Putting Teams Behind

It was an overtime goal by Evgeni Malkin that bucked the home-ice trend in the series between the Penguins and Capitals. The series is now 3-2 in favour of the Penguins, as the series now shifts to Pittsburgh for Game 6.

The big pool players of the night were Evgeni Malkin had 3 points (winning goal and an assist), Alex Ovechkin had 3 (2 goals and an assist), Jordan Staal and Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist each and Marc-Andre Fleury earned the win in net.

Alex Ovechkin leads the series in scoring with 11 points and leads all players in this series in overall pool scoring with 18 points. He would be a big loss to a pool team, if the Penguins are to win this series.

In Vancouver on Saturday night, the Blackhawks earned themselves a big win in Game 5 to head back home to Chicago with a 3-2 series lead over the Canucks. With the series as hard fought as it is, it's hard to consider it over by any stretch of the imagination.

Unfortunately, the winning goal of the game was not scored by a pool player, rather it was scored by David Bolland, so the bonus point does not get handed out. The top players iin the pool, however, only finished with a pair of points each, those included were Dustin Byfuglien (2 goals), Brian Campbell (2 assists), Mats Sundin (goal & assist) and Nikolai Khabibulin (win).

Nikolai Khabibulin, with his 3 wins, leads all players in this series with 6 points, while he and Roberto Luongo lead all players in this series in pool scoring with 14 points each. This series has not been the barn-burner that the Washington/Pittsburgh series has been for scoring, which doesn't help many poolies at all.

With the huge loss of Sergei Gonchar from the Penguins line-up, Pittsburgh re-inserted Alex Goligoski to the line-up after not playing a game so far in the series. Goligoski did dress for Game 5, but didn't register a point. He will now likely figure into the line-up full-time, as it doesn't look like Gonchar will be returning to the line-up at all.

Tonight's Games
Here we have our first 8-ball of the Conference Semi-Finals today, as the Bruins are now facing a 3-1 series deficit, as they play Game 5 at home against the Hurricanes. The Bruins have been dominated quite completely in this series and will look to find some heart, enough to move the series back to Carolina for a Game 6. This will be the later game on TSN tonight, starting at 5:30pm MT.

In the earlier game, the Red Wings and Ducks will be playing to break a 2-2 series tie in Detroit tonight. This game will start at 3pm MT on TSN. It will be very interesting to see which way this series will turn.