The Second Round Begins

We're down to the "Elite 8" in the Playoffs and it all got started last night. The first game to start, but the last game to finish, saw the Flyers fail to contain the Canadiens in three periods of play and 48 seconds of overtime.

In the overtime period, it was Tom Kostopoulos (non-pool) who managed knock in the winner to defeat the Flyers. The two big point getters in the game were Alexei Kovalev (Box 13), who netted a pair of goals and Carey Price (Box 24), who earned the win.

There were no line-up changes on the Montreal side, Michael Ryder (Box 19) remained out as a healthy scratch from the pool. Ryder has only figured into four games for the Habs in these playoffs and if they continue to win, it looks as though that is all he'll get to see.



Game 1 in Detroit also had the feel that overtime was coming, but the Red Wings held on for dear life in the final ticks of the third period, which included a few big saves from Chris Osgood (non-pool), for the 4-3 win. This game also featured Colorado's back-up goalie, Peter Budaj (non-pool), as Jose Theodore (Box 12) was pulled after the fourth goal for Detroit.

In this game, it was another player outside of the pool, Johan Franzen (non-pool), who notched the winner for the Red Wings. Franzen had himself a big finish to the year after the Sheet was finalized and a couple of the Detroit supporters were screaming for him later on, but it wasn't to be. Big pool contributors were Brian Rafalski (2A) for the Red Wings, Milan Hejduk (G, A) and Paul Statsny (G, A) for the Avalanche.

The bigger news to come out of this match-up was that Peter Forsberg (Box 6) did not dress for the Avalanche, as his groin had started to act up and did not feel fit enough to skate. This was the exact worry about Forsberg that should've been taken into consideration when choosing him, but the panic button could be avoided, because it is only one game at the moment. Also, defenseman Jeff Finger (Box 10) has figured to be a healthy scratch in the Avalanche's last three games.