The River City Sports Blog

Torey Krug — yeah, that Torey Krug — scored his second goal of the series in a game in which five different Bruins scored, as Boston kicked the New York Rangers 5-2 on Sunday afternoon.

Torey Krug — THE Torey Krug — celebrates Boston’s first goal

With the win, the Bruins took a 2-0 series lead and unless Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist comes to the rescue, this series won’t last much longer.

The Rangers went 0-for-five on the power play while Tuukka Rask made 35 saves and the Bruins did everything they needed to do defensively to win a playoff game against a team that plays pretty much the same way they do.

“We expect them to come harder than ever in Game 3,” Bruins all-world forward Milan Lucic told NBC Sports after the game. “You know MSG is going to be rocking too, so looking forward to it.”

On a day when the Bruins were able to beat Lundqvist five times on only 32 shots,  Boston didn’t play quite as well as they did in Game 1 when they had to win 3-2 in overtime. In that one, Lundqvist stopped 45 shots in a game the Bruins completely controlled. Who ever said hockey was fair?

Tuukka Rask, the game’s first star, outduelled Henrik Lundqvist.

In Sunday’s Game 2, Boston scored first and the Rangers tied it. Boston scored again and the Rangers tied it and then the Bruins scored three straight as Johnny Boychuk, Patrice Bergeron and Lucic put the game away.

The difference was the second period. The Rangers did everything they could to turn the game in their favor. They outshot Boston 16-9, but were outscored 2-1. They threw everything they had at Rask and almost came up completely empty. In the third, when the Bruins outplayed them, the Rangers really looked like a beaten team.

Later in the playoffs, we might just look at Sunday’s second period and admit that it was the turning point in the playoffs for the Bruins.

Game 3 in the series goes Tuesday night in New York. There are must-win games and there are must-win games but there isn’t anyone who doesn’t think the Rangers absolutely, positively have to win on Tuesday or they’ll be making tee times earlier than they expected.

A THOUGHT: The NHL’s Chief Director of Discipline, Brendan Shanahan, loves handing out suspensions and fines, but far too often those suspensions and fines are for what were once called, “clean hits.” Yes, I know the game has changed, but I didn’t think it had changed this much: Why did Shawn Thornton get a two-minute minor at the end of the game for a chintzy trip as the puck was leaving his zone while Rick Nash got nothing for an obvious two-handed slash to the arm of Daniel Paille? From behind after he’d already shot the puck, no less? The NHL has a problem with the way its rules are administered. Frankly, that was horrendous judgement on the part of the officials, but it’s what we’ve come to expect in a league where the law of the jungle still prevails.

After the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 in the opening game of the Western Conference semifinal, it appeared as if the Hawks had it made in the proverbial shade.

Brendan Smith, who struggled in Game 1, celebrates his goal in Game 2.

They had just demolished the Wings in the third period of Game 1, outshot them 35-15 after the first period and 42-21 overall and played an almost perfect hockey game. It made you wonder, when Wings coach Mike Babcock told the media on Friday that “we’ll be OK,” if Mike wasn’t experimenting with something organic.

Babcock, if no one else outside the Wings dressing room, was convinced his team would bounce back and win Game 2.

Now I have to admit that after Paul MacLean, Bruce Boudreau and Joel Quenneville, were nominated for the Jack Adams Trophy, I was taken aback. I had no problem with MacLean, but Boudreau and Quenneville? What about Randy Carlyle (first Leafs playoff appearance since 2004), Michel Therrien (from last to first in the Division), Dan Byslma (first in the East despite all the injuries) and Jack Capuano (the Islanders in the playoffs?)? There were better nominees than Boudreau and Quenneville.

The Wings celebrate another goal.

Now, however, after Saturday’s incredible bounce back in Game 2 of the Eastern semifinal, I wonder if Mike Babcock isn’t the best coach in the NHL.

The Wings were a beaten team after Game 1. They had no jump and yet they were more sluggish in the third period than they were in the first. They couldn’t beat Hawks goalie Corey Crawford and they seldom got the puck out of their own end.

On Saturday, we saw a completely different Red Wings team. After a strong first period, they found themselves behind 1-0 as Patrick Kane scored the only goal of the period, but in the second period, the Wings exploded.

Damien Brunner and Brendan Smith scored in the second period and then Johan Franzen and Valeri Filppula scored in the third and the Wings had a 4-1 and stole home ice advantage from the No. 1 team in the NHL.

The smartest guy in the room?

