The Ottawa Senators got back into their Eastern Conference semi-final series with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night from the nation’s capital.
Checking-line forward Colin Greening scored at 12:21 of double overtime as the Senators defeated the Penguins 2-1. Pittsburgh still lead the series 2-1. It was the longest game played so far in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the first to go to double overtime.
It was also a great comeback game for Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, who made 49 saves in between the Ottawa pipes.
In the other Eastern conference semi-final, the Boston Bruins defeated the New York Rangers 5-2 to take a 2-0 series lead. The Bruins were led offensively by Brad Marchand and Torey Krug, who each notched a goal and an assist, and by David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron who each notched two assists.
With just over ten minutes remaining tonight it looked all but certain that the Toronto Maple Leafs would advance to the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Then a comeback of the ages started to take place. Down 4-1, the Bruins scored three unanswered third period goals before Patrice Bergeron capped off the remarkable comeback in overtime. The final two regulation goals, one from Milan Lucic, the other from Bergeron, came in the last 1:22 of the contest. The Bruins won the series 4-3 with the 5-4 victory, but in the process stunned hockey fans around the continent.
With the win, the Bruins will face the New York Rangers in round 2. The Rangers got a dominating performance by their entire franchise in a game 7 victory over the Washington Capitals. Henrik Lundqvist made 35 saves, while Steve Eminger and Derick Brassard has two assists each in a 5-0 Rangers win and a 4-3 series victory.
For the first time since 2007, Team Canada has won the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.
On Monday, Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins, Ryan Smyth of the Edmonton Oilers and John Tavares of the New York Islanders were instrumental for Team Canada in a commanding 7-2 victory over the host HC Davos in the championship final.
Smyth, also known as Captain Canada and Tavares each scored twice, while Bergeron had a goal and three assists.
Smyth’s first goal of the game, at 9:07 of the first period was shorthanded and the game winning goal. Bergeron received the lone assist with brilliant stickhandling. Tavares
Other Canadian goal scorers were Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators and defenceman Derrick Walser.
Well, the votes are now in, and apparently the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association have disagreed with me and have voted for Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins over Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers.
Lundqvist will not join an elite list of six goaltenders that have won the Hart Trophy, despite leading the New York Rangers to the best record in the Atlantic Division and the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference.
The voters instead decided to go with Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who led the NHL with 109 points. Besides winning the Art Ross Trophy in 2012, Malkin also won the 2012 Ted Lindsay Award, as voted on by his peers. When I heard Malkin got the Ted Lindsay Award, I knew he also won the Hart Trophy too!
The only other award I got wrong was the Selke, where I went with Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings over the eventual winner, Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins. After analyzing their statistics in greater detail, I actually agree with the Writers’ Association. Datsyuk may have had three more points than Bergeron, but Bergeron was +15 higher than Datsyuk, and won the 2012 Bud Light Plus-Minus Award for having the best plus-minus in the NHL.
Well, it finally feels like winter in Edmonton, which means I had absolutely no issues with staying inside and checking out a week’s worth of hockey highlights for the latest edition of the GOTW!
This week starts with a nice breakaway from a guy who doesn’t score often, followed by a couple of beauty goals from a couple of recent top draft picks, a dazzling fake clapper and a diving Gino.
Let’s go!
5. Nate Thompson
He’s only got about four goals on the season, but it’s quality over quantity when you’re dealing with Nate Thompson! Check out the hands as he breaks in all by himself and freezes Cam Ward with some nifty moves.
What a week it was in the NHL last week – there was the outdoor game, there were some big time blowouts and some tight match ups, all of which produced a lot of high quality tape for me to go through!
It took some time, but I managed to narrow it down to five beauty goals from the week that was in the league – this time around we’ve got a sick behind the back pass, a super-efficient power play, a solid breakaway on a legendary netminder, an unreal shorty and some dangles you’ll have to see twice to believe!
Let’s go!
5. Patrick Marleau
Sharks forward Patrick Marleau is the one who bats this puck in, but it’s all about the slick no-look pass by Joe Thornton in front of the Capitals net. Beauty!
One Alberta-based team in the NHL lost a big lead on Thursday night, the other just lost big.
In St. Louis, the Edmonton Oilers blew a 3-1 second period lead to lose 4-3 to the St. Louis Blues.
St. Louis came out firing early in the third period with power play goals within the first two periods of the third period by Alex Pietrangelo and David Backes. Then with the game tied at 3, Matt D’Agostini scored a goal in the top right corner of the net, over Devan Dubnyk’s shoulder, to give the Blues the lead to stay.
Edmonton, which is ten points back of Los Angeles for a playoff spot, next plays in Dallas on Saturday afternoon.
The Flames meanwhile got hammered 9-0 to the Boston Bruins. Patrice Bergeron, Nathan Horton, David Krejci, Tyler Seguin and Benoit Pouliot all notched three points, and Tuukka Rask made 25 saves for his third shutout in less than a month. The Flames are four points back of Los Angeles for a playoff spot. They next play Minnesota on Saturday night.
