Bruins Stave Off Elimination While The Red Wings Down The Ducks For Series Lead

The Boston Bruins staved off elimination last night by shutting out the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0.  Phil Kessel scored twice while Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard each had a pair of assists for the top-seeded Bruins, which had lost three straight playoff games.  Tim Thomas recorded his first career playoff shutout by stopping all 19 shots he faced.  This was Boston’s first shutout in the playoffs since 2004 and its first time posting a shutout when facing elimination.  What the Bruins showed last night was their ability to get tough and control the play.  Carolina was not ready for this type of physical matchup and it showed as the Hurricanes were held shotless for the first 11 minutes of the game.  Hurricane goalie Cam Ward was a little off his game tonight but still managed to stop 36 shots.  Thomas had a career-high five shutouts in the regular season, when he led the NHL with a 2.10 goals-against average and became a Vezina Trophy finalist.  But it has been Ward who has been dominating the series, allowing three goals in three games as the Hurricanes responded to a Game 1 loss with three straight victories.  Eric Staal, who had four goals in the previous three games, had three shots in Game 5 and was minus-3.   That type of play won’t get it done, the Canes need Staal back on track to be victorious.  Game 6 is at Carolina on Tuesday.

The Detroit Red Wings are one win away from making their third straight Western Conference finals appearance after defeating the Anaheim Ducks 4-1.  Johan Franzen scored his seventh goal of the postseason to give the Red Wings an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd period and then Henrik Zetterberg took over setting up Detroit’s next two goals and sealing the game with a goal of his own into an empty net.  Franzen however has been The Red Wings most solid performer in the series with 5 goals.  The Ducks will have to physically engage the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Franzen, whose nickname is Mule is constantly finding holes and taking a lot of good shots leading to scores.

Ryan Whitney scored Anaheim’s lone goal, it was his first goal since joining the Ducks and his first since Feb. 16 when he was with the Penguins.  Ryan Getzlaf was held without a point, ending an eight-game point streak.  Jonas Hiller will need to rebound on tuesday night for game six if the Ducks have any hope of extending the best of seven series.

Detroit allowed just 17 shots, its fewest in a playoff game since the 2007 Western Conference quarterfinals when it gave up 15 to Calgary.  Johan Franzen’s goal gave him 20 goals over the last two postseasons, which leads the NHL.