Playoff Results - Wed, Apr 30, 2014 - Game 7s

Philadelphia @ NY Rangers 1-2 - The New York Rangers didn't really lean on Henrik Lundqvist to win a game for them at any point through the first six of their Eastern Conference First Round series against the Cryers. But when the Rangers needed their goaltender in the final period of the final game, Lundqvist showed why he's considered one of the best in the NHL. Lundqvist stopped 10 of 11 shots in the third period, made 26 saves total, and the Rangers defeated the Flyers 2-1 in Game 7 on Wednesday. The Rangers are 6-0 at Madison Square Garden in Game 7. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, they are the first team in NHL history to win a Game 7 in the opening round for three straight years. The Rangers beat the Washington Capitals in 2013 and the Ottawa Senators in 2012. Daniel Carcillo and Benoit Pouliot scored for the Rangers, who advance to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. The best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series will open Friday night in Pittsburgh (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS). The Rangers split four games against the Penguins in the regular season, winning once in Pittsburgh and once in New York. The Rangers also have one of the best: Lundqvist. He allowed Jason Akeson to score at 4:32 of the third period after Marc Staal blocked his initial attempt. The other Rangers might have been feeling comfortable in the third period, but their goaltender wasn't. With the season at stake, Lundqvist said his emotions were a mix of nerves and excitement. Lundqvist is 4-1 in Game 7s. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, his 1.00 goals-against average is tied with Johnny Bower and Dwayne Roloson for the best GAA in Game 7 (minimum three). Lundqvist was pulled from Game 6 on Tuesday after allowing four goals in a 5-2 loss at Wells Fargo Center. The Rangers were strong defensively in the third period, and Lundqvist was there to stop just about everything that slipped through. Lundqvist has allowed one goal or fewer in each of his Game 7 victories, including one shutout. He improved to 7-2 with a 1.56 goals-against average, .948 save percentage and two shutouts in his past nine elimination games. Carcillo opened the scoring at 3:06 of the second period. Mats Zuccarello got the puck down low on the right side of the Philadelphia zone. He twisted away from Flyers forward Sean Couturier and made a backhand pass through the crease past two Philadelphia defenders to Carcillo, who one-timed it past goalie Steve Mason for his second of the postseason. Carcillo was a healthy scratch in Games 5 and 6, but Vigneault opted for him ahead of J.T. Miller because of his experience. Wednesday was Carcillo's 40th playoff game; he played four for the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks last season. Pouliot made it 2-0 at 11:46 of the second when he scored his second of the playoffs. Anton Stralman dumped the puck into the right corner in the Philadelphia end. Derick Brassard got it, spotted Pouliot stepping away from coverage in the middle by Couturier and found him with a quick pass that Pouliot one-timed past Mason. The Rangers had other chances in the second when they outshot the Flyers 18-5, but Mason again was Philadelphia's top player. He was at his best when he defused a 3-on-1 New York rush. He did the splits to get his left pad on a shot by Martin St. Louis from the right side then got across to stop McDonagh on the post on the left side with 12:20 left in second. Mason finished with 31 saves. The Flyers' best chance of the second period came with four minutes left when Jakub Voracek set up Claude Giroux right in front of Lundqvist, but Giroux's shot went over the net. Philadelphia managed one shot on each of its two second-period power plays. The Flyers pushed harder in the third but came up empty. The Rangers don't have much time to celebrate their victory; they travel to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Minnesota @ Colorado 5-4 OT - Nino Niederreiter helped the Wild snap an 11-year drought and earn another crack at the Chicago Blackhawks. Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game 5:02 into overtime Wednesday to give the Wild a 5-4 come-from-behind victory against the Avalanche in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round series at Pepsi Center. The Wild erased four one-goal deficits to force overtime before winning their first Stanley Cup Playoff series since 2003, when they also beat the Avalanche in overtime at Pepsi Center. Colorado still hasn't won a playoff series since beating the Wild in 2008. Minnesota opens its second-round series against the Blackhawks at United Center on Friday (9:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN, RDS). Chicago needed five games to knock the Wild out of the playoffs last season. The home team had won the first six games of the series. But the Avalanche, who won the Central Division with 112 points, couldn't take advantage of home ice in Game 7. They definitely had their chances with four separate one-goal leads, including two in the third period. Colorado center Paul Stastny scored at 2:55 of the third period to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead, but Niederreiter erased that deficit less than four minutes later by scoring the first of his two goals. He beat Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov with a far-side wrist shot from the top of the right circle at 6:33. Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson made it 4-3 with his goal off a wrist shot from inside the blue line with 8:44 to play, but Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon erased that deficit with 2:27 to play in regulation. Spurgeon saw Avalanche rookie Nathan MacKinnon go down on one knee to slide through his shooting lane in an attempt to block the shot, so he pump faked, pulled the puck back in and found a different lane. He wired his shot from the right circle into the top left corner of the net. Thirty-one seconds after Johnson scored, Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper had to leave the game with an undisclosed injury. Kuemper was taken out by Duchene behind the net in the second period, and Wild coach Mike Yeo said the injury might have been related to that play. Yeo didn't have an update on Kuemper when he addressed the media after the game. Ilya Bryzgalov replaced Kuemper, but the Wild did not surrender a shot on goal over the final 8:13 of regulation. Bryzgalov's lone save came in overtime, when Stastny's 25-foot wrist shot hit off his shoulder. Less than three minutes later Niederreiter converted on a 2-on-1 rush with Kyle Brodziak by firing another hard wrist shot from the right circle, this time to the glove side, past Varlamov. The Avalanche and Wild traded goals through the first 40 minutes to enter the third period tied 2-2. Defenseman Nick Holden and forward Jamie McGinn scored for Colorado; forwards Mikko Koivu and Heatley each scored his first goal of the series for Minnesota. Holden's goal, a power-play goal at 2:52 of the first period, came with some controversy before the NHL Hockey Operations Department cleared it up. McGinn appeared to bump into Kuemper as Holden's shot was redirected into the net by Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin, giving Colorado a 1-0 lead. Referee Wes McCauley immediately waved his arms after the puck crossed the goal line, but it wasn't to wave off the goal because of goalie interference. According to Hockey Operations, McCauley waved his arms "as a reaction to a potential infraction for high-sticking the puck. The on-ice officials then huddled regarding the play to discuss if it was a good hockey goal, and agreed the goal would stand." The Wild tied the game 5:12 later when Koivu scored on a one-timer from the left circle that went under Varlamov's glove. Now Yeo's group is moving on to the second round. Minnesota hasn't been there in 11 years, and this trip offers a chance at revenge against the defending champs. The Wild have one day to prepare.
Los Angeles @ San Jose 5-1 - The Los Angeles Kings completed what will likely be remembered as the most famous four-game winning streak in franchise history. Anze Kopitar scored late in the second period and the Kings added three more goals in the third en route to a 5-1 victory against the San Jose Sharks in Game 7 of this Western Conference First Round series Wednesday night at SAP Center. The Kings became the fourth team in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup Playoff series after losing the first three games, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942, New York Islanders in 1975 and Philadelphia Flyers in 2010. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, who were members of that Flyers team, became the first players to do it twice.
"It was a result of us staying together as a group of guys. When you've gone to the top of the mountain with the same group of guys it's a little bit easier when you're at the bottom to come up," captain Dustin Brown said. "That's what a lot of this team is about, our guys who have stuck together and played together for years and there's a belief system."
Los Angeles will now try to win a California state title of sorts. The Kings will face their Southern California rivals, the Anaheim Sucks, in a Western Conference Second Round series. It will be the first time these two franchises, separated by 30 miles of freeway, meet in the postseason. When they met in January at Dodger Stadium as part of the 2014 Stadium Series, it was a celebration of how hockey has flourished in California. Game 1 is set for Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN, RDS).
