Since I missed your first goal of the playoffs, congrats on your second. Just wish these goals would come in wins. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

This was a winnable game. The Hawks came back after their loss on Saturday and played like a team who knew how important the game was. They just didn’t get any bounces tonight.

Many people wondered how the Hawks would respond after game two didn’t exactly go their way. Well the response was evident as they completely dominated the first period. They also got two chances on the power play with the first looking like it could actually score and the second…well the second looked like the Rangers power play. (With all the talk about it, I figure everyone would get that reference but for those who don’t know, the Rangers have the worst power play of the eight teams left in the playoffs and it’s not even close.)

Unfortunately it didn’t matter what they did as Jimmy Howard was on his game stopping all 15 shots they threw at him in the first twenty minutes. I would say those saves were more puck luck than talent but they gave him confidence which is the last thing the Hawks wanted.

The second looked like it was going to be a continuation of the first as the Hawks once again dominated the first six minutes with another power kill thrown in there. Then disaster struck as Gustav Nyquist went on the rush with the puck and honestly made Brent Seabrook and Nick Leddy look like mites as he danced around them and buried it behind a sprawling Corey Crawford.

To make matters worse, just thirty one seconds later Drew Miller found a bouncing puck around the net and was able to tap it in to double the Wings lead. I honestly think Johnny Oduya put it in his own net but they gave the goal to Miller. I knew at that point that goal would be a killer and I was right.

Coach Q called his timeout just to try and calm his troops down. It worked slightly as they did get a little control after that but then the Wings started pushing again. Fortunately Crawford was up to the task and able to keep the damage at two through the end of the second.

Things didn’t look good to start the third as the Hawks iced the puck three times in the first two minutes but slowly they gained momentum. Then I tweeted this about four minutes into the period. Less than a minute in real time later, Patrick Kane buried his second of the series to bring the Hawks within one. I don’t get how or why it works but it always does.

On the play right before, Johan Franzen was pushed into the boards and fell awkwardly. He remained down as the play moved up the ice allowing Kane to score. I’ll admit it could’ve been a two-minute penalty but the referee chose not to call it and the Hawks were able to capitalize. As for the whistle not blowing, the rule says if the opposition as a scoring chance, play should continue unless the penalty is extremely serious (i.e. a lot of blood or knocked unconscious). Since neither of those occurred, play continued much to the dislike of Wings fans.

Unfortunately the Wings got another one two minutes after Kane’s goal and the Hawks weren’t able to get anything else past Howard as the Wings took game three by a 3-1 score. (The Hawks did get one a minute after Kane’s goal but it was waived off immediately due to incidental goalie interference. It could’ve gone either way so I won’t argue that one.)

I’m not sure where the Hawks go from here as this was absolutely a winnable game and one they really needed to win. Obviously the series is far from over but the Hawks are just making this more difficult on themselves than needed. They are the better team, now they just need to show their division rivals that. Two days off and then these teams go back at it again. Please win game four Hawks. Please.

Thank you for not only being an amazing hockey player, but being an amazing person too. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

We all know hockey players are the best players out there. The tweets below show they can not only make us laugh with their wit and sarcasm, but that they have amazing hearts too.

First we have the Senators Erik Karlsson who apparently isn’t good at cards:

That’s okay Erik. Being better at love (and in your case hockey) is better than being better at cards.

Next up is everyone’s favorite Roberto Luongo who was watching the World Championship game between Canada and Sweden that went to a shootout. (Side note: Why do they have those in international competition?) Well two of his teammates shot and apparently didn’t do so well:

Yes he was being sarcastic since according to the Vancouver website Daniel is only 4 for 21 in his career in the shooutout. That’s better than Henrik, though, who if I read it correctly is actually 0 for 3. Don’t worry boys, some people just aren’t good at that skills competition.

Then we have this tweet from Patrick Sharp who was happy that his mom was at Game 1 of the Blackhawks second round series minus one problem:

The hashtag just makes that tweet. Well that and the fact that Mama Sharp is wearing a Patrick Kane jersey.

And finally we have this tweet from the Ducks Bobby Ryan who proved again that hockey players truly are the best athletes out there:

Besides showing how amazing he is, this tweet hits close to home for us here at Aerys as the young lady he is referring to is actually the best friend of Vicky, our lead writer of Roughled Feathers. I just want to take this moment and say that our thoughts and prayers here at Aerys are with you girl. Hockey fans, like hockey players, are the toughest out there so we know you are going to fight and beat this. And know that not only the Ducks, but the whole hockey world is behind you.

