The Predators were without two key players, defenseman Shea Weber and forward Mike Fisher. Fisher suffered a lower body injury in the second period of game one. Weber was forced out of game two after suffering a lower body injury of his own. Weber was hurt when he was on the receiving end of a hit along the boards. Weber didn’t travel to Chicago, but Fisher made the trip and is listed as day-to-day.
The Predators had another decent start in the game. Taylor Beck drew a holding penalty on Kimmo Timonen just 53 seconds into the game, where the Predators could have set the tone of the game. The power play units couldn’t get the job done, not even registering a shot on goal. The Predators did continue the physical play from the first two games of the series. They added another 53 hits to their total. The Predators had chances, but couldn’t seem to solve Scott Darling.
Andrew Desjardins gave the Blackhawks their first lead of the series 14:48 into the first period, but the lead lasted just 31 seconds. Craig Smith dumped the puck into the Blackhawks zone, Filip Forsberg retrieved the puck, passed it over to Smith. Smith found a wide open Mike Ribeiro, who beat Darling to tie the game at one goal a piece. The goal came off of a bad line change by the Blackhawks.
The Blackhawks came out and scored early in the second period on a goal by Jonathan Toews, but Mattias Ekholm responded for the Predators with a goal just 22 seconds later. Ribeiro won the offensive zone face off back to Smith, who found Ryan Ellis at the point. Ellis played catch at the blue line and eventually found a wide open Ekholm, who took the shot from the point and beat Darling because of plenty of traffic in front provided by Forsberg. The Blackhawks would score two more goals in the second period to make it 4-2. The Predators allowed three goals on 10 shots in the second period, and have been outscored 18-4 in the second period in the last 10 games played.
The Predators continued to get into the offensive zone, but couldn’t get sustained pressure. They would get the puck in the zone, get a shot on Darling, but wouldn’t be able to get the second chance opportunities. Darling would either kick the rebound to the corner, cover up, or a Blackhawks player would be there to clear the zone. The defense was still playing and being aggressive in the offensive zone even without Weber. On the goal by Brandon Saad to make it 3-2 Blackhawks, Seth Jones went down low and Colin Wilson rotated back to the point, but had trouble handling a pass, and Saad stole the puck, skated up ice and eventually scored a goal. The top defense pairing of Roman Josi and Jones was a combined minus six, each being on the ice for three of the four goals scored by the Blackhawks.
Pekka Rinne has allowed at least four goals for the fourth time in seven goals. The Predators defense seemed to back up at the blue line, instead of standing up, allowing the Blackhawks easy entry into the offensive zone. It seemed like the Predators were making mistakes with the puck that they didn’t make the first two games of the series. One positive for the Predators was that they did a pretty good job of not letting Patrick Kane near the puck. Kane had zero points and two shots on goal in 15:29 of ice time.
If the Predators want to bounce back in game four, then they’ll have to tighten up on defense, not make as many mistakes with the puck and figure out a way to straighten out the second period woes.
As if missing the playoffs wasn’t harsh enough, the defending Cup champion Los Angeles Kings received another blow on Friday when news outlets began reporting that centerman, Jarret Stoll, was arrested in Las Vegas that evening for drug possession. Though details are still scant, it appears that Stoll was taken into custody for possession of cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy) and was later released on bail.
What does this mean for a team that was already undergoing serious evaluation after being only the fifth Stanley Cup champion in history to miss the playoffs the season after winning the Cup?
Slava Voynov
First and foremost, it’s crisis communications mode for the Kings’ PR folks – again. The 2014-2015 season began with news that defenseman Slava Voynov was arrested and later charged with domestic abuse and his case has dragged on with a trial date now set for July. The Voynov incident, coupled with Stoll’s arrest means the Kings’ championship image has surely been tarnished and the organization has to contend with a number of potential consequences – not the least of which could be the disillusionment of teammates and loss of trust from the fan base.
From a pure hockey perspective, the effects of Voynov’s absence were already felt in a season that ended too soon for the Kings. Missing both the mobile Voynov, as well as sturdy and reliable Willie Mitchell, who had to be dealt to the Florida Panthers due to cap limitations after least season, hurt the Kings’ blue line; both players were key to the King’s 2012 and 2014 Cup runs. To try and stop the bleeding, GM Dean Lombardi finally made a deal at the trade deadline for the Hurricane’s Andrej Sekera, but it may have been too little, too late and unfortunately, Sekera was injured in a game vs the Blackhawks on March 30th and missed the remainder of the season.
