When Detroit finally put its blazing speed to use, Bishop shut things down, fast.
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Tampa Bay’s power play, which had three goals in a Game 4 win at Detroit on Tuesday, couldn’t find the same success in Game 5 – in one second-period power play, short-handed Detroit outshot Tampa Bay 2-0, with Riley Sheahan getting stopped on a breakaway.
Datsyuk, at least, went down firing. He told media that he does not expect to return to the National Hockey League.
Detroit was eliminated, and Pavel Datsyuk’s career might be at an end. They trailed 2-0 by the midpoint of the game.
Mrazek was outstanding too.
With 1:43 left on the clock. Mrazek, trying to dish the puck around the boards behind his net, had his rim-around intercepted by Ryan Callahan.
The Wings are in a bad position.
The Red Wings had a two-man advantage early in the first period for over a minute Thursday and didn’t score. Three times, Bishop stoned them.
Ruff also said defenseman Kris Russell, who was scratched from Game 3 because of illness, might not be ready Wednesday. The Wings got a power play at 16:28, but only Dylan Larkin got a shot through that Bishop saved.
General manager Ken Holland has all summer now to ponder those questions. Detroit has trailed 3-1 in a playoff series 21 times, but only rallied to win twice – in the first round vs. Toronto in 1987 and vs. the Minnesota North Stars in 1992….
What we learned: Though the Lightning won in five games, this series was closer than it appeared.
The story of Game 4 was the power play. The Wings have to win three straight games to advance. They ended up taking another penalty, and Kucherov earned his second two-goal game of the series when he shot through traffic from the slot.
Everything looks like it’s back in top form for the Pens. Mike’s face was a rearranged bloody mess, and he seemed furious with the attention he got from Justin, who was assessed a game misconduct and left the ice.
The healthy practice session came at a time during which most coaches are using days off in between playoff games to rest their players.
The Penguins, after that Game 2 hiccup, look firmly in control again. My feeling right now is we dont feel the correlation is as heavily related as you might looking at that statistic, as I go back and look at the goals that were scored.
Johnson, a year removed from scoring 23 points in a memorable postseason run, assisted on Kucherov’s first goal and now has seven points in four games.
In fact, based on Corsi, it’s been the defending Cup champions who’ve controlled most of the five-on-five action. It is an abysmal 1 and a billion (give or take) this series.
Will the Lightning wrap up this series in 5 games? They needed to be more productive in this series, and though they came up short, they can chalk it up as valuable experience.
Chris Stewart had a goal and an assist, and Jamie McGinn and Rickard Rakell each scored their first goals.
Of course, no one with the team is saying that publicly. As long as he plays within his own zone, he should be another key factor in the game tonight. Andersen has allowed only one goal in the two games he’s played.
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Detroit only scored eight goals in the series, though not because of a lack of opportunities. Goalie Pekka Rinne, meanwhile, hasn’t been bailing his teammates out like usual in those situations.