The Ottawa Senators really should petition to have all of their playoff games at home. Or at least those games played against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Then again, maybe it was the reappearance of Senators forward Jason Spezza that fired up the Sens to play a better game. Either way, the Senators put on a show tonight with a double overtime thriller!

The first period saw both the Senators and the Penguins pushing to the net, even though neither team could make their mark in the net. So what was the theme of the first? Well that would be the penalties or the lack there-of. Calls on both sides were made that maybe not everyone agrees on, but there were plenty of missed calls that both captains made their voices known on to the refs.

Ottawa pulled of stunner after stunner of penalty kills in the second, holding off the infamous Penguins power play all the way through a solid minute of five on three play. In fact both teams kept up the penalty kill to the point that the only goal of the second came on an even strength play! The Penguins’s Tyler Kennedy scored with just over a minute to go for the 1-0 lead.

Now the third period, hoo wee!

Back and forth play is never fun for anyone, especially when that play has no payoff. Instead, fans had to sit tight until the last two minutes of regulation for the action to really start cooking. It all started with fan favorite Erik Karlsson mouthing off to the referees, leading to a technical penalty with a minute and a half to go.

With all of Scotiabank arena holding their breath, goalie Craig Anderson left the net as Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson played the role of the hero by scoring on the penalty kill with thirty seconds left to play, sending the game to overtime.

Usually when teams go on to play overtime, there may be anywhere from thirty seconds to six/seven minutes played. Not tonight.

No, the Senators and Penguins had to play seven minutes and forty-nine seconds into double overtime before Colin Greening put the puck between the legs of Pitt goalie Thomas Vokoun for the 2-1 win.

Fans will have to wait until Wednesday night to see if the Senators will wow the home crowd once again and tie the series, but for now the Penguins still lead round two 2-1. Wednesday, 7:30 pm EST!

Game Two of Round Two is in the bag for the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburg Penguins, though not in a way that the Senators appreciate. The Penguins on the other hand, well, nothing says success like a hat trick am I right?

On the bright side, Ottawa came close to taking the Penguins to a guaranteed game five, pushing for the goals to end the game only one goal down, 4-3. The Senators even managed to get the last word in!

The first period kicked off with, of course, a goal from the Pens captain Sidney Crosby. It was ten more minutes, at 13:15, before Kyle Turris tied the game just into an Ottawa power play (your penalty kill isn’t so impressive now, is it Pitt?). Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson has had a stellar end of season run, but it all has to end sometime as it did with a bad slip up for another goal by Crosby at the end of the first.

Going into the second the Senators may as well have slammed their heads into the boards. Why you may ask? It may have something to do with taking an early penalty and so allowing Sid the Kid to complete a hat trick less than two minutes into the second.

Ouch. Let’s just say Anderson spent the rest of the night on the bench.

So with back-up goalie Robin Lehner taking over for the Sens a second wind hit. Forty seconds after Crosby’s hat trick, Colin Greening brought the Senators within one. Lehner kept up some impressive saves until Brenden Morrow went and took away the winning goal at eight minutes in to seal the Senators’s fate.

Although there were by far ample opportunities in the third period for Ottawa to tie the game, only Jean-Gabriel Pageau managed a goal just two minutes into the period.

Ottawa most definitely put up a fight in tonight’s game, through all the unfortunate Crosby plays and the odd calls made by the referees. With ten penalties (mostly on Ottawa), this was certainly not a bad night call wise. But in the playoffs the refs are expected to call consistently and not brush over calls on either team. From the looks of the game, there were several more penalties that should have been called on both teams.

When the Penguins and Senators head to Ottawa Sunday night, will there be another hat trick? Will the referees get their rule books out? Maybe the Senators will even get a home win? All will be revealed Sunday and 7:30 pm EST! And goodness knows why the time got pushed back a half an hour. The world may never know.

It kills me to put a picture of someone in that jersey but Howard really was good in this game. Fortunately, he wasn’t good enough. (Photo: Dinur Blum/flickr)

The Blackhawks finally got back on the ice as their series with the Red Wings started….sorry, I fell asleep during that sentence. In all seriousness, the third period was actually entertaining but the first two periods made me wonder if the plan to win the series was to put everyone to sleep. Case in point, even NBC noticed it was quiet in the Madhouse!