Stoll was almost certain to return next season without a Kings’ uniform even before his arrest. Along with Justin Williams, Stoll becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer and the Kings are facing serious cap issues. In an interview after the final game of the season where the Kings posted a 4-1 win over their rival San Jose Sharks, Stoll acknowledged the reality that he might be leaving the team he joined seven years ago from Edmonton and with whom he’d won two Cups.
But beyond the impact on the ice, how do the Kings now deal with a locker room and a fan base that has been rattled by players behaving badly? Some have suggested that Voynov’s alleged crime and Stoll’s arrest are comparable and reveal a systemic issue with the Kings’ organization, which Lombardi and Head Coach, Daryl Sutter have always maintained is a “family” who take care of each other. Lombardi has said many times that he doesn’t view players as commodities and both GM and coach have shown their trust in veteran players who have special bonds to the team – even to a fault – as seemed to be the case with the struggling Mike Richards. While many thought Richards would be on the trading block after last season, Lombardi stuck by him, but Richards’ subsequent assignment to the AHL and failure to step up and produce once brought back to the line-up, had to be disappointing.
Whether there is truly a core issue with the Kings’ organization remains to be seen, but certainly, Voynov’s alleged crime of beating his wife is not comparable to Stoll possessing drugs while partying in Las Vegas. That’s not to excuse Stoll or minimize his activities: he’s a professional athlete who should know better. That said, drawing a straight line between the two crimes and suggesting they’re indicative of a farther-reaching cancer within the organization seems far-fetched. If Voynov is proven guilty, the evidence will likely reveal past history and characteristics commonly associated with domestic violence offenders – factors that could have very little to do with the Kings’ locker room environment.
Jarret Stoll
In addition, while drug possession and use is a serious problem and certainly grounds for suspension, Stoll is far from the first professional athlete to have been caught using illegal substances and one wonders how many other athletes simply manage to better hide their off-duty activities. Again, this is not to excuse the behavior, but simply to say that in any sport where professional athletes make substantial sums of money, there will be those who abuse their luck until it runs out. And in all walks of life, there will be good people who make bad choices.
Either way, the Kings have decisions to make, an image to repair and trust to regain. To date, the only statement they’ve made is really a non-statement and as reported by LA Kings Insider, Jon Rosen, are still in “fact-gathering mode“.
Once the facts are known, the Kings need to act swiftly and decisively. Given Stoll was unlikely to return to the Kings bench in October, it seems the only choice – assuming the accusations are true and there is no reasonable explanation – is to let him go and to make clear that the organization will not tolerate this kind of behavior from the players or anyone associated with the organization.
Getting back to more traditional on-ice issues will no doubt be a welcome relief for the Kings when they hit training camp later this summer.
In déjà vu fashion, Colin Wilson started the Preds’ scoring. Less than three minutes into the game, he was able to capitalize on a man-advantage while Kris Versteeg sat for charging.
Sharp’s twist, flick, and shout move sent the puck past Pekka Rinne for a 1-1 score.
The music city’s team wouldn’t be quieted, though. They answered with just seconds left in the first.
Shea Weber set up Roman Josi for a top-shelf wrister from the right face-off circle and gave the Predators a serious advantage heading into intermission.
“It’s tough,” Brent Seabrook told media Saturday. “Going in after the first period, you’re looking like you’ll get out of it with a 1-1 tie. Giving up that late goal is tough but all those things, you want to be out there in the last minutes of periods, for the starts of periods, for goals and goals against. But those are areas we have to be better in.”
Nashville outshot Chicago 16-6 in the first.
Second Period
About halfway through the second period–which possession-wise seemed to be dominated by the Blackhawks–Chicago knotted the score once again.
The third period featured four Chicago penalties and a 12-6 Nashville shot advantage. But, above all else, it featured three unanswered Predator goals.
The Blackhawks were already defeated for the last five minutes of the game, or at least they played like it.
“It was a tough feeling waking up (Saturday) morning,” Sharp said.
Game Three
The Blackhawks have serious changes to make to shift power back in their favor–and the place to do it is back home. They have the advantage of the crowd behind them.
