Morning Playoff Notes (Apr 24)

Well, we've got one Game 7 coming! The Maple Leafs survived Game 6 at home, with a very solid effort all around in a 3-1 victory on Monday night.

The Leafs showed some resiliency going down early in the 2nd period, scoring only 35 seconds later to tie it up at 1-1 and then the push was on.  These Leafs looked like the team that a few of us were expecting to see in this series, using their speed and youth to overcome the Bruins' system and I'm sure having the last change went a long way in the game last night.

Frederik Andersen made 32 saves for the victory, giving his two teams in the pool a little more hope, while Mitch Marner scored the eventual winner, also adding an assist for a 3-point night and Nikita Zaitsev had a pair of assists in this one for the pool too.

The pool thought the Leafs to be slight underdogs in this series, so getting to a Game 7 is a pretty big accomplishment.  That game will go on Wednesday night, a 5:30pm MT start for us in the pool.

There will only be one Game 7 on Wednesday night, as the Columbus Blue Jackets failed to get out of Game 6, in their own barn, alive.  The Jackets didn't have an answer to the ramped up offense that the Capitals were sporting on Monday night and they were playing catch-up from the very start.  Dmitry Orlov got the scoring going in the 1st, Alex Ovechkin had a pair of goals in the 2nd and the depth did their thing in the 3rd period, beating their Ohio rivals, 6-3, to advance.

The Jackets did bring the heat in the 3rd period, so Braden Holtby, who has now won four in a row, had to come up huge to get this W.  In total, he made 35 saves and got his 2 points, bringing his playoff total up to 8 points.

Other notable players in this game included Brooks Orpik for the Caps, who had a pair of assists and Nick Foligno, on the losing side, had a couple of goals, which wasn't enough.

Now, the Jackets are officially eliminated, 15 selections have now been flushed down the toilet, Zach Wereneski was taken four times, as the most popular Columbus player and Artemi Panarin, who wasn't taken at all in Box 13, led the scoring with 8 points.

The Capitals will now face off against the Penguins in the next round, we'll probably setup a pool preview here in the next day or two, once the schedule has been announced.