Bruins Advance to the Finals

I'm not sure you could have asked for a better Game Seven, in my opinion. The Bruins and Lightning played one hell of a textbook battle, both teams strong at either end, goaltenders were stellar throughout and it was a good goal that won the game in the end, something that you would way rather see than a garbage goal that had to be reviewed for five minutes.

In the end, it was the Bruins who took that extra boost from the home-ice and sealed it away on a Nathan Horton tip-in goal after driving to the net and David Krejci carrying the puck deep into Lightning territory and finding Horton's stick blade on the far side of the net, no chance for Dwayne Roloson.

Until the goal was scored, it was two and a half periods of very good, exciting, end-to-end hockey and full credit to both Roloson and Tim Thomas, they really did play their hearts out in a very important game.  Thomas only had to make 24 saves for the victory, while Roloson was far busier, making 37 saves in the loss.

The Lightning have made a statement in these playoffs and teams in the East have likely taken note of this team, it looks as though they could be a dangerous opponent and a playoff contender for the next few years, at the very least.

Well, since it was only a 1-0 game, there wasn't much to get too excited about in the pool.  Tim Thomas recorded his second shutout of the playoffs, picking up 4 points in the game, while Nathan Horton scored the game-winner for a 2-point game.  For all intensive purposes, David Krejci would be the third star, picking up an assist and the only other pool point in the game.

In the game, Steven Stamkos earned some warrior status marks, after taking a deflected slap shot in the nose, he did return to the game very shortly after, wearing a cage on his helmet.  The speculation is that Stamkos likely suffered a broken nose on the play, but he was able to get back out on the ice and try to help his team win, which unfortunately for him, didn't happen.

Overall Standings
We have ourselves a new leader in the pool, unofficially speaking, as the statistical audit for the Conference Finals has not happened yet.  The Langdon River Dogs leaped over Tryst'n'Grant on Friday night, thanks to the combination of Horton and Krejci, now taking a 1-point lead into the Cup Finals, where they should be the better of the two teams, with better players on the Boston side.

All She Wrote put a little bit more space between themselves and the tie for 4th place between Pucking Luck and seeherwet, which should keep them in 3rd place for the better part of the Cup Finals.

The last money spots are sitting at 255 points and there are seven teams within 5 points of these two, so we'll have a close inspection at the Finals preview, to see who is going to do what these days.

Since the Canucks and the Bruins were the two most popular teams in the pool this year, 56 of 73 teams will be going into the Finals with all six possible players on their team.  A fantastic number, if you ask me.  The pool wanted this match-up to happen and they got it.

The 76th place team, Flyers Fanatic #1, has the lowest total of players left in the pool, with only Johnny Boychuk as his only active player left.

Game-Winning Goals
In Game Six, it was Martin St. Louis who forced the series to the seventh and deciding game and in that fateful game, Nathan Horton was the hero for the Bruins, scoring to send his team to Vancouver.

Unofficially speaking still, David Krejci still leads all players with 4 GWGs in these playoffs, followed by Horton and Vincent Lecavalier with 3 GWGs.  Of course, only two of the three are moving onto the next round.

The Langdon River Dogs have now tied The Kings Don't Pay Their Bills for the pool lead in bonus points, as both sides now have 17 GWGs going into the final round of these playoffs.  Four teams have 16 GWGs and six teams have 15 GWGs, so there were a lot of bonus points collected this year.

And this is it... down to two teams. I am going to prep up a Cup Finals preview here shortly, so I won't get into too much detail. Of course, the statistical audit still needs to be done, which will happen here on Saturday. Be prepared for an excellent Finals, hopefully we still have a bit more movement in the pool when it all goes down.