Coach Joel Quenneville announced Saturday that Scott Darling, who was 42 for 42 as a reliever in the Blackhawks’ Game 1 victory, will be Sunday’s starter.
“We threw him to the wolves the other day in Game 1 and what a tremendous response we got. So I don’t think [this] is any different,” Quenneville said. “Get in there, do your thing, do what you’ve done all year. Be comfortable and confident.”But the guys in front of the net need to change, too, if they plan to blow anyone away in the Windy City. Other likely roster additions include centers Antoine Vermette and possibly Andrew Desjardins.
Antoine Vermette has 10 goals and 11 assists in 33 games vs. the #Preds. Only team he’s been better against? The #Blackhawks (13G, 11A). — Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) April 19, 2015
Surprisingly, no changes for defense are expected. Michal Rozsival is a minus-three for the first two games.
Regardless of who is on the ice, the team will need to play with much more discipline at home. They had 22 penalty minutes to the Predators’ 10 in Game 2 and led 25-19 in hits. Chicago’s strength comes not in physicality but in puck movement.
As for the Predators, Weber left Friday’s game after an apparent lower body injury in the second period and did not return.
“You never want to lose your captain during a game–one of our best players,” Wilson said. “I think the guys did a good job of getting it done without him.”
The Predators announced Saturday that Weber would not be making the trip to Chicago and further updates on his condition will be announced Wednesday.
Mike Fisher, who left game one early after just returning from injury (lower body), is considered day-to-day.
The teams face off at 2:20 p.m. CT at the United Center, broadcast on NBC, RSN, and TVA2.
It was a game of physicality with the Lightning battling hard, finishing checks and finding the puck first that resulted in a brawl early in the game. Brian Boyle and Danny DeKeyser of the Wings got into a scrum on the ground while Steven Stamkos put Kyle Quincey in a headlock.
Tyler Johnson registered two goals in the game, first on a power play that resulted from the brawl to take the 1-0 lead. The Lightning scored again three times in the second period to secure the win with goals from Alex Killorn, Andrej Sustr, and Johnson to make the score 4-0.
Detroit’s lone goal came from Tomas Tatar, assisted by Quincy and Gustav Nyquist to keep Bolts netminder Ben Bishop from capturing the shutout.
Valtteri Filppula would make the score 5-1 on the power play in the third period, securing the win. The Bolts outshot the Wings 30-24.
The series is now tied at one a piece, after the Bolts fell 3-2 on Thursday.
“We were frustrated we didn’t win that game,” said Johnson. “We thought we played well enough to do that and we just didn’t. I think the guys, we wanted to step up our game even more and I thought tonight we played a pretty good game.”
Bishop notched his first post-season win with the 23-save effort between the pipes.
“I felt a lot better than I did last game,” Bishop said. “I was a little bit nervous last game and today a lot better, night and day almost.”
Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper is looking for the Bolts to continue to convert their solid play into W’s on the score sheet.
“I thought we were pretty good in Game 1,” said Cooper, who earned his first playoff victory in two-and-a-half seasons behind the Bolts bench. “We continued with that, and I think we’ve played two pretty solid games. I’d like to see us coming out 2-0, but it’s 1-1 and that’s better than 0-2.”
On April 18, 2015, Wayne Gretzky’s retired #99 jersey hung in the rafters of Madison Square Garden as the New York Rangers suffered another one goal defeat — to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Small world, hockey.
Sidney Crosby scored two goals in 4:39 to lead the Penguins to a 4-3 victory over the Rangers in Game Two of the first-round series. The Rangers and Penguins are now tied at one win apiece as the series heads to Pittsburgh for the next two games.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period with a goal by Derek Stepan at 17:05. The line of Chris Kreider-Stepan-J.T. Miller had begun to change. Carl Hagelin had just come on for Kreider, but Stepan, aware that Miller had gotten the puck and was carrying it up the ice, skated past the bench. Miller found him for a wide open shot on net, and Stepan scored.
But the Rangers struggled to retain that offensive momentum as the second period began. The game turned instead in the Penguins’ favor, and Crosby and Brandon Sutter put in a combined three goals in the second. The Rangers skated off the ice after forty minutes of play to boos.
The game saw a total of eleven penalties, and several others went uncalled as the two teams played a scrappy and tension-filled game. Derick Brassard scored the Rangers’ single power play goal early in the third period to shift the momentum back in their favor, but Chris Kunitz responded minutes later with a goal of his own to build the Penguins’ lead to 4-2. With 5.1 seconds remaining in the game, Rick Nash put in his first goal of the playoffs to make it 4-3, but his goal was too little, too late. The Rangers’ longstanding “Game Two curse” would remain relevant as ever in this series.
THREE STARS OF THE GAME:
3. Brandon Sutter
2. Chris Kunitz
1. Sidney Crosby
LOOKING AHEAD:
-The difference between the Rangers winning and losing tonight’s game was their power play. They were just 1 for 7 with the man advantage on Saturday night and are currently 2 for 12 in the series. The Penguins are 2 for 5 over two games. The constant shifting between special teams and playing at even strength disrupted the rhythm of the game at some points, and this could have been part of the reason why the Rangers struggled to build momentum. But these missed power play opportunities may come back to haunt the Rangers if their numbers don’t improve down the stretch.
–Kevin Klein is still listed as day-to-day and is doing some light practicing, but there is no set date for his return:
–Dan Girardi appears to be fine after having left Thursday night’s game with a possible jaw injury. The team reported that he was seen by a dentist and was at practice the next day. He played 20:20 in Saturday’s game.
NEXT GAME:
The series is tied 1-1. Game 3 takes place Monday, April 20 at 7pm at Consol Energy Center, and will be aired on NBCSN.
The NHL announced the position of the top 14 teams for the draft that will take place at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida in June. This was the first time that the top players for the upcoming draft were present or involved in the press conference after the top team was announced.
The Lottery revealed that the 14 teams that didn’t make the playoffs will pick as follows:
If the draft were to happen based on the recently released final draft rankings from Central Scouting, the top four players—who were either at the Lottery in person or available by phone during the press conference—would be
McDavid, Hanifin and Strome were available on site at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto, while Eichel phoned in from Europe where he has joined the USA Men’s National Team to compete in the IIHF World Championship, which will take place May 1-17 in the Czech Republic.
For Edmonton Oilers General Manager, Craig MacTavish, he shared how excited he was to see that the Oilers had won the top spot in the Draft Lottery. This moved his team from the third position and pushed the Sabres and the Coyotes down by one spot.
Of course, once the lottery lineup was revealed, assumptions began to fly and the on-site media did their best to get the present Oilers management to commit to whom they would choose with that first pick. Even MacTavish, who called in for the media availability after the lottery, refused to make any indication on whether his team would be taking McDavid, as everyone expects.
Perhaps the most obvious thing that was learned during the Lottery and the question and answer period after is that everyone involved, from the four players to the management of the Oilers, used a lot of words to say little. Every player said that anything could happen between now and the actual Draft day. MacTavish’s biggest pronouncement was that absolutely nothing could be offered by another team that he would consider valuable enough to trade away that number one pick. Of course, in hockey, it is often just after a general manager says he has no intention of trading a player that an announcement is made that the player has been traded. So such precedence needs to be kept in mind.
In the end all that tonight’s lottery has revealed is the expected order of the first 14 picks in round one of the NHL Draft, which will be televised and will take place on Friday, June 26, with rounds two through seven taking place on Saturday, June 27.
While the Calgary Flames got the “W” in game one with the last minute slap by defenseman Kris Russell, game two was a different story. The Vancouver Canucks crushed the Flames on Friday night’s game two matchup.
Russell was the lone goal for Calgary late in the third period while on the power play, preventing Eddie Lack from earning a shutout. So far, he has two goals in two games in the playoffs. In three playoff appearances with three different teams, he now has three goals. He had only four goals in the entirety of the regular season. Pretty good run for him so far. His play was a huge factor in Calgary’s success later in the regular season when captain Mark Giordano was sidelined with an injury.
Four goals were recorded by Vancouver, and Calgary was not able to come back from the deficit. An even strength goal from Daniel Sedin in the early first period set the tone for the game. A power play goal not long after by Chris Higgins set Calagary back even further. In the third period when Ronalds Kenins put Vancouver up by three, things definitely started to get interesting. An empty-net goal by Radim Vrbata to finish things off prompted a lot more to happen than just more goals being scored.
Penalty minutes–156 penalty minutes in the third period alone, and 166 total penalty minutes were recorded as of 10:16 p.m. MT on Friday. Those statistics prove how the emotions in the playoffs can change a game. The passion of both teams was prevalent, that much is for sure. Lack even got into things after a scuffle took place in front of his crease. Things got heated, and the game was surely a sign of the intensity of the playoffs. If this is only game two, there is no telling what will take place when the series moves over to Calgary on Sunday for game three.
“It was a heat-of-the-moment thing. A good rivalry is growing.” – Engelland on the scrum at the end of the game pic.twitter.com/lXH4ac8RO9
Jonas Hiller, Calgary’s goaltender, had a phenomenal game on Wednesday night. He saved 26 shots out of the 29 he faced. Friday his play was sub-par, and it definitely contributed to the team’s loss. Goaltenders are usually the first to get blamed, when in reality, if the defense doesn’t do much, the goaltender is left to fare on his own. Game two was not an accurate read on Hiller’s capability as a goaltender, and going into Sunday, I don’t see why he wouldn’t be the choice for starter.
It’s Stanley Cup time! Fans from all over are yelling louder for their teams. There is more spring to their steps and more team jersey wearing than any other time of the year! It’s loud, it’s fun and it’s finger-nail-biting, stress-ups-and-downs night!
This time of year also brings out the wackiness of the fans. In Montreal, Quebec in Canada there is a bar named “Bar Brutus.” The importance of this bar which specializes in cocktails and other bar items is the fact that the bar’s niche is bacon. Twenty pounds of bacon was used to make a ‘Bacon Stanley Cup.’ Wow! Would you be able to eat bacon after that? I thought bacon smelling candles were odd enough, never mind the cup. I feel oily all over, don’t you right now?
I don’t know if you remember the contest of 2009? The contest ended by the public voting for the best fan made Stanley Cup. One of the choices was the Ham-ley Cup made by Anna Adler. Yes, it was shaped with ham and ate by a canine! It was a cup like no other. In this contest there were entries which included cups that were made from wood, cake, (yummy) pucks and skoal tins. Personally, I would have picked cake instead. I love my sugar way to much! Cake or ham? Which one would you have picked?
This is not the end of the adventures of the Cup. Not by a long shot. After the winning game, the winners use it as the champagne flute. It is passed by one and all. This trend started in 1896 by the Winnipeg Victorias. Tell me, how many germs is that? Then the fun and the travel starts for real! The players take this poor cup home for one day each. It gets into misadventures like being left on the side of the road. It has been urinated into. Pets have eaten from it as a dog bowl. Children have pictures taken in it. The cup has been used as a cooler for beer. Players have been known to sleep beside it for the night! I was surprised to hear that! It has been shipped for vets around the world to see. The adventures this cup has are amazing and more interesting than any Hollywood star! It has more stories to tell than most people I know.
The Stanley Cup is much more than a trophy. It brings countries together. It brings all kinds of folks who have nothing in common together like kin. The Cup brings out so many emotions like nothing else except religion and politics.
There is nothing else I know of like this game nor like the Stanley Cup! Enjoy the rest of the play-offs!
When the Nashville Predators had a 3-0 lead going into game one’s first intermission, it was clear something had to change for the Chicago Blackhawks. And though only one of the three goals could really be attributed to goaltender Corey Crawford‘s judgment, a change in net to backup goalie Scott Darling seemed to make all the difference for the Hawks, who made a three-goal comeback the following period.
It would take two overtimes before Chicago’s Duncan Keith scored the game-winning (and mercifully, game-ending) goal.
The start
In an uncharacteristically gold Bridgestone arena, the Blackhawks fell fast.
Who knows what was said in the locker room at intermission, but something changed.
Though Crawford could only really be faulted for one of the first period’s goals, a big move had to be made to turn the game around before the Hawks hit the ice again. Coach Joel Quenneville put Darling in net.
“Just trying to stop the bleeding,” Darling said. “We didn’t play very good in the first to help out Crow, but they played great in the second period.
“They played great the whole night for me, and it’s awesome.”
The merciful finish
Though tight, Nashville would seem to have the advantage through the third period and first overtime, with Darling stopping 32 shots in those periods.
Neither team managed to score despite plenty of opportunities (Nashville had 38 shots on goal in the third period and first and second overtimes while Chicago had 24 before the game-winner), but advantage shifted
Then, 7:49 into the second overtime, Keith fired a slapshot from the point past Pekka Rinne after a feed from Hossa and Toews.