Just as Sweden’s national team has reached the semifinal of the IIHF World Hockey Championship, the Wings’ Swedes played brilliantly. Captain Henrik Zetterberg (Njurunda) was the best player on the ice, setting up a pair of goals.  Johan Franzen (Vetlanda) scored a goal. Jonathan Erickson (Karlskrona) , Niklas Kronwall (Stockholm) and Joakim Andersson (Munkedal) all had assists.

This was a different Red Wings team than the the one that played in the opener. This team skated from the opening period to the final buzzer. It went to the net, didn’t shy away from the corners and played much better in its own end. This Red Wings team — not that uninterested team that was outshot 42-21 in Game 1 — outshot its opponent 30-20. It blocked 15 shots and dominated the face-off circle. This was a team that was ready to play and play hard, while its opponent seemed content with its first-game win.

Justin Abelkader shows Brandon Saad who’s boss.

The series is now even at one win apiece. The Red Wings ow have home-ice advantage. Mike Babcock was right. His team will be OK because, it would appear, he has things figured out.

Maybe Babcock should be coach of the year because he sure got something done between Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon.

Pretty hard to knock the Ottawa Senators on Friday night. They lost and no one outside the Ottawa dressing room expected a different outcome. But on the road in Pittsburgh, they didn’t get kicked and even though they’re now down 2-0 to the Penguins, they showed they had a little life on Friday.

Sidney with one of his six shots on goal.

This time, they were beaten by Sidney Crosby and that’s no sin. Crosby scored Pittsburgh’s first three goals on Friday and finished the game with six shots and five scoring chances. On this night, Sid the Kid demonstrated clearly why he’s considered the most talented player in the world.

Of course, to be fair, Brendan Morrow scored the eventual game winner (nice trade at the deadline) while Tomas Vokoun won his fourth straight start in relief of the shaky Marc-Andre Fleury.

Now, Vokoun did let in a couple of relatively soft goals, one from Kyle Turris and  the other through the five-hole on a shot by Colin Greening, but to be fair, he made huge saves when the Penguins needed them. In fact, he made a pair of big ones off Greening and Cory Conacher on breakaways in the second period that might have saved the game.

Amazingly, the Penguins had to hang on to win by a goal even though they outshot Ottawa 42-22.

This was Crosby’s night.

“I think we were doing a great job all game of putting a lot of pressure on them, but when we did give up chances they were pretty big ones,” Crosby told NBC Sports Network. “So we want to limit those big chances we gave up, but we like how many shots we got and the pressure we put on them.”

That’s true, but at a gut level, this really hasn’t been much of a series. There just doesn’t seem to be the passion from either team that was demonstrated in the first round. However, if Ottawa can win at home on Sunday, it might change things.

Still, right now, this seems to be the dullest series of the lot.

The Boston Bruins won a 3-2 overtime thriller over the New York Rangers in Boston on Thursday night. The winning goal by Brad (The Little Ball of Hate) Marchand, was a playoff classic.

Henrik Lundqvist nearly stole one.

However, regardless of the outcome of Thursday night’s opening game in the Bruins-Rangers series, Blueshirts’ goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made it very clear that he can win hockey games all by himself.

As an example, before Marchand scored the winner off a picture perfect pass from Patrice Bergeron, there was a power-play early in OT. During that two-minute stretch, Boston had five legitimate scoring chances and seven shots on goal and they came away with nothing. Lundqvist was just too good.

In the end, Boston was just too good. You can’t get as many chances as they had and not coax one into the net.  The Bruins outshot the Rangers 45-35 and while Tuukka Rask was brilliant in the Bruins goal, he wasn’t near as good as Lundqvist. The Bruins controlled the faceoff circle, the Bruins outhit the Rangers, the Bruins were the best team on the ice. But Lundqvist made 45 saves and Boston was nearly robbed of a game they should have won with ease.

Brad Marchand heads to the net.

“We’re on an emotional high right now,” said Milan Lucic, a player who just refuses to quit. “We knew we’d come back and win this. We play with emotion and adrenaline. We’re playing well at the end of games right now.”

Wow! Are they ever. They were behind 2-1 early in the third, but bounced right back and scored at 2:55. It was a goal by Torey Krug (Yeah, I didn’t know much about him before Thursday night, either). He had an assist in one game this season. But these are the playoffs and guys like Torey Krug often step up.

Zdeno Chara celebrates his goal.

