Habs Still Alive, Wild Swept Away

Either party could argue their case... the Canadiens could have said that they scrapped when their backs were against the wall or the Lightning could say it was a let down through looking ahead after this series.  Either way, the Canadiens are still alive in this series, after a 6-2 thrashing in Tampa Bay on Thursday night, forcing a Game 5 to go on Saturday night in Montreal.

The Canadiens came out firing, scoring a pair of early goals in the 1st period, chasing Ben Bishop from the Lightning net early in the 2nd period and they continued to tack on a few more goals with limited Tampa resistance.

Max Pacioretty led all Habs with 3 points in the game, while Alex Galchenyuk, P.K. Subban, David Desharnais and Carey Price all had 2 points in the contest.

On the losing side, Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist to keep his poolies afloat.

Things are not to rosy in Wild country, as Chicago dispatched Minnesota in four straight games, thanks to a 4-3 win on Thursday.  The Wild were seemingly lifeless or at the very least, hum-drum about the whole thing, as they could penetrate the Blackhawks defense for many quality chances and they spent a lot of time defending in their own end.

Once the score reached the 4-1 mark, there was a little bit of life left in the Wild legs, scoring a pair of late goals to try and work some kind of miracle, but the Blackhawks locked it all down and came away with the Game 4 and series win.

In the game, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane and Corey Crawford were the Hawks with 2-point games for the pool, while none of the pool players for the Wild have an equal answer to that challenge.

With the elimination, those who picked the St. Louis Blues over the Minnesota Wild in the opening round didn't lose a great deal of ground, since the Wild hardly made their second round appearance into a series.  The Wild had 26 selections taken out of the pool with the loss, Mikko Koivu and Marco Scandella were the biggest losses, six and five selections, respectively.

Devan Dubnyk was the highest scoring Wild player with 11 points in the pool, he was taken once, while Zach Parise, taken three times, had 10 points.

Scott G.'s teams would have had 24 players in the second round, if St. Louis beat Minnesota, so even the Wild loss, his teams still have 21 players in this second round and he'll be guaranteed to have 12 players in the Conference Finals.

Fontanna and Jesse P. are now tied for top spot in the standings, with Fontanna edging Jesse out in goals scored, the first tie-breaker in the pool. At this point, Jesse has none of the three tie-breakers, relying heavily on assists from his team, but he's there and in the money, with still two rounds to go.

Sean L. has two of the three tie-breakers over Jesse, but is still 2 points back of the leaders in 3rd place, now 4 points up on Sairosh.

Fontanna and Sairosh lead the money candidates with 19 players left on their teams, neither really taking a hit from the Minnesota elimination on Thursday night.

This second round of the playoffs has been good for Fontanna, Jesse, Thor, Chris M. and Sean L., as they are the only teams to pass over the 50-point mark in the round.  Thor and Chris M., however, have only climbed into the top 20 with their good result, after a poor showing in the opening round.

Game-Winning Goals

Bonus points have not been an issue for Fontanna either, as their team has 14 and a 2-point lead over Sean L., Sairosh and Tony C., who each have 12.  Marian Hossa's winner for the Blackhawks was a good one for Fontanna, bringing their team one step closer to the top spot at the end of this competition.

42 players in the pool have at least one bonus point, so far, in these playoffs, so there has definitely been lots of points to be had here.