Two More Nights on the Books, No More Eliminations

How about them Blue Jackets, eh?  Maybe more so would be the question, what happened to Marc-Andre Fleury?

No matter which way you decide to break it all down, the bottom line is that Columbus is heading back to the Steel City with the series tied at two and it is anyone's series, by the look of things.  The Jackets had the resolve to come back from a 3-0 deficit in Game Four to win in overtime, 4-3.

Sergei Bobrovsky, Nick Foligno, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Johansen and James Wisniewski all lit up the board with 2 points each, as notable players in the hockey pool.  On the Pittsburgh side, defenseman Paul Martin had a couple of assists to make the notable list.

Game Five in the series will go on Saturday evening.

Box 21 defenseman Fedor Tyutin was held out of Game Four, due to an undisclosed injury. Tyutin has been skating in the week, so there is a chance that he'll return before the end of the series, especially if it is to go to seven games. Tyutin has been taken once in the pool this year, so someone is waiting anxiously for him to come back.

Home-ice advantage has been the story in the series between the Ducks and Stars, as each team has now won each of their two games in their home building, as the Stars won 4-2 on Wednesday night to even up the series.

The Ducks got off to a 2-0 lead, but an early 2nd period goal from Jamie Benn turned the tide for the home team, having tied up the game before too long in the middle frame.  A couple quick goals in the 3rd period brought some shock & awe to the visitors and that's how it all evened up.

And if you were looking for some emotion in these playoffs, there was plenty of brouhahas at the end of the game, which should make Game Five, the late game on Friday, all the more interesting.

Unfortunately, the result didn't translate too well in the pool, as only Kari Lehtonen and Cody Eakin picked up 2 points each as notables for the Stars and there was nothing notable from Anaheim.

A couple of major line-up notes from the Ducks, which may have answered more questions about the loss, as both Ryan Getzlaf and Teemu Selanne were not in the Anaheim line-up, opening up a few holes in the forward ranks.  Getzlaf was down with an upper-body injury, which still has him listed as questionable for Game Five, while Selanne was a healthy scratch for Game Four and is expected back for Game Five.

Nothing about this series between St. Louis and Chicago has screamed the word 'safe' at any point in the first four games. Bodies have been flying, leads have been dropped and feelings have been hurt.

It was another wild ride on Wednesday night, as the Blues and Blackhawks went toe-to-toe in Chicago, where each team dropped a lead in regulation and Chicago's was a 2-goal lead in the 2nd period.  So, it was another game that went to extra time, but halfway through the first period of overtime, it was Patrick Kane doing the job again, coming up clutch, tying up the series at two.

With the game-winner, that gave Kane a 4-point night in the hockey pool, which should have pleased many teams, 18 of them, in fact.  Jonathan Toews and Corey Crawford rounded out the notable Blackhawks players in the game, while Vladimir Tarasenko scored a pair of goals in the loss.

Game Five goes on Friday night in St. Louis and we should all be prepared for another doozy.

On Thursday night, the Detroit Red Wings were going to have to make good work of their second home game, because the visiting Bruins made a mess of the first game at Joe Louis Arena.  The Red Wings did not want to be in the position of being down two games in the series, heading back to Boston.

But they are.

The Red Wings got off to a good start in the game, being up 2-0 before the 5-minute mark of the 2nd period, but those pesky Bruins chipped away.  Before Thursday night, this series was going the way of the team that scored first was winning the games, but not there... not that night.  The Bruins tied the game up early in the 3rd period, where the game grew tighter and into overtime, where Jarome Iginla scored his first playoff goal as a Bruin, winning the game and immediately putting the Wings behind the 8-ball.

Iginla, Dougie Hamilton and Tuukka Rask all came away with 2 points for the pool on the Boston side, while for Detroit, both Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall had a goal and an assist in the loss.

Detroit's first chance to avoid elimination will go on Saturday afternoon, 1pm Mountain Time.

Three out of the four Western Conference match-ups, through Game Four, including the Colorado/Minnesota series here, will go to Game Five in 2-2 series ties.  The home teams have been a story for these playoffs and the Wild were not ready to buck that trend at home on Thursday night, coming away with a 2-1 regulation win.

Game Four in Minnesota wasn't like a lot of the other games in these playoffs, instead it was tight-checking playoff hockey game, which we've grown accustomed to in recent years.  An early goal in the 1st period put Minny up, followed by a 2nd period brace, which was responded to in 30 seconds by the Avs, but that's all the scoring we'd see.  There's no question that tighter checking benefits the Wild, so it will be interesting to see what kind of game we get in Denver this weekend.

Two goals for the Wild and no notable players for the Wild, as the winner was sniped by a non-pool player and the goalie isn't on the sheet, so it's a wash.  The Avalanche only scored one goal, so there was no way we'd have a notable player there either.

There was one note worth mentioning, which I didn't do in its own post before the game, as Game Four was the first game that Matt Cooke served in his 7-game suspension, which was handed to him the night before for his knee-on-knee collision with Tyson Barrie.  Cooke occupies the Box 7 position for the Wild and was taken twice in this pool, likely as a depth player, possibly making it to the second round of the playoffs.  If the Wild make the second round, Cooke will likely have to sit through most of that round as well.

We had our second elimination game of these playoffs on Thursday night, as the Sharks were looking to finish the job against the Kings, but the hosts from Los Angeles had other ideas.

It was a rough & tumble affair in the Pacific Division 2-3 series, as the two teams finished with 74 PIM combined in total, including some last-minute fighting majors and all kinds of roughing calls.  The Kings were up to the task on the scoresheet as well, as they walked away with a 6-3 win, which played well in the high-scoring nature of this series.  Between the high scores and the emotions running even higher, it should make for an excellent Game Five.

Marian Gaborik and Justin Williams each had a pair of goals for the Kings, while Dustin Brown went 1-and-1 and Jonathan Quick made 36 saves for his 2 points, outlining the notable players on the pool sheet for Los Angeles.  Patrick Marleau was the only notable player for the Sharks on Thursday night, registering 2 assists.

Game Five will be the late one on Saturday night, with an 8pm Mountain Time puck drop.

On Wednesday night, the game-winners came from Nick Foligno of the Blue Jackets, Cody Eakin of the Stars and Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks, giving the pool all three bonus points on the evening.

Boston's Jarome Iginla was the only pool player to register a game-winner on Thursday night, as Charlie Coyle scored the winner for Minnesota and Tyler Toffoli was the hero for Los Angeles in the end.

Four teams now have 5 GWG's to their credit as of Friday morning, as Don D. #2, Rob A., Sheldon M. and Dorthea C. all lead the pool, in varying positions in the standings.