verge of advancing to the second round.
Ondrej Palat
and Matthew
Carle scored and Steven
Stamkos assisted on each goal for the Lightning, who had losing
streaks of at least three games on two occasions in the regular
season and are now experiencing one at the worst possible time. The
Lightning had a scare when Stamkos left the game at 16:09 of the
second period with an injury. Stamkos was skating through the neutral
zone when he got tangled up with Canadiens forward Brandon
Prust and fell. As he was falling, Canadiens defenseman Alexei
Emelin was skating back toward his own zone when he tried to step
over Stamkos and struck him in the head with his right knee. Stamkos
went down, tried to get back up and skate to the bench and stumbled
before going down on one knee again to wait for the Lightning
trainer. He skated to the Lightning dressing room under his own power
and missed the remainder of the second period, but returned for the
third. The atmosphere leading into the game was electric, with the
Canadiens putting together a pre-game presentation that included 3-D
lighting on the ice and what has now become a playoff tradition of a
child standing at center ice with a torch and lighting the ice on
fire. The chants of "Go Habs Go" were deafening when the
teams took the ice for the game, and it drove the home team to a
start that couldn't have been much better. Right off the opening
faceoff, the puck went back to Subban in the Canadiens zone. He
lofted a puck from his own faceoff circle to the Lightning blue line,
where it bounced in between Tampa Bay defensemen Victor
Hedman and Matthew
Carle right to a rushing Bourque, who fired a shot past Anders
Lindback at 0:11 to put Montreal ahead 1-0. It was the fastest
playoff goal ever scored at Bell Centre. The Canadiens dominated the
rest of the opening 20 minutes, and were it not for Lindback, the
Lightning's deficit entering the first intermission might have been
three or four goals instead of 1-0. The Lightning came out for the
second with much more purpose, driving the play and getting rewarded
when Palat scored at 8:39 on a power play after Daniel
Briere was called for cross-checking. Stamkos took a shot from
the point that bounced in front right to Palat in the slot, who beat
Price through the legs for his first career playoff goal. The
Lightning looked to have taken the lead at 15:38 of the second period
when Ryan
Callahan scored on a scrambling Price, but the goal was
immediately waved off by referee Francis Charron. The sequence began
when Alex
Killorn drove hard to the net, forcing Price to make a difficult
save and sending the puck airborne towards the net. Subban batted it
out of the air while the puck appeared on its way into the net,
keeping the play going. Price got up and ran into Killorn, who wound
up in the Canadiens net after his scoring chance. Price stumbled and
as he tried to get back across his crease to stop Callahan's shot he
fell, with the puck hitting him and sliding into the net. Cooper said
Charron gave him an explanation at the time of the call and also
after the second intermission after seeing a replay, and that the
explanation of the call did not change with the benefit of hindsight.
Stamkos was hit by Emelin 31 seconds later and was still in the
dressing room getting treatment when Brendan
Gallagher gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 18:10. With the teams
playing 4-on-4, Subban maintained possession in the Tampa Bay zone
and Palat came out to defend him. Subban spun off Palat and wheeled
his way around the zone and behind the net, where Palat fell after
his stick got jammed in the net. Subban continued on his tour of the
Tampa Bay zone and stopped at the faceoff circle, where he found
Gallagher alone on the opposite side of the slot. Gallagher, who had
gauze in one nostril after he had gone to the dressing room with a
bloody nose, had time to settle the puck down and beat Lindback for
his second goal in as many games, his fourth in eight career playoff
games. The return of Stamkos could have inspired the Lightning to
come back, but it was the Canadiens who extended their lead at 5:43
when Plekanec scored from the side boards with a shot to the far top
corner that eluded Lindback to make it 3-1. But the Lightning did not
go quietly. Carle brought Tampa Bay to within a goal at 11:36 when he
took a pass from Stamkos and beat Price with a shot from the point
that went through a Tyler
Johnson screen. It was not enough, and the Lightning will have
two days to prepare for what could be their last game of what has
been to this point a remarkably successful season.
No comments:
Post a Comment