Games Sixes Bring One Elimination and Two Sevens

Keeping Sidney Crosby from scoring a goal for all six games of the series was an accomplishment for the Columbus Blue Jackets, but only keeping Evgeni Malkin from lighting the lamp for five games was their demise in the series.

In the end, the Jackets did make their first round series against the highly-favoured Penguins into a very entertaining one and it wasn't like they weren't in it in most of those losses, making things interesting, right down to the final buzzer of Game Six.  The Jackets found themselves down four goals, going into the 3rd period and made the Pens sweat it out, as they managed to draw three of those goals back with under five minutes to go, putting the pressure on Marc-Andre Fleury and company.

The Penguins managed to hold that lead until the buzzer, but it was damn close.  The Penguins won, 4-3, taking the series, four games to two.

Malkin was the big hero in Game Six, scoring a hat-trick, including the winner for a 4-point night and finally making his mark in the scoring race.  Fleury had 2 points for the win and Matt Niskanen had a couple of assists for the Penguins to also make the list.  Defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Jack Johnson led the last gasp for the Jackets, each coming away with 2 points in their swan song of the playoffs.

There was a new injury concern for the Penguins coming out of Game Six, as forward Brandon Sutter left the game with an apparent ankle injury, not returning to the game in the process.  There was no early word on his injury, but with a few days in between the Jackets and the winner of the Rangers/Flyers series, Sutter may be able to get enough rest to be ready for Game One on the weekend.

There wasn't much question that the Penguins were going to be the favourite in this series and the pool was a good reflection of that assumption.  There were only 11 Columbus selections in the pool, with Jack Johnson taking nearly half of them, with five picks under his belt.

Even with the dropping the Jackets, there are still 11 perfect teams remaining in the hockey pool with three series left to be decided.  The highest ranked team with 24 picks is only in 5th at the moment, Brady J., while the lowest is a way down in 39th, Don C., but with less players to choose from, you'd think they would have the upper hand going into the second round.

18 teams, up from 14 from Sunday night, now have less than 21 players on their team, including the 2nd place team that belongs to Seward F..

Home-ice advantage has played a huge role in the series between the Avalanche and the Wild, who are now heading off to Game Seven.  Colorado had an opportunity to move onto the second round to go on and face the Blackhawks, but they couldn't overcome their road woes in St. Paul, as the Wild.

Minnesota was able to lean on their best player in Game Six, as Zach Parise paid off a lot of his contract value to survive, as he came away with 2 goals, including the winner and a pair of assists for a 5-point night, grabbing a share of the overall pool scoring lead with 11 points.  Parise's big game helped lead his Wild squad to a 5-2 win and earned another life in these playoffs.

Also having a notable game in Game Six were Jason Pominville, Mikko Koivu and Ryan Suter for the Wild, each coming away with 2 points each, while Ryan O'Reilly did the same for the Avalanche.

It may not directly affect any teams in the hockey pool, but Matt Duchene's return to the Colorado line-up certainly didn't hurt the Avalanche in their loss in Game Six, as their Box 1 forward came back with 1 assist in the game. No one took Duchene, likely because of his injury and the doubt that the Avalanche would make it very far, but if they continue on in this series, you have to know that he will play an instrumental role in their success.

The Los Angeles Kings are on the verge of joining some rarefied air in major North American sports playoff history, as they have now stormed back from being down three games to none to the San Jose Sharks, forcing Game Seven on Wednesday night with a 4-1 win on Monday night.  Of course, there isn't any great feat in sports these days without some sort of controversy and there was some in Game Six in Los Angeles.

With a tight game, deadlocked at one goal a piece, Justin Williams was able to poke a puck through San Jose's Alex Stalock, who was starting in place of Antti Niemi in Game Six, and that goal started a 3-goal push late in the 3rd to bury the Sharks.

Williams finished with a 4-point night in the pool, 2 goals, including the winner and an assist, which was complimented by Anze Kopitar's 3-point night, (1G, 2A).  Drew Doughty had a pair of assists and Jonathan Quick made 25 saves for the win to round out the notable players in this game.

The San Jose Sharks went into this game up by a game, but they knew it was going to be even more of a struggle without one of their top blueliners, as Marc-Edouard Vlasic was indeed sidelined with his upper-body injury.  Vlasic didn't skate in the lead-up to Game Six, which would put his status for Game Seven in doubt, which would leave a giant hole for the Sharks to fill, as they try to avoid being a footnote in another piece of history.  Vlasic was taken 11 times in Box 10.

Game-Winning Goals
In most of these posts, I have been able to outline who has scored winners the night or nights previous, but I can definitely go over the leaders in the column, as that hasn't been done in a while.

Malkin for the Penguins, Parise for the Wild and Williams for the Kings were all of our bonus point players and fortunately for the pool, they are all in there.

Don D. #2 and Sheldon M. lead the pool with nine bonus points each, but while Don's second team is in 1st place in the pool, Sheldon's team is a ways back in 25th.  Neither team is rocking 24 players, but neither are in terrible shape at this point.