Ducks Are Dead, Flyers & Hawks Still Alive

It was a pretty big loss for the hockey pool, as the Ducks were not able to move on in this season's playoff run. The Nashville Predators stuck to their game plan, keeping the shots on goal against rather low and mustering up just enough offense on a Ducks goalie that hasn't seen a great deal of action this year. The plan worked perfectly and the Predators came away witha 4-2 win and their first ever appearance in the second round of the playoffs.

The the pool players for the Predators that led the way in Game Six were Jordin Tootoo, who had a couple of assists, and Pekka Rinne, who stopped 25 shots to earn the win.  The whole team was in on this effort and they definitely earned their way into the next round, but now they wait to see who they will be up against in the second round.

As for the Ducks, it was definitely a big loss for the poolies this year, as they did have 68% of their possible selections.  That throws out 154 total picks from the pool and it likely would have been more, if Jonas Hiller was anywhere near healthy this time around.  It might even be reasonable to say, if Hiller was in the line-up, we may be looking at Game Seven in this series.  The most popular player for the Ducks this year was Bobby Ryan, who is situated in Box 4, he had 26 picks to his name.  Cam Fowler was the next most popular player, he had 21 picks to his name.  As for points, Corey Perry led the way for Anaheim, picking up 9 points in six games, followed by Ryan Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu, who all had 7 points in the series as well.

After eliminating the Ducks from the pool, that only leaves the possibility of four teams going into the second round of the playoffs with all 24 of their players this year.  Only one of those teams are in the top 10, Tony the Tiger.

On the Predators side, Rinne led the pool players with 9 points in the series, with Mike Fisher following with  points and Jordin Tootoo and Shea Weber with 5 points.

The Philadelphia Flyers resisted elimination on Sunday afternoon, as they managed to sneak past the Buffalo Sabres with a 5-4 overtime win, earning themselves their own shot at this series, sending it to Game Seven.

The advantage for most of the game was very much on the Sabres side for the better part of regulation, but the Flyers proved that they could scratch and claw their way back, yet again this year.

Goaltending was again an issue for the Flyers, but Brian Boucher stepped on in relief of Michael Leighton, making 24 saves and earning the win for Philadelphia.  Ville Leino scored the winner and had an assist for a 3-point afternoon, while Daniel Briere scored a pair, Scott Hartnell had one of each and Claude Giroux and Mike Richards each had a pair of helpers.

After being hit from behind, Sabres forward Tim Connolly did not return to the game with an upper-body injury on Sunday afternoon.  The initial feeling from the Sabres camp is that Connolly is not in good shape, so that would likely leave him doubtful for Game Seven, which will go on Tuesday night.  It does seem rather doubtful that Mike Richards, the Flyers player that hit Connolly, will be suspended for the play.

Game Seven, as mentioned, goes on Tuesday night, puck drop at 5:30pm MT on TSN.

In the late game, it was attempt number three for the Canucks to try and eliminate the Blackhawks and Vancouver through everything they had at Chicago, but home-ice advantage seemed to work on Sunday night.

The Canucks opened the game with Cory Schneider in net, giving a different look to the Blackhawks to deal with, but that in itself had its perils, as Schneider made a couple of mistakes when the team was up a goal, handling the puck a little too much and then getting caught out of position for tying goals to get passed him.  Schneider was forced to leave after a Michael Frolik penalty shot, which sent the game into overtime in the end and Roberto Luongo came to fill in.  The Blackhawks only had to be Luongo once, which came in overtime and they forced this series into Game Seven, after being down 3-0.

Leading the way for the Blackhawks in the pool was Corey Crawford, who made 32 saves for the win and added an assist for a 3-point night, while none of his pool mates picked up more than a single point on Sunday.

Alex Burrows had a pretty good night for the Canucks, scoring a goal and adding a pair of assists in the loss.

Game Seven will go on Tuesday night as well, being the late game, dropping the puck at 8pm on CBC.

Game-Winning Goals
The game-winners for Sunday night all came from Ville Leino of the Flyers, Nick Spaling of the Predators and Ben Smith of the Blackhawks, meaning only 1 of 3 made it into the pool for bonus points.

We have an outright leader again in this race, as Flyers Fanatic #1 picked up his 10th GWG on Sunday night, which moves him past Jersey 20 and is now 2 bonus points ahead of eight teams, who are tied for 3rd in the race.

Tonight's Games

The Tampa Bay Lightning are still behind the 8-ball going into Game Six against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they have a lot of momentum from a good 8-2 win on Saturday, which should give them the left they need to force a Game Seven for Wednesday night.

For the Penguins to end the series tonight, they will need to get back to their shutdown roles, giving all sorts of help to their goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury.  The defense has done a very good job for the Penguins in this series and they will need to learn what they can from Saturday's debacle and turn that into some positives for Monday night.

As for the Lightning, they will need to make sure they don't get caught taking Saturday's game for granted.  Sure they laid a licking on Pittsburgh, but it would be foolish to think that they would be the same team two games in a row.  A little bit more preparation and video will be needed to pick out the weak spots and being at home for Game Six should ensure the match-ups they want at the faceoff dot.  This could be a good game.

Puck drop here is 5pm on CBC.

The Kings were able to force a Game Six on the weekend, so now they will open up the Staples Center for one last stand against the Sharks, trying to force a Game Seven on Monday night.

For the Sharks, they are going to have to find a way through the defense and make those cross-ice, cross-crease passes that really open up Jonathan Quick from side-to-side.  The Sharks are not likely going to beat Quick with a lot of those straight-on shots or even the deflections on point shots, since he takes the bottom of the net away so well.  Offense will be key on Monday night, especially with question marks in their own end.

The Kings bottom six will again have to figure in huge, as they have been the glue keeping this team together through five games in this series and were practically responsible for all the offense in Game Five, forcing tonight's Game Six.  The Kings' X-factor player, Wayne Simmonds, will likely be playing a big role again tonight, look for him in front of the Sharks net, trying to rustle up some more garbage goals.