Both teams started slow in the first period, combining for five shots through the first ten and a half minutes. Somehow two got in the net as Marian Hossa scored the first of the series on the power play after a beautiful passing play by Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp. Good to see the captain on the board early in the series but he’s still looking for his first goal of the playoffs. A little less than two minutes later, the Wings tied it as Damien Brunner got his third of the playoffs.

And then things got boring. I honestly have nothing to say about the remainder of the first period or the second period except to give these two stats – Detroit had the edge in hits in the first period 21-9 while the Hawks had the edge in shots in the second at 17-5. So I guess the Hawks still dominated play while they put the rest of us to sleep.

Then the teams took to the ice in the third period and it was as if a switch had been flicked and the two teams realized they were playing in the Western Conference Semi Finals. There was life on the ice and in the building. But there was no goals…until eight minutes into the period.

I’m not sure there are words that can do Dan Cleary’s play justice but for some reason, he thought it was a good idea to ignore Johnny Oduya and focus on a player already being covered by one of his teammates. The puck ended up on Oduya’s stick who had a clear path to the slot where he buried what ended up being the game winner. There’s making mistakes on shifts and then there was that. You just can’t do that in a playoff game.

Three minutes later, the Hawks extended their lead as Marcus Kruger put a rebound behind Howard. Sharp would get an empty netter for his third point of the night with a little less than a minute to go and the Wings would waste a great performance by Jimmy Howard as the Hawks took game one 4-1. Brunner did almost get his second of the game with a little less than three minutes to go but it hit the crossbar and went down which allowed Brent Seabrook to stop it from going in. Honestly, nothing against the two goalies who were fantastic, that was the save of the game.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about Jimmy Howard. I’ll be honest, I’m not a Howard fan. I think he’s a good goalie but not a great one. Tonight, I’ll admit he was closer to great as he saved 38 of the 41 shots he faced. The fans were mockingly chanting his name late in the third period and I couldn’t figure out why – if it wasn’t for him, this game would’ve been won by the home team long before the middle of the third.

And so the Hawks take game one. As much as they were the better team, I still think this series is far from over. The good news for Hawks fans? The boys looked a lot better than they did at any point in the series versus the Wild. For Wings fans, that probably isn’t a good thing.

Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr

Game One of the Ottawa Senators versus the Pittsburgh Penguins is in the bag folks! And boy was it a dozy for the Ottawa Senators. Despite power play opportunities galore, the Senators just could not make the magic happen in the 4-1 loss tonight.

In spite of Pittsburgh taking the first goal less than three minutes into the first period (thanks to Paul Martin on the power play), Ottawa still managed to rally and tie up the game just before the five minute mark with a wrister from Colin Greening.

Of course this would never stop the Penguins’s Evengi Malkin from tallying at least one goal as he took back the lead at 12:15 of the first.

A high point for the Senators in the first period definitely had to do with overall play from both teams. The Penguins did not launch an all-out attack force per what is expected. On the other hand, the Senators remained quite stately, keeping their defense up and pushing for the net.

The second period is where it really started to go downhill for Ottawa. Generally decent play, but not hard enough to produce points and not enough to keep the killer Penguin power play out of the net in the last two minutes of play. Chris Kunitz managed to get a wrist shot right past Anderson for the goal.

The third period didn’t fare much better. The Penguins managed a short-handed goal at 11:24 of the third off a snap shot from Pascal Dupuis. What really made the period interesting? Well that would be the nice start of a fight with thirty second left to play. While not up to the Canadians hockey rivalry fights seen in the Montreal-Ottawa series, this battle of the second round still featured nine penalties.

So what should we look at for Game Two? Definitely less of the penalty taking; Pittsburgh is known for its power play special teams and boy do you not want to be staring that line down. Taking the puck to the net and getting those rebounds usually helps a team out too. Fans will have to wait until Friday night at 7:30 pm EST to find out if the Penguins will take an early lead or if the Senators can even the series.

I’m sure this man is thrilled to be playing the Penguins in the next round. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

It’s the playoffs which means not a lot of guys are tweeting. That doesn’t mean we didn’t find some great ones over the past couple of days.

First off we have everyone’s favorite Roberto Luongo, aka Strombone, with this one last night after watching James Reimer almost shut out the Boston Bruins:

For those who don’t get the humor, Luongo has been mentioned as a goalie for the Sochi Olympics. Reimer going might take him off the list.

