Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers – NYR wins 3-1, Series tied 3-3
In a very fitting result, it would be Martin St. Louis who would open the scoring and get the Rangers an early lead. Under four minutes in, St. Louis would drive to the net coming down the right side and a Derek Stepan rebound deflected off of St. Louis and in. Sure, a lucky goal. But considering what has occurred in St. Louis’ personal life in the last few days, he has never scored a more beautiful goal.
Carl Hagelin would extend the lead to 2-0 a little under three minutes later on a backhand coming out of the corner that would sneak through Marc-Andre Fleury’s arm. The Penguins would start to take over the play, as they out-shot-attempted the Rangers 15-9 after the second goal. A fluky goal that bounced off of two Rangers defensemen would give Brandon Sutter his fifth of the playoffs and cut the New York lead in half.
There were 29 total shots in the first period, a pretty good indicator of the wide-open play that was the norm in the first period. As has been the case several times these playoffs, the New York third line was excellent; they were the only line of New York’s top-nine forwards where each member finished as an even possession player or better.
A little bit of a more relaxed second period, at least in shots but not after-whistle activity, only produced one goal, and to fit in with the theme of the game, it was another bit of a lucky bounce. Derick Brassard had a shot deflect over Fleury’s head, he batted it out of the air and to the ice and swept the puck in for a 3-1 lead. The game featured some chippiness, marked by a Sidney Crosby slewfoot and pitchfork, and Chris Kunitz punching Dominic Moore when he was on the ice. Pittsburgh was starting to show their frustration and it was giving the Rangers power plays.
A very uneventful third period passed without a goal and the Rangers would force a seventh and deciding game. The Brassard line would finish as the top possession line overall for the Rangers and were most certainly the difference in this game. Also, Pittsburgh would be wise not to give six power plays to the Rangers. Even if it is inept, it takes 20-percent of the game away from their stars.
Minnesota Wild at Chicago Blackhawks – CHI wins 2-1, CHI leads series 3-2
The first period was not a very good one for the Blackhawks and resulted in them being booed by (some of) their fans as they left the ice for the intermission.
There was just one goal in the first period, a very nice solo effort from Minnesota’s Erik Haula. He picked up the pick in the neutral zone, fired a shot towards goaltender Corey Crawford, skated right past Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook and potted his own rebound. That third line for Minnesota was running roughshod on Chicago, leading the team in puck possession despite being matched against the Patrick Sharp line frequently.
The Blackhawks had a much better second period, dominating the first half in shots at an 9-2 rate in the period before tying the game. A shot from Patrick Kane would deflect off Bryan Bickell, who was in front of Ilya Bryzgalov, and past the goaltender to make it 1-1 with a power play goal. The Blackhawks would carry the play for the second period, out-shot-attempting the Wild 16-7 over the course of that frame.
Jonathan Toews was able to get a goal in the first five minutes of the third period, a goal that energized the crowd. Toews was standing at the side of the net and was able to kick a rebound to his stick and shovel it past Bryzgalov to give his team the lead.
Minnesota would carry a good portion of the play for the rest of the period after the Toews goal but could never find an equalizer. Toews was a monster for the Blackhawks in this one, posting a phenomenal 76-percent CorsiFor rate, with he and Kris Versteeg being the only Chicago players over 70-percent.
Corey Crawford was very stellar in his 27-save performance.
