Pittsburgh Penguins at Columbus Blue Jackets – PIT wins, PIT leads series 2-1
The Nationwide Arena was rocking from the outset, and the Blue Jackets carried that energy to the ice right off the hop.
Off a Ryan Johansen zone entry and drop pass to Jack Skille, Skille took a shot on Marc-Andre Fleury. The ensuing rebound was slammed home by Columbus’ Boone Jenner to make it 1-0 Columbus. Less than two minutes later Jack Johnson pinched low and put a rebound past Fleury to make it 2-0 Columbus less than four minutes into the game.
The second period featured some big saves from Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, for the most part. With under two second left in the period, Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik pulled a spin-o-rama and scored on Bobrovsky to make it 2-1.
Cam Atkinson started the scoring in the third period converting early to give the Blue Jackets another two-goal lead. That was followed by three Pittsburgh goals, though. Paul Martin’s shot from the point was tipped by Brandon Sutter past the screened Bobrovsky, while Lee Stempniak scored on a nicely placed shot over Bobrovsky’s shoulder. The third was another point shot by Olli Maatta that hit was tipped by Jussi Jokinen and went past Bobrovsky. What was a 3-1 lead for Columbus with less than 15 minutes left was 4-3 Pittsburgh with less than 12 minutes left.
Between Columbus’ third goal and Pittsburgh’s fourth goal, the Blue Jackets did not attempt a single shot at even strength.
Colorado Avalanche at Minnesota Wild – MIN wins 1-0 (OT), COL leads series 2-1
The Wild came out and had a first period exactly as they had hoped but didn’t get the desired results. The Wild had 22 shots in the first period, with double-digit scoring chances and a late cross-bar to go with it. The difference for Colorado, as it had been much of the year, was Semyon Varlamov in net and it remained 0-0.
The second period was a bit tighter but it featured a couple of injuries to Avalanche defensemen. Tyson Barrie was the recipient of a knee from Matt Cooke and left the game afterwards. Barrie didn’t return for the third period and Cooke received a two-minute penalty. Andre Benoit was hit hard a couple times and disappeared to the trainer’s room. Benoit did return, however. After the game, it was announced that Barrie would be out 4-6 weeks with a left knee MCL sprain.
A scoreless third period would bring overtime heroics.
After winning a battle along the half-wall, Minnesota’s Mikael Granlund cut to the middle of the ice, made a couple of nice moves to avoid out-stretched stick, dove past the pad of Varlamov and slid it in. It was a just reward for the Wild, who carried the play much of the night. That said, the quality of the Granlund goal showed what it took to beat Varlamov in this one, who stopped 45 shots on the night.
St. Louis Blues at Chicago Blackhawks – CHI wins 2-0, STL leads series 2-1
Less than five minutes into the game, Chicago captain Jonathan Toews took what seemed to be a harmless wrist shot coming across the blue line. The puck went underneath St. Louis goalie Ryan Miller’s stick, between his pads and in. The ‘Hawks were up 1-0, and that lead carried them right up until an empty netter by Marcus Kruger with 20 seconds left in the third period.
The lack of goals is not to say that St. Louis played a poor game. In fact, the Blues had a signficant amount of pressure on Chicago in the first and final frames but just could not solve goaltender Corey Crawford, who made 34 saves on the night for the shutout.
The game was more tame than Game 2 but the Blues’ Steve Ott did lay a very solid, hard hit on Duncan Keith in the third period, with Keith slow to get to his feet.
Anaheim Ducks at Dallas Stars – DAL wins 3-0, ANA leads series 2-1
As has been the case for most of the season, Jamie Benn scored a big goal for the Dallas Stars. With less than 30 seconds left in the first period, Benn slid Dallas’ first goal past Frederik Andersen to give the Stars a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.
There was an unfortunate play that will remove a crucial Ducks defenseman for the rest of the playoffs.
Dallas forward Ryan Garbutt dove to knock a puck away from Anaheim’s Stephane Robidas but ended up rolling underneath Robidas’ right leg, the same one he fractured earlier in the season. It would come out later that Robidas had suffered another, separate fracture in his leg and would be out for the year. A big loss for Anaheim’s defensive depth.
Valeri Nichushkin, the budding star rookie for Dallas, would snap a shot past Andersen to make it 2-0 Dallas with 2:45 left in the second period.
In a weird twist of fate, Ryan Garbutt would make it 3-0 after Andersen made a nice pad save but couldn’t get the third shot and seal the game for the Stars.
Kari Lehtonen stopped all 37 shots he faced on the night for the shutout, also his first career playoff win.