Next up, we have Dustin Penner who wanted a free mcflurry:

I’m guessing McDonalds ran something depending on a Kings win? This is what happens when I don’t pay attention to every playoff series. Either way, I think McDonalds should send him something for scoring the game winner otherwise it looks like they are losing a customer.

And finally we have my favorite tweet of the week and possibly one of my favorites this season (yes it is that good) from Erik Karlsson who tweeted this after learning who the Senators would be playing in the second round:

I would like to believe that tweet would stop the inevitable questions that don’t need to be asked. My guess is it guarantees we get to hear them for at least games one through four.

Penner gets a lot of flack, but he sure scores some important goals. Photo by Linda Hamilton

If you read anything I write over on Get Higher, you’ll see in today’s post that I officially claim the award for worst blogger this week. Unfortunately, life takes over sometimes. So here, I’ll talk about briefly the Kings last three games (all wins) and then move on to discuss their chances in the second round.

Game 4- This was the highest scoring game between these two games, and perhaps one of the more exciting games in this first round. St. Louis earned an early two goal lead (less than five minutes into the contest), but the Kings responded with two goals of their own in the first period. T.J. Oshie was the only player who scored in the second period, and it appeared that the Blues were in control, and poised to take their third win of the series. Then, in the span of 90 seconds, Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams scored during the third period to earn the Kings the win.

Game 5- It’s always startling when a team scores in the first minute of the game. It’s even more astonishing in the playoffs, but Jeff Carter slid the puck past Brian Elliott before this game was even 20 seconds old. The Blues would respond a few minutes later, and the score would remain tied for the rest of the period. In the second Jeff Carter scored again, and the Kings held onto this lead for most of the period. However, Alex Pietrangelo would score with less than a minute left in the period,  evening up the score once more. No one scored during the third, which led to overtime, where Slava Voynov scored his second of the playoffs with a nice wrist shot. The Kings became the first team in this series to win on the road.

Game 6- This game was highlighted by Dustin Penner’s buzzer beater goal. Drew Doughty scored in the first to give the Kings the lead. In the second, the Blues tied things up with a goal from Chris Porter. However, in the final second of the period, Penner slipped the puck past Brian Elliott. This would end up the gamewinner, and Penner’s second series-ending goal for the LA Kings. Kings win the series 4-2.

The Upcoming Round- There is only one series undecided in the Western Conference thus far- Anaheim v Detroit. That series will determine who the Kings face, but either way, the team is headed for a California matchup. If Detroit wins, they will face the Blackhawks, and the Kings will face the Sharks. If the Ducks win, the Blackhawks will play the Sharks, and the Kings will play the Ducks. The Kings went 2-1-1 against both the Sharks and the Ducks this year, so it’s hard to pick out which team the Kings would rather play against based on those statistics. I would have to say though that there could be an advantage for the Kings playing either team. The Sharks were the first team to advance. That rest may benefit them, but it could also make them slow starters. The Ducks might find themselves hot and filled with adrenaline after a seven game series. Still, they might be more exhausted, and the Kings, with only a couple of days off, could find themselves rested the perfect amount. I’m going to go with my gut feeling that the Kings might find it easier to beat the Ducks in the second round, but either way, they’re in position for a good series.

Two goals in the series clinching game for this man. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

It was nice of the Blackhawks to let the Wild win a game but most people didn’t expect this series to get past five games. Tonight, the Blackhawks took care of business by finally looking like the team that won the Presidents’ Trophy this season. Sure Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane still don’t have playoff goals but Toews did finally get two assists tonight for his first points of the playoffs.

It didn’t matter as the Hawks got goals from Marian Hossa in the first, Marcus Kruger, Hossa again and Andrew Shaw in the second plus a 5-on-3 power play goal by Patrick Sharp in the third. Josh Harding started the game but was pulled after Hossa’s second goal to help try and change momentum. It didn’t help.

The Wild did manage to beat Corey Crawford in the second period but that was 35 seconds before Shaw’s goal so it didn’t mean much other than to end his shutout. You could see how deflated the Wild were when they got a goal to cut the deficit to two and the Hawks took the three goal lead back that quickly.

Basically, it led to handshakes.

Thanks for trying Minnesota but let’s be honest, you didn’t have a chance. I do feel bad for their goalies as all three of them deserved better. (I actually mean that.) Next up for the Hawks are either the Red Wings or the Sharks. If I had to take a guess, the Sharks will be headed to Chicago next week.

In the meantime, have some Chelsea Dagger

Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr

And that’s the series folks! The Ottawa Senators put the beat down on the Montreal Canