The East Final is Nearly Set

What are the Montreal Canadiens to do?  The Tampa Bay Lightning have their number, both in the regular season and the playoffs.  I know I've seen it a few times when a team has another team's number in the regular season and become over-confident in the playoffs and lose out there, but absolute dominance in both... that's impressive.

After working hard to tie the game up at 1-1 midway through the 3rd period, there was undoubtedly a let down on the ice, as the Canadiens waited for the horn to end regulation, but the Lightning were not done.  With less than two ticks left on the clock, the puck lands on Tyler Johnson's stick and he pots his third winner of these playoffs, breaking the hearts of the Habs and bringing his team one win shy of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Ben Bishop had another 30-save performance on the night, making it 7 wins in these playoffs.  Bishop and Johnson were the only two notable players in this one.

The Canadiens, pushed to the brink, get a chance to pull one back the night after or get sent packing early.  Game 4 goes tonight, a 5pm MT start.

It was Game 4 in the series between the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night, facing off at the Verizon Center in DC, as the Caps looked to sweep their home side of the first four games in this series and send the Rangers back to Madison Square Gardens behind the 8-ball.

The Rangers got the start that they wanted on the road, no score after one and then scoring six minutes into the 2nd period to take a 1-0 lead.  The Capitals stuck with the Rangers and a few minutes before the end of the middle frame, non-pool forward Andre Burakovsky tied the game on a great effort in the slot and then he struck again, 24 seconds into the 3rd period, putting the Capitals out in front and letting Braden Holtby take that one home.

Holtby was the only pool player to come away with 2 points and if it wasn't for that Rangers goal, he would have been the only player to come away with any points.

Game 5 is set to go on Friday night back in New York, so hold on to your hats everybody!

We have ourselves another new leader after Wednesday night's action, as Fontanna becomes the leader, jumping over Jesse P. for 1st place, now with 140 points to Jesse's 139 points.  Fontanna's Tampa trio was a big help tonight, giving their team a big lift in the money standings.

Jesse also saw a little bit of a benefit from the Tampa win, but not nearly as much as Fontanna.

Sean L. and Sairosh remained in their tie for 3rd place with 136 points, but Sean still has the goals for tie-breaker in his favour, as both teams only favoured from a Nikita Kucherov assist tonight.

Grant S. found a couple points to stay in 5th at 134 points, while Thor picked up the win from Bishop and a couple more points from the Tampa skaters, making it into the blog at 133 points.

Game-Winning Goals
Fontanna now leads the pool in bonus points with 13 GWG's, now opened up a 1 bonus point lead over Sean L., Sairosh and Tony C., who each have 11.

Sean and Sairosh seem tied to the hip in the pool now, but I can assure you, they do not have the same team.

Tyler Johnson now leads the Playoff Pool with 3 GWG's, while Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Nikita Kucherov and Vladimir Tarasenko all have a pair.