"One, it is really good for both teams for a travel standpoint at this time of year," Brown said. "When we were going back and forth to Chicago and St. Louis, that can wear on you in a series, but now both teams have that advantage here. I think it is great for Southern California hockey to finally have this matchup. It will be fun."
In a decade of regular-season greatness followed by postseason disappointment, this will be one of the toughest playoff losses for the San Jose franchise to digest. There is no shame in losing in seven games to the Kings, also considered one of the best teams in the League all season, but the way the series progressed makes it unlike any other seven-game defeat the franchise has experienced.
"There's been a lot of low points, but yeah this is definitely one of them, being up 3-0," Sharks forward Patrick Marleau said. "You don't usually agree with [the critics], but then you do something like this and it's not easy to take, you know?"
Jonathan Quick, lit up for 16 goals in the first three games of this series, made 39 saves for the Kings. He yielded five goals in the final four games, and two in the final three. Drew Doughty scored his first goal of the series at 4:57 of the second period to make it a 1-1 game. The Kings took three shots while on the power play in quick succession, the last by Carter near the left post. The rebound came to Doughty in the left circle, and he made Los Angeles' fourth try count. Doughty and Kopitar were the two best players in this series, and Doughty in particular gave the Kings a big advantage when the Sharks were without their top defenseman, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, in the final two games because of head and lower-body injuries. Kopitar gave the Kings the lead with 1:21 left in the second. Justin Williams slipped a pass to Kopitar cutting toward the net in the slot, and he deked to his right. San Jose goaltender Antti Niemi was completely faked out by the move, and Kopitar calmly flipped a backhanded shot in the net for his fourth goal of the series.
"This is something we're all going to remember for the rest of our lives," Doughty said. "We're not done yet. We have to move on. We're probably gonna start in a few days now. This will be in our heads tonight. That was an unbelievable feeling, a great team effort."
It was yet another point for Williams in a Game 7. He's earned a reputation with big performances in these situations, and now has 10 points in five career Game 7s. The Kings took four penalties during the period, but the Sharks were unable to beat Quick despite 12 shots on goal with the man advantage. The Sharks' best chance came from Marleau, who looked like he had a sure goal near the right post. But Quick reached back and snatched the puck off the goal line with one of the best saves of the series to keep the score tied 1-1.
"When they started reviewing it I thought I might have had a shot, but I didn't see it come down until the last second until I kicked it out to my stick," Marleau said. "He made a really good save on that."
One of the turning points in this series for the Kings came when coach Darryl Sutter put rookies Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson together on a line with Carter, and they hooked up for a pretty goal to make it 3-1 early in the third period. Toffoli sent a pass up the left wing to Pearson, and he eventually sent a backhanded pass back to Toffoli cutting toward the goal and he didn't miss. It was Toffoli's third goal of the series, and they've all come alongside Pearson and Carter.
"That's just chemistry I think between Tanner and Tyler that they've built up probably playing in the minor leagues for the last couple years together," Brown said. "Tanner makes a really nice play on that, going wide and finding him. And Ty, that's what Ty is. He gets the puck in a scoring area and it's in the back of the net. That was a big, big goal."
Brown and Pearson sealed the win with empty-net goals late in the third. That this series needed seven games was far from a surprise, but how it got there certainly was. San Jose won the first three games and scored 17 goals against the team that led the League in fewest goals against during the regular season. The Sharks swept the first two games at SAP Center with convincing 6-3 and 7-2 victories, then won Game 3 in overtime at Staples Center courtesy of a goal by Marleau. The Kings clamped down on San Jose after that, yielding four goals in the next three games to level the series. The Kings chased Niemi in Games 4 and 5, winning 6-3 and 3-0. Alex Stalock started for the Sharks in Game 6 and it was tied midway through the third period, but three goals in less than three minutes gave the Kings a 4-1 victory.
"We were a lot closer last year than we were this year," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "We're kidding ourselves if we think we were closer this year, just because it went seven games. I don't know what it was, [18-5] in the last four games. It wasn't even close. We had a core group of individuals that didn't get on the score sheet. Last year was a lot closer than it was this year."