Second Round Completed in the Playoffs

Well, the defending champions survive a long, hard 7-game series against the Ducks, as the Red Wings will go on to face the Blackhawks in the Conference Finals, thanks to a 4-3 win at home on Thursday. The Ducks did an admirable job against Detroit, but the jam and veteran savvy was enough to take down the team from the West Coast in the end.

It was a balanced effort by the Red Wings in Game 7 to help win it for them, as Henrik Zetterberg (2 assists) and Chris Osgood (win), were the only two players with a pair of pool points in the game. Dan Cleary ended up scoring the winning goal in the third period, but he isn't a part of the pool, so his bonus point didn't count for anyone.

The Ducks had to rely on their best players in Game 7 to keep themselves in the game, so Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry each had a goal and an assist, which kept them in the fight for the better part of the game, up until Cleary's winner, of course.

There wasn't a lot of Ducks taken in the pool, which makes their loss a little bit light on the pool, as only 28 selections through all the teams in the pool. Ryan Getzlaf led all Ducks players in the pool in scoring in the playoffs with 18 points, but he wasn't taken at all. Corey Perry, second among the Ducks, also not taken, had 15 points. The best Ducks player actually taken in the pool was Scott Niedermayer, who was taken twice, was third on the team with 12 pool points. The most popular player on the Ducks in the pool... Ryan Whitney, taken 9 times, had 6 pool points.

We did have ourselves an upset on Thursday night, as the number one team in the East, the Bruins, fell to the Hurricanes in overtime of Game 7. The Hurricanes scored with 1:14 remaining in overtime to win the game, 3-2, and advance to the Conference Finals where they will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Dennis Seidenberg (2 assists), Joni Pitkanen (2 assists) and Cam Ward (win) all recorded 2 points a piece in the pool, helping to lead the Hurricanes through to the next round. This was one of those games where the help from the back end truly paid off for the winning team. Scott Walker scored the winning goal in overtime, but he was not a part of the pool sheet this Spring, so that makes both winning goals null and void to this pool. That's a shame.

No Bruins player finished with more than a single point, so there isn't a great deal to go on about their scoring in Game 7.

With the Bruins being eliminated, that means that the largest chunk of players taken have now been eliminated. 172 total selections have been ousted from active duty, thanks to the Hurricanes win, while only 72 selections from Carolina continue on. That's a pretty big swing in players from one team to another. The most popular Bruins player on the sheet was Tim Thomas, who had 28 selections to himself and he finished as the top scoring Bruins player in the playoffs with 17 points. The best player in round two alone for the Bruins was Marc Savard, who finished with 10 points in the series (15 overall) and he was taken by 14 teams in the pool. Savard also led the team in GWG bonus points as well with 2.

Well, that was one exciting second round of playoff hockey. I will be breaking down the teams that are going through to the second round, hopefully later on this afternoon. Games don't start in the Conference Finals until Sunday night, which gives me some time to get away. Stay tuned this afternoon for some more good playoff pool information!