Carolina Showed Their Mettle Winning in OT Over Bruins–Detroit Finally Puts Ducks Away
The Carolina Hurricanes marched into the TD Banknorth Garden and beat the Bruins at their own game. The Canes were quicker to the puck, tougher in the corners and and got solid goaltending while coming away with a 3-2 win in overtime. Goalie Cam Ward, the MVP of the 2006 playoffs when the Hurricanes hoisted the Stanley Cup has yet to lose a playoff series in his career. He showed the moxie of a 10 year veteran by keeping the Canes close with timely saves giving his teammates the opportunity to win the game. This was a game where Carolina got a complete team effort. All three of their stars Eric Staal, Ray Whitney and Erik Cole were held off the scoreboard. The slack was picked up by Dennis Seidenberg who had a pair of assists, setting up the opening goal of the game and Scott Walker’s overtime winner. Joni Pitkanen also chipped in with two assists. The Hurricanes really showed what they were made of by winning game 7 on the road.
This is a very tough team who now faces the the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals. This is going to be a great series. Pittsburgh has the recognizable star power but Carolina has their own stars, both these teams are very evenly matched. Their is a lot of speed that will be on display when these two lock horns. The matchup pits last years Stanley Cup finalist Pittsburgh versus the team that won the Stanley Cup two seasons ago, so we can all expect to see a long drawn out war. I’m having a tough time making a prediction on who will win the series and earn the right to play for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Carolina finished the regular season on a roll and captured the No. 6 seed in the East. They upset New Jersey in the first round by winning the last two games, including scoring the tying and winning goals in the final 80 seconds of Game 7. One thing is for sure, this is going to be a great display of playoff hockey from two exceptionally talented and experienced teams.
Finally, that’s what the Detroit Red Wings are saying after beating the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 to give them a 4-3 series victory. The pesky 8th seeded Ducks gave Detroit all it could handle but in the end it was a little dribbler by Daniel Cleary that got past Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller that sealed the victory for the Wings. The win will send the defending Stanley Cup champions to the Western Conference finals for the third straight year. The Red Wings and the Blackhawks will meet in the playoffs for the first time since the 1995 Western Conference finals. Detroit won that series 4-1. The Red Wings have advanced to at least the conference finals eight times in the last 14 seasons, winning the Cup in 1997, ‘98, 2002 and ‘08.
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May 15th, 2009 at 5:40 am
The fact that Carolina beat Boston in the deciding game of this 7 game series after being up 3-1 in games, just showed that most teams are unable to come back from such a deficit. The Hurricanes played smart hockey by not taking any penalties in the 3rd period or in overtime to give the Bruins the added opportunities to overcome the inevitable. To lose in overtime in the 7th game was sure a downer for the Bruins. At the same time it has given Carolina such an up lift after beating Philadelphia in 7 games. They now have until Monday to focus on the Pittsburgh team,who have proven that they can put the puck into the net with the best of them. Pittsburgh will take the series with the aggressive play and the goal scoring machine that takes to the ice in every game.
Detroit owners sure made a bundle of money by having the 7th game on home ice. They almost lost everything by allowing Anaheim a 8th place team in the standings to play at their level. The Red Wings won in squeeky fashion by beating the Ducks with the deciding goal with 3 minutes to play. They will play on Sunday against a fast moving young team in the Chicago Black Hawks. Will experience win over youth? I don’t think so.