We’re through another week of action in the NHL and I’ve got to say, this may have been the toughest one so far when it comes to whittling my list of potential Goals of the Week down to a top five!
Cracking the list this time around is a beautiful spinning backhander, some slick breakaway moves, a bit of between the legs magic, a clutch play from a young forward and a one-man show at the United Center!
Let’s go!
5. Tyler Bozak
Toronto’s Tyler Bozak checks in at number five this week, corralling some knee-high sauce from Phil Kessel and hitting the top shelf with a spinning backhander over the shoulder of Roberto Luongo. Beauty!
It takes a special snipe to make my Goals of the Week list, and it came down to a lot of nifty special teams action this time around!
Yes, it’s a power play heavy edition of the GOTW, featuring the Penguin who can’t stop scoring, a couple of beauties from the biggest surprise of the new season, a sweet passing play from the Island and one even-strength goal…can you guess which one?
Let’s go!
5. James Neal
Kicking things off is James Neal – the way the Penguins move the puck around on this PP, it looks like the thing is bouncing around a pinball machine! (See ALL the goals of the week after the jump!) (more…)
The Boston Bruins are the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion.
Last night, the Bruins got a pair of goals each from Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, as well as a shutout from Tim Thomas, who made 37 saves, in a 4-0 win.
Thomas, won the Conn Smythe Trophy, and in the process set a record for most saves in one Stanley Cup Playoffs, passing Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks in 1994.
But unfortunately, game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, will not be remembered for what happened inside Rogers Arena in Vancouver, but outside of it.
The talk and focus have turned to the riots that took place on the Vancouver streets. Are they worse than 1994? I’m not sure as of yet.
But the bottom line is this what we do know.
–The crowd on the Vancouver streets exceeded 100,000 people.
–Cars were set on fire, bottles were continuously thrown, and bonfires were staged while the riot police were called in.
–The Vancouver riots have made worldwide news from Australia to India.
–Downtown department stores The Bay, and Sears were completely looted.
All because of a loss in the Stanley Cup Final. Which leads me to ask what might have happened if Canada lost the Gold medal game to the United States last February? I think we would have seen something similar to last night–but much, much worse.
The Vancouver Canucks are only two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup.
Saturday night Alexandre Burrows scored eleven seconds into overtime as the Canucks defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The fastest overtime goal in history also came in Game Two of the Stanley Cup Final on Canadian soil.
On May 18, 1986, Brian Skrudland of the Montreal Canadiens scored nine seconds into overtime as the Canadiens defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2 in Calgary to tie the series at one. The Canadiens would go on to beat the Flames 4-1 to win the Stanley Cup.
It was not a good game for former Flame Andrew Ference who gave the puck away twice that led directly to two Vancouver Canuck goals.
After watching Alexandre Burrows literally chomp on Patrice Bergeron’s finger last night at the end of the first period, I was certain there would be some sort of disciplinary action by Mike Murphy.
Apparently not.
When Murphy watched the tape today, he found no evidence that Burrows intentionally bit Bergeron.
Another issue is whether or not the biting incident caused any blood. Bergeron says there was, but in examining the replay and a closeup look of his hand, I didn’t see any blood there.
In my opinion, it is difficult to judge in this particular instance if the intent was there or not. The bottom line is there is video evidence that shows Burrows biting.
What a start to the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Vancouver!
The Canucks opening game win over the visiting Boston Bruins had a little bit of everything – enormous saves at both ends, some big hits, a few nice offensive displays and a lot of nastiness between two clubs that seemed to develop a hate for each other in a hurry. It wasn’t all good though – there was also a bit of controversy that is sure to spill over into today.
The big discussion in hockey circles at the moment revolves around an incident that happened at the end of the first period of game one involving Canucks forward Alex Burrows. He was mixing it up with Boston’s Patrice Bergeron along the boards, with a linesman trying to pry them apart, when Burrows appears to chomp down on the gloved finger of his opponent.
It’s at this point that Bergeron gets heated and even skates over to try and show the referee the bite mark. After the game, Burrows was asked about the incident and said “I think he had his finger in my mouth, but I don’t think I bit him.” (After the jump: VIDEO of the bite, plus ANOTHER dive…why is it happening so much?) (more…)
If the Vancouver Canucks are going to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, they’re going to have to do it with strong goaltending, impressive special teams and timely scoring.
They got all of that in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight.
Former Edmonton Oiler Raffi Torres scored with nineteen seconds left in the third period from Ryan Kesler and Jannik Hansen as the Canucks won Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals over the Boston Bruins 1-0.
Canuck goaltender Roberto Luongo made 36 saves for his third shutout of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Ottawa Senators got back into their Eastern Conference semi-final series with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night from the nation’s capital.
Well, it finally feels like winter in Edmonton, which means I had absolutely no issues with staying inside and checking out a week’s worth of hockey highlights for the latest edition of the GOTW!
What a start to the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Vancouver!
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