Night Five of the Playoffs

Well, after five nights through the 2009 playoffs, Steve White continues to lead the pool, through the first round. He carries a 4-point lead over both teams from Mike Dever. This shows if you can have the right combination, as subtle as it might be, you can run away with a pool like this early.

Philadelphia came to play at home on Sunday afternoon, cutting Pittsburgh's lead in the series down to 2-1, after a 6-3 win. This makes only the second series in the playoffs to have both teams with at least one win (the other being New Jersey/Carolina). Simon Gagne was the big player in that game, scoring a pair of goals, including the winner for 3 points.

In St. Louis, there were numerous players with a pair of points each, including Roberto Luongo, Sami Salo, Steve Bernier, Andy McDonald and David Backes. Otherwise, no one really jumped out in the scoring department. The Canucks did win the game to take a 3-0 series lead over the Blues. Game 4 goes on Tuesday.

It was a big game for Tomas Zajac against the Hurricanes on Sunday. He had the winning goal in overtime and an assist for a 3-point evening, as the Devils took a 2-1 series lead. There isn't much separating the Devils and Hurricanes in this series and Game 4 should be a good one on Tuesday.

Finally, the Ducks came out and did the Sharks in again for a 2-0 series lead, in which they are now heading back to Anaheim for Games 3 and 4. Unfortunately, this game didn't have a really big player for the pool, as Jonas Hiller was in net again for Anaheim and he failed to make it on the Sheet.

Game-Winning Goals
Well, when two of the winning goals were already listed up top, it is kind of strange to do another whole paragraph for them, but it does work to outline the pool. Scoring the winner in Philadelphia was Simon Gagne, who rewarded 7 teams with the bonus point. Steve Bernier was the hero for the Canucks, as he got the winner early in the third period against the Blues. Bernier picked up the bonus point for 9 teams in the pool. Tomas Zajac scored the overtime winner for the Devils in Carolina. 11 teams in the pool had given Zajac a fighting chance in the pool this time around. Finally, our only non-pool game-winner was from Drew Miller of the Ducks, who scored the eventual winner in the third against San Jose.

After five nights of the playoffs, Mike E. still continues to lead the pool in GWG with 5. They haven't been the biggest of helps just yet, as he still sits in 28th spot right now.

The only new name to the list of injuries yesterday was Mats Sundin of the Canucks. Sundin appeared to have pulled something in Game 2 in Vancouver, yet was able to finish the game. For Game 3, he had the night off, getting to rest what the team will call a lower body injury. With the Canucks up 3-0 in the series, there won't be a huge rush to get him back into the line-up.

Tonight's Games

The Lucic-less Bruins will head walk into the Bell Centre in Montreal, looking to continue their physical and scoring dominance over the Canadiens. The Bruins forcefully took the first two games of the series and have full intention on taking the rest of the series by force. Boston was by far the favourite of this series and the Canadiens won't be missed in this pool. Washington will try and keep their chins up heading into Madison Square Garden tonight, as they lost both of their home games to the Rangers. MSG will be a tough place to play for the Capitals, especially already down two games. The only other game on Monday, yes it's a short schedule with only three games on tap, is the Flames are back home to Calgary to try and get back into the series with Chicago. The Flames blew a few leads in the United Center to help the Blackhawks jump out to a 2-0 series lead and will now have to try and right the ship in front of the 'C of Red.'