Opening Night of Round 2

The playoffs opened up on Broadway on Thursday night, as the New York Rangers played host to the Washington Capitals under the bright city lights and it was one of the league's biggest stars that shone the brightest.

Alex Ovechkin unleashed a wicked wrister in the opening period and then dug out a loose puck in the dying seconds of the 3rd period to set up the winning goal by Joel Ward, as the Capitals took Game 1 of the series against the Rangers, 2-1, away from home.

Capitals goalie Braden Holtby was the only other player in this game to get a notable mention, making 31 saves for the victory and adding an assist on the opening goal for a 3-point night.

Game 2 of the series will go on Saturday afternoon, as the only game scheduled on the day, a 10:30am MT start.  Then you'll have the rest of the day to yourselves!

It was also opening night in the Pacific Division Finals, as the Anaheim Ducks opened up against the Calgary Flames on Thursday night and the best team in the West let everyone know that their first round sweep was no fluke and there was no rust to be seen for their longer rest towards the second round.

The Ducks unloaded some pent up frustration from not playing, putting the Flames down early and then piling on in each period, scoring a pair of goals in each frame and moving swiftly towards a 6-1 victory in Game 1.

The big stars came out to play in this game as well, as both Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf each finished with 4 points in this one, while Hampus Lindholm, Pat Maroon and Frederik Andersen all came away with 2 points each.  This made it into a good night to have the top Ducks on your pool team, as you could have come away with 10 points.

Game 2 in this series will not go until Sunday, as there was a scheduling conflict in Anaheim, so this series gets an extra day off.  If days off is what helped the Ducks to a whopping victory, then the Flames are lucky it's only one extra day off and not an extra week.

Our pool leader coming into the second round, Sairosh, picked up 6 points and remained atop the standings for another night, now holding a 4-point lead over Tony D..

Jesse P. jumped up into 3rd place after picking up 8 points on Thursday night, majority of those thanks to Corey Perry and Joel Ward, to help him into the money back spot in the standings.

Two teams in the pool finished night one of the second round with 10 points, as Clayton and Tom H. each had good nights, while Dale D. wasn't too far behind with a 9-point night as well.

Unfortunately for five teams, with the 10 goals and 2 wins in the night's play, there were a few zeroes to open the second round, not quite the way to keep pace.  The top team with a goose egg on Thursday night was Dorthea C., who has now dropped down to 21st place after a rough start.

Game-Winning Goals
Pat Maroon and Joel Ward were our winning goal scorers, so we're pretty happy that both goals stayed in the pool on Thursday night.  Maroon, wasn't taken at all though, so he didn't impact the standings at all, while Ward was only taken twice, Jesse P. and David C. each picked up the rugged winger and added to their bonus point totals.

Tony C. still rules the roost in bonus points, leading the way with 9 GWG's in these playoffs.