Black Hawks Stage Furious Comeback Over Canucks While Ovechkin Gets The Jump On Crosby
Yesterday was a great hockey day. In the early game the Eastern Conference started things off with the first game of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals series. It was also a meeting between the top three players in the NHL, Caps forward Alex Ovechkin and Penguin forwards Sidney Crosby and Evegni Malkin. Both Ovechkin and Crosby scored sweet goals. Ovechkin notched his fourth goal of the playoffs. He now has at least one point in 11 of his last 15 playoff games. The two teams were tied at 2 entering the second intermission. Thomas Fleichmann eventually broke the deadlock 1:46 into the third, taking a silky pass from Nicklas Backstrom before snapping a one timer past Pens Goalie Marc Andre-Fluery for the game winner. Simeon Varlamov stopped 34 shots, and the Capitals got the jump on their Eastern Conference rivals with a 3-2 victory. The Pens went 0-for-6 on the power play, this is totally unacceptable. The Penguins will need to take advantage of every opportunity against a very opportunistic Capitals squad. The Caps have now won four straight and five of their last six games. Game 2 is on Monday Night.
The night cap saw the Western Conference’s Chicago Black Hawks whip the Vancouver Canucks 6-3 to even up their series at one game a piece. Chicago fell behind early after giving up two 1st period goals. Halfway through the 2nd period the light turned on for the young Black Hawks. Patrick Sharp scored twice in just over 3 minutes to ignite a furious comeback, Chicago scored 5 straight times until Herik Sedin scored for Vancouver. In Game 1 the Blackhawks rallied from three goals behind in the third period only to lose in the final minutes. This time they kept going.
The series is starting to get very physical. The Canucks lost Sami Salo, their top all-around defenseman, after he opened the scoring with a power-play blast 5:35 in. After wincing noticeably at the bench, Salo, who also missed Game 4 of a first-round sweep of St. Louis, was followed into the locker room by the team doctor and did not return. The Canucks lost 11 of 15 through early January while Salo was out with injured ribs, but only 11 of 38 since he returned. Chicago netminder Nikolai Khabibulin got his first victory over the Canucks since 1998, when he was with Phoenix, ending an 0-11-1 skid against Vancouver. Game 3 is on Tuesday back in the windy city, where the Blackhawks won all three of their games during a first-round victory over Calgary.
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:42 am
Pittsburgh and Washington are the real thing. Hockey being played to it’s fullest . Ring length rushes,great scoring chances,as well super goal tending. Let’s not overlook the crunching hits by both sides. Don’t give the opposition the opportunity to go on the power play,because it’s almost a sure goal giveaway. It’s a pleasure to watch this brand of hockey.
As for Chicago vs Vancouver just watch the boys take on the men and hurt them with speed and muscle. Chicago, a never say die team has the momentum to take Vancouver in 5 or 6 games and at the same time, showing them that they sure can put the puck in the net.