“I can’t really remember exactly what happened,” Keith said. “I just know that Hoss had a nice bank pass to get it back to me. I just tried to get it on net as quick as I could. I don’t know if the goalie was able to see it very well. I think we had some guys going to the net, and that helped out on the screen.”
The numbers
Nashville led the game in shots (54-42), hits (39-28), faceoff wins (54-34) and blocked shots (32-16).
“I thought our guys played hard tonight,” Nashville Coach Peter Laviolette said. “There was a stretch in the second period there when we lost our way, but I think we did a good job of getting back on the train we needed to be on in order to be successful. The third period, the overtimes, we had a lot of chances to score. You have to give their goaltender credit.”
Darling stopped 42 of 42 shots during his time in net.
The teams tied in penalty minutes with 12 apiece, but Chicago was able to score on two of their six power plays.
Other notes
Mike Fisher left the game early with a lower body injury–no particular instance was cited–and has been labeled day-to-day. He’d just returned to play from a lower body injury.
“Mike fills a lot of roles for us,” Laviolette said. “He’s a big part of our team. He’s a leader on and off the ice. He plays in every situation you can think of.”
Quenneville said he contributed to the team’s previously lacking power play.
“Top guys in the league have a real good patience level with the puck and play recognition,” the coach said. “Sometimes they can settle a play down in the offensive zone, and all of a sudden, when you look like you’re on the run on the power play, you’re scrambling, and it’s kind of one of those modes just to get a puck back in a retrieval area, so he saves a lot of those loose puck battles and sustains a lot of presence in the offensive zone, and his play recognition’s high end.
“I think he gives our opponents something more to think about, as well. He’s a great weapon in that area and can open up other areas too, if they want to keep a closer eye on him.”
Darling, a Chicago-area native whose career has taken him all around the country, stopped all 42 shots that came his way Wednesday. While there was much debate over who will start in net for the next game with talent from both goaltenders, Quenneville will be sticking with his starter–Crawford.
Crawford (along with the Montreal Canadiens’ Carey Price) is this year’s William M. Jennings Trophy recipient. He has NHL playoff experience under his belt and a .924 save percentage this season. Darling is the Blackhawks’ Masterson Trophy nominee.
Quenneville is expected to start the same roster and will likely again lean heavily on defensemen Keith, Brent Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, and Johnny Oduya–as Rozsival has been consistently showing trouble keeping up with the action and Timonen is returning from health concerns.
The Predators host the Blackhawks again at 8:30 p.m. CT Friday and will be broadcast on CSN-CH, NBCSN, SN, SN360, and TVA3.
The Calgary Flames pulled off a win in true Calgary fashion last night against the Vancouver Canucks in game 1. This come-from-behind win is nothing new to the Flames, seeing as this has been their claim to fame, even to the playoffs.
After about two and a half periods of being shut out, Calgary’s David Jones notched a beautiful goal after Michael Ferland forced Vancouver to turn over the puck. Since Vancouver had only one goal from Bo Horvat at this point, the game looked like it was close to going into overtime as the minutes ticked down.
During the regular season, the Flames won 10 times when trailing after 40 minutes. Calgary has made it clear that they should never be counted out.The game winning goal from defenseman Kris Russell, with 29.6 seconds left in regulation, proves exactly why. Russell scored on a rocket of a shot from back almost at the blue line on his first shot of the game. Russell skated for 29:07 minutes, just shy of Dennis Wideman’s 30:07 time on ice.
“That’s the kind of style you’ve got to play in the playoff,” Russell said per the Calgary Flames website, “Just get pucks to the net and hopefully they go in.”
Goaltending was a huge factor in the low score of the game. With Eddie Lack in goal for Vancouver and Jonas Hiller for Calgary going into it, both teams knew it would be a good battle. Hiller and Lack each saw 30 shots, but Hiller ultimately came out on top with 29 saves. He made some highlight reel worthy saves and was consistently there when it meant something. One goal against in the second is certainly nothing to be disappointed by when he played like he did.
“They had a few pretty good chances early in the third, and if they score [the] game might be over,” said Hiller, per the Flames website. “Those are the saves you want to make. They can shift the momentum and I think that’s what happened.”
Game two is set for Friday at 8:00 pm PT in Vancouver. Judging by the way the first game went, this whole series is sure to be typical playoff hockey: exciting and unpredictable #BecauseItsTheCup.
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