Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne, top, blocks a shot by Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler during the second period of Game 7 in an NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, April 27. We faced elimination in Game 6, won in overtime, double overtime in Game 7, and kind of rolled that into the second round and showed up with a lot of confidence.
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“I thought in a game like tonight, he scores in everyone of those games”. The series ended in five games, with San Jose taking the 4-1 win.
Ducks left winger Andrew Cogliano agreed. It’s tough. They play strong defensively. In 2012, DeBoer’s New Jersey Devils took the momentum they gained from a seven-game first round win against Florida into the second round against Laviolette’s Flyers, and downed them in five games.
Forgive me if you are a San Jose fan, and feel free to keep that smirk right where it is.
Gaustad put the puck past goalie Frederik Andersen from the blue line with just a flick of the wrist.
Losing in the playoffs is always a heartbreaker, but the fashion that the Sharks lost to the Kings two years ago takes the cake: The Sharks led the series 3-0 before they collapsed losing four straight games to the eventual Stanley Cup champions. “It came to bite us at the end”.
Bruce Boudreau’s record in Game 7s is now 1-7.
“I’ve got no excuses, that’s the way it went”, he said. We played hard. We played to win. But a redirected shot clanked off Rinne’s post in the third, and nothing went in during a frantic final minute, leaving the Ducks with a mountain of frustration.
Can the Nashville Predators defense slow down the Sharks forwards? “I was just trying to wait”. And I think the team, especially the last half of the year, they believed what the expectations were and what they were supposed to be.
That goal tied Wilson with Martin Erat for fourth place on the Predators’ all-time playoff goal-scoring list with eight.
Taking up where he left off in helping the Islanders advance beyond the first round for the first time in 23 years, Tavares assisted on Travis Hamonic’s goal that erased an early deficit and later scored his sixth postseason goal on a blistering shot from the left circle to give NY a 4-1 lead midway through the second.
Getzlaf wound up with five points in seven games and was plus-4, and he hung in there after Mike Fisher crunched his ankle. Boudreau challenged the call, which video replay upheld.
TheSharks early season power play struggles continued, as they were 0-for-2 against thePredatorsbefore an announced crowd of 15,219, the smallest of the season. After Rinne blocked Rickard Rakell’s tip-in, Jamie McGinn tried to convert the rebound with Rinne prone on the ice.
Pacific Division. They are big bodied players that use their body well throughout the game. “But the defense was incredible tonight”.
Nashville needed a big game from Rinne and he delivered. I’m not saying they aren’t good players.
On Monday night, St. Louis grinder Troy Brouwer, a fellow seventh round draft choice, scored the game winning goal in Game 7 to eliminate the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs.
Anaheim very almost pulled even with less than eight minutes to play, but Hampus Lindholm’s shot from the point rang the left post, and Corey Perry was unable to swat it out of the air and into the open net.
Tomas Hertl scored twice in a stirring third period comeback and Couture scored the only goal in the shootout as the Sharks earned a win at Bridgestone Arena. “Everything about it was a battle, a fight”. At the other end of the spectrum, there was a controversial hit by Tom Wilson that might lead to a suspension.
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The game nearly mirrored the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning game. Nashville scratched RW Gabriel Bourque (upper body), C Cody Bass (lower body), D Petter Granberg, LW Eric Nystrom and LW Austin Watson.
