
One thing that I love love love about playoffs is hockey gets top priority on CBC. I was watching the St Louis Blues vs Los Angeles Kings game last night and during the intermission they would jump over to the Chicago Blackhawks vs Minnesota Wild game then after that I flipped channels to TSN and the Anaheim Ducks vs Detroit Red Wings games was on. Hockey Heaven for woman and her 5 year old hockey crazy son.
There were three games last night. Two ended in OT and one ended with an empty net goal that was the icing on the cake to seal the deal. Did you notice the speed of the game was faster, the physical part is much more intense and those long breaks waiting for OT. Plus the fans are just insanely excited!
The St Louis Blues beat the current Stanley Cup champions the Los Angeles Kings in an intense battle. Alexander Steen scored the opening goal in the series at about the 1/2 mark in the first period. It looked like St Louis was going to take the win with Los Angeles desperately trying to get a goal (remember Los Angeles never played catch up last year in their win to the Cup. They always won games 1, 2 and 3! They even won game 4 in round 2 against St Louis last year, sweep!) It happened with 32 seconds left in the 3rd period Justin Williams scored to tie up the game. It wasn't until Steen struck again that St Louis got the WIN! They lead the series 1-0. Now LA will have to play catch up.
The Chicago Blackhawks had a come from behind win. Cal Clutterbuck scored in the 1st period to give the Minnesota Wild the lead. Than in the 2nd period the one and only Marian Hossa scored to tie it up. What a goal it was. With no goals in the 3rd period the game went into overtime. It was a beauty of a pass from Viktor Stalberg to Bryan Bickell that ended it in true Blackhawks fashion. Always finding a way to come out on top with the win, especially this year!
Finally the Anaheim Ducks beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1. This was the only game to not head into overtime. Nick Bonino scored the opening goal for Anaheim followed by the tying goal by Dan Clearly for Detroit 6 minutes later. Next came the game winning goal, a stellar one timer by Teemu Selanne. The Finnish Flash played his 112 career playoff game and recorded his 42nd goal! Then with less then 30 seconds on the clock Detroit was working to get the 2nd goal and force OT. It didn't happen because Francois Beauchemin scored into the empty net!
It was a great great night. A fantastic 1st night of playoffs. Below I have loaded up all of the GWG (game winning goals) from last night,
Tonight's lineup looks like this and remember the times are for PST (Pacific Standard Time)
The Toronto Maple Leafs vs The Boston Bruins at 4:00pm
The New York Islanders vs The Pittsburgh Penguins at 4:30pm (Sidney Crosby will not return from injury for Game 1)
The San Sharks vs The Vancouver Canucks at 7:30pm
Enjoy Hockey Fans X