To be fair, the best Bruin on the ice was probably Bergeron. Or Marchand, who scored his first goal of the playoffs. Or Zdeno Chara, who had a goal and an assist on nine shots. He also had six hits and two blocked shots. That’s a nice evening at the office.

But clearly, the scariest player in this game was Lundqvist. Boston, as we predicted in our series outlook on Tuesday, was the better team. But King Henrik can steal a game and he just might steal a couple before this series is over.

There were probably a lot of people around the National Hockey League who were impressed with what the Detroit Red Wings accomplished in the opening round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jonathan Toews wins a battle in the nasty part of the rink.

The Wings, who were  generally considered to be the underdogs in Round 1, took care of the Anaheim Ducks in seven games with a road victory to clinch the series. Coming into Round 2, many of us thought the Wings might win a game or two against the President’s Trophy-winning Chicago Blackhawks.

Or maybe not.

Last night at the Madhouse on Madison, the Wings were taught a lesson by the best team I’ve seen in the post-season.

Jimmy Howard stops Dave Bolland.

Although the Wings were tied 1-1 with the Hawks — in Chicago — after two periods, there was no reason to think they were going to hold on. Nothing Jimmy Howard could possibly do would have any affect on the offensive onslaught. Wednesday night in Chicago, the Hawks looked like the great Soviet teams of the 1970s. They just kept coming and shooting and pounding pucks at the net. In the end, the Hawks scored three unanswered goals in the third period and won 4-1. That was a tribute to Howard’s skills as a goalie.

In one stretch after the end of the first period, Chicago had outshot Detroit 30-6. On the night, the Hawks outshot the Wings 42-21, even though Detroit outshot Chicago 7-6 in the first period. That’s right, the shots were 35-15 over the final 40 minutes.

Patrick Sharp had seven of them. Brent Seabrook and Marian Hossa had five each. Dave Bolland, Johnny Oduya, Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane had four each. The Hawks kept coming and coming and by allowing only four goals, Howard should have been one of the game’s three stars.

The Hawks did just about everything better than the Red Wings. They certainly went to the nasty parts of the ice and won all the tough battles. They got open for more shots, forechecked with more authority and skated harder. That was a great opportunity for minor hockey coaches to show their teams how the great teams win. Sure the Hawks have a better lineup, man-for-man, than the Red Wings but they also play harder and tougher.

Patrick Kane looks for open ice.

The scary thing about this Chicago team is not that they might have the most raw talent in the NHL — yes, even more than Pittsburgh — but they just might work harder than every other team, as well. Even their semi-prima-donna superstar Patrick Kane, had four shots, a takeaway and a blocked shot. He played 20:50 and worked as hard as the gritty guys, Bolland, Bickell and Toews. Based on last night’s win at home, this Hawks team has no shortcomings.

If the Blackhawks play this well for the next three games, this will be a very, very short series.

Granted, Pittsburgh’s special teams were the difference on the scoreboard.

However, once again, the decision by Penguins’ head coach Dan Bylsma to bench No. 1 goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and replace him with Tomas Vokoun has given the Pens a 1-0 series lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal with the Ottawa Senators.

Paul Martin’s opening goal.

Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, Paul Martin and Chris Kunitz scored power-play goals while Evgeni Malkin scored at even strength and Pascal Dupuis added a shorthanded goal as Pittsburgh cruised past Ottawa 4-1.

However, it really wasn’t as cruise-like on the ice as it was on the scoreboard.

The Senators outshot Pittsburgh 36-30 and had it not not been for Vokoun, this game might have gone in another direction altogether. Ottawa also controlled the faceoff circle, but no matter what kind of offense the Sens tried to mount, Vokoun was there to shut it down.

Vokoun bars the door.

Vokoun has now played three games in this year’s playoffs and won all three — 4-0, 4-3 in overtime and 4-1. Although Vokoun gave up an early goal to Colin Greening, he was flawless for the next 55 minutes and Pittsburgh got the start at home they were after.

“We have two goaltenders that we believe in,” Kunitz told the CBC. “Whoever is in the cage that night we’re going to go out and play the best we can for him. We let our goalie hang out to dry in the first series; (Vokoun) has come in and played great, made timely saves for us, and we’ve been able to create momentum on special teams.”

Vokoun was the difference.

Chris Kunitz is a great player and a good teammate. He said what he had to say, but he isn’t stupid. He knows that without a goaltending change against the Islanders that series would have (not might have) gone in a different direction. He still knows it after Game 1 of Round 2.

Good matchups become better matchups when the timing is right. Now that the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us, it’s easy to see which teams are likely out of gas and which teams are rested and ready (or rusty).

Rangers-Bruins should be a dandy.

For instance, the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers were each  taken to seven games by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Washington Capitals, respectively. That means, there is no excuse. Both teams will be worn out, both teams know that they’re lucky to be here.

The Chicago Blackhawks disposed of the Minnesota Wild in five games while the Detroit Red Wings took out the Anaheim Ducks in six. Even if it happened to be the other way around, the Blackhawks are a better team than the Red Wings. After all, Chicago won all four meetings between the teams this season.

One California team will reach the Western final.

It was, in a sense, the other way around in the other Western Conference quarfinals. The L.A. Kings needed six games to take out the St. Louis Blues while the San Jose Sharks drilled the Vancouver Canucks in four straight. The defending Stanley Cup champion Kings are a better team than San Jose and even though it took them longer to dispose of the Blues, it could easily be argued that the Blues were a better team than the Canucks. At least, at the time the opening round began.

In the other Eastern Conference semifinal it will be the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Ottawa Senators and while I do believe the Sens could be the team of destiny in 2013, I do not believe they match up very well against an outstanding group of Penguins. After all Pittsburgh won all tree meetings between the two teams this season.

The Conference semifinals start on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, but we will get four solid series that will leave us with hockey’s Final Four. We like the Blackhawks, Kings, Penguins and Bruins and here’s why:

THE NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE

Jonathan Toews and the Blackhawks should win it all.

No. 7 Detroit Red Wings (24-16-8, defeated Anaheim Ducks in six games) at No. 1 Chicago Blackhawks (36-7-5, Central Division Champions and President’s Trophy winners, defeated Minnesota in five games)

One might argue that Detroit was lucky to make the playoffs, but one can’t argue with this simple fact: the Red Wings have some very skilled and talented players and now that they’ve made the playoffs they are a legitimate threat to go deep. No, they aren’t as good as they were a decade ago, but they are good and players such as Franzen, Zetterberg and Datsyuk will make them a threat every night. The big question is this: Can Jimmy Howard get the job done in net? The Hawks meanwhile, are significantly better than the Wings simply because the Wings don’t have Nicklas Lidstrom anymore. The Hawks goaltending was a surprise this season, but that doesn’t mean Corey Crawford won’t continue to be lights out in the playoffs as he was against Minnesota. Both teams are skilled but Chicago has too much offense, right through the first three lines. They also have a better defense although Joel Quenneville won’t out coach Mike Babcock as he did Minnesota’s poor Mike Yeo. This will be the 16th time these two teams have met in the postseason, but with realignment next season (Detroit goes to the East), it could be their last battle for sometime. Chicago won all four games between the two teams this season.

Chicago in five games.

Look out for Drew Doughty and The Kings.

No. 6 San Jose Sharks (25-16-7, defeated Vancouver Canucks in four games) at No. 5 Los Angeles Kings (27-16-5, Defending Stanley Cup Champions, defeated St. Louis Blues in six games)

The Kings are the defending Stanley Cup champions and know exactly what it takes to win in the post-season. It’s hard to discount a team when it has Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Justin Williams, Dustin Brown, two great goalies and a lights out defense with Drew Doughty and Slava Voynov. Even though they lost the first two games of this year’s playoffs to St. Louis, the Kings stormed back and won four straight to close out the Blues. Meanwhile, as well as the Sharks played against Vancouver – and they were very good – I’m sorry, but despite a solid season, Antti Niemi is not the answer in goal. When the chips are down, I can think of a dozen goalies I’d rather have in my net. The Kings went 2-1-1 against San Jose this season.

Los Angeles in six games.

THE NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE

Craig Anderson will be an important member of the Sens.

No. 7 Ottawa Senators (24-18-6, defeated the Montreal Canadiens in five games) at No. 1 Pittsburgh Penguins (36-12-0, Atlantic Division Champions, defeated the New York Islanders in six games)

The Senators are playing well and not just in terms of skill, goaltending and scoring, but they also out-toughed the Montreal Canadiens who tried their best to turn the first round of the playoffs into a giant fight. Ottawa might have the coach of the year in Paul MacLean and there is nothing at all wrong with goaltender Craig Anderson. MacLean just finished playing like Habs like a cheap violin while Anderson stopped their yapping. The Penguins have more on-paper talent and probably more speed, but the Senators have heart, toughness, good goaltending and they also have the brilliant Erik Karlsson. Unfortunately, they face the second-best if not THE best team in the NHL in this round — especially if Sidney Crosby continues to play as well as he did against a very good Islanders team. The Penguins have way too much up front despite the Senators heart and hard work. And now, with Tomas Vokoun in goal, Pittsburgh appears to have settled its goaltending quandary. Pittsburgh won all three meetings this year, one in a shootout.

Pittsburgh in six games.

Henrik Lundqvist is the key to the series.

No. 6 New York Rangers (26-18-4, defeated the Washington Capitals in seven games) at No. 4 Boston Bruins (28-14-6, defeated Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games)

If Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is hot, the Rangers will win. That’s what we wrote about the series with Washington and we believe that assessment will hold up in Round 2 as well. That’s because Boston, despite being taken to the absolute wire by Toronto, is still a rock solid hockey team who might have suffered its playoff scare. With big Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask and three tough, fast lines – including the almost unstoppable Milan Lucic-David Krejci- Nathan Horton line – the Bruins are easily the favorites here. Boston won the Stanley Cup two years ago and a lot of those players are still wearing the Bruins Hub logo. New York won two of the three regular-season meetings, but both teams came away with four points because the Bruins had the only regulation victory. This should not take long, unless Lundqvist stands on his head.

Boston in five games.

Taylor went 5-3 in the opening round.

On Monday night, one of the great comebacks in Stanley Cup history died with 11 minutes to play in regulation.

Reimer is down, Bergeron scores the winner.

That’s about the time a sleeping Nathan Horton scored to cut the Toronto Maple Leafs lead in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal to 4-2. And that’s when Toronto’s comeback dream turned into a nightmare. A real, honest to goodness nightmare.

After Horton scored, Milan Lucic scored at 18:38 to make it 4-3 and then Patrice Bergeron scored at 19:09 to tie it and then Bergeron scored again at 6:05 of overtime and the upstart Leafs were done.

Nathan Horton makes it 4-2

Depending on your point of view it was either a stunning comeback or a shocking collapse.

The Leafs should have been dead after Game 4. Down 3-1, they were headed back to Boston. But they won 2-1 in Boston in Game 5 and then came back to win 2-1 in Game 6 and then they got off to a tremendous start in Game 7.

Winning 4-1, nine minutes into the third period, this upstart Leafs team had received almost flawless goaltending from James Reimer and had found a way to shut down Boston’s big line of Lucic, Horton and Krejci. The Leafs actually looked like a team that could come back and win the series and when Cody Franson scored twice, Phil Kessel and Nazem Kadri once each, the Leafs had a three goal lead with 11 minutes to play and this series should have been over.

Zdeno Chara screened James Reimer on the game-tying goal by Bergeron. The golden carriage was turning into a pumpkin.

But Bergeron and the big line took over, Reimer’s carriage turned into a pumpkin and the Bruins came back to win 5-4. Bergeron scored twice, Lucic had a goal and an assist and a team that should have wrapped it up in Game 5 waited until overtime in Game 7 to claim a series that  they probably should have claimed on Friday night.

“I thought we ran out of gas,” said Randy Carlyle. “We couldn’t seem to execute for the full 20 minutes in the third period. When you lose like that. To lose with a three-goal lead that late in the game, there is nothing you can say to describe it.”

The Caps could not beat Henrik Lundqvist.

Meanwhile, in D.C., the Washington Capitals ran into Henrik Lundqvist and could not figure out a way to beat him. Simple as that.

In our playoff preview, we wrote: “If Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is hot, the Rangers will win.”

Lundqvist stopped the final 62 shots he faced to record two straight shutouts and bring the New York Rangers back from 3-2 down to win the series 4-3.

In Monday night’s Game 7, he got some help. Arron Asham scored the first goal and it turned out to be the winner. Then four more Rangers added to the scoresheet and in the seventh and deciding game the road team won 5-0. It was an empty, depressing building in the final six minutes.

Interestingly, the best player on the ice for the Rangers — other than King Henrik, of course — was Ryan McDonagh from Cretin-Derham High in St. Paul, Minn. McDonagh had four goals and 15 assists this season. In this year’s playoffs, he had one assist. But in the final six games of the series, he shadowed Alex Ovechkin and shut him down. McDonagh held Ovechkin without a single point in the final five games. Ovie had never been shut down for five straight games at any time in his career.

Lundqvist + McDonagh = Second round against the Bruins.

Ryan McDonagh checks the Caps Joel Ward.

“We did so many good things in the last couple of games, especially at home and remember, in here (the Verizon Centre in Washington) we lost two games in overtime so we were close,” said Lundqvist. “In a Game 7, it’s important to get off to a good start. We did that. We enjoyed ourselves.

“Now it’s the Bruins. Every time we play Boston it’s a battle. They play similar to us. It’s going to be fun.”

It’s going to be fun for us, too.

Thanks to a 29-save outing by James Reimer, the Toronto Maple Leafs extended the Eastern Conference quarterfinal against the Boston Bruins to a seventh and deciding game.

James Reimer

Say what you will, but Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle has already performed a miracle.

Less than a week ago the Leafs were dead on the vine. Down 3-1 in the series heading back to Boston, Toronto had just lost a game it should have won. They looked like a beaten team and the whole exercise seemed pretty hopeless.

But then a brilliant effort by Reimer — combined with a terrific checking performance against Boston’s big line — sent the series back to Toronto for Game 6 and you know what they always say about a Game 6 at home. Yes, indeed anything can happen.

Colton Orr and the Leafs played tough again.

After 40 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Leafs got goals from Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel and despite a late tally by Milan Lucic at 19:34 of the third, the Leafs had evened the series at 3-3 and sent it back to Boston.

I’m still not convinced the Leafs are the better hockey team in this series, but what Carlyle has done to motivate his team defensively, cannot be overlooked or overstated. And, of course, in the last two games, Reimer has allowed two goals on 71 shots and that’s the definition of playing up to one’s competition at the most crucial time of the year.

All bets are off now. The Leafs have proven themselves as equals. Monday night’s game could be one of the most thrilling games of the season.

Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant again.

Speaking of goalies, we called this one. We wrote in our pre-playoff picks that if Henrik Lundqvist was at his best, the New York Rangers had a chance against Washington.  Sunday afternoon Lundqvist made 27 saves to get the shutout as the Rangers beat the Caps 1-0 in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden.

Granted, The Rangers are 0-5 all-time in Game 7s on the road, but what happened in past years doesn’t matter now if Lundqvist can be perfect again.

Perahps just as important as getting great goaltending, however, is this: The Rangers have kept Alex Ovechkin off the scoresheet since Game 2. That can’t be overlooked.

Two Eastern Game 7s on Monday night. Can’t wait.

Sometimes, all it takes is a goaltending change.

That appears to have been the difference for the Pittsburgh Penguins. With Marc-Andre Fleury in net the Penguins simply couldn’t score enough goals to beat the New York Islanders. With Fleury on the bench and Tomas Vokoun between the pipes, the Pens scored four per game for two straight games and suddenly a tight 2-2 series was over.

Tomas Vokoun

Saturday night, Brooks Orpik scored the winning goal at 7:49 of the first overtime period as the Penguins beat the feisty, but over-matched New York Islanders 4-3. With the win, Pittsburgh closed out the Islanders in Game 6 at Nassau County Veteran’s Memorial  Coliseum despite the fact, New York played a very good game in their own building and probably should have been dealt a better hand.

On Saturday, the Isles led 3-2 until the 14:44 mark of the third period when Paul Martin blasted a slapper past Evgeni Nabokov to make it 3-3 and eventually send the game to OT.

But in the overtime, Vokoun was flawless and Nabokov gave up the winner and in the end the Islanders outshot the Penguins 38-21 and were beaten by a better goalie.

Pascal Dupuis scores in the second period.

A week ago, it’s hard to imagine we’d be saying that. Watching Fleury fight the puck, it would have been easy to figure that if Pens coach Dan Bylsma didn’t something about his goaltending, he’d join the Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Cabucks on the list of upset losers.

However, Byslma had Vokoun and I really doubt we’ll see Fleury again, at least for awhile.

This game was, after all, the Islanders game. Not only did they outshoot the Penguins by a wide margin, they outhit them 31-23, won 60 per cent of the faceoffs and completely controlled the neutral and attacking zones. They won most of the battles in the dirty parts of the rink and they had more scoring chances by a 2-1 margin. This was the Islanders game.

But Tomas Vokoun said, “Not so fast, Josh Bailey,” who had six shots on goal. The Islanders should have scored half a dozen, but in the end, they could manage only three and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Evgeni Nabokov congratulates Sidney Crosby

The New York Islanders improved dramatically this season. They might have been good enough to take out the Penguins in the first round of the playoffs.

But in a series full of goals, it was goaltending that won it in the end. Somewhat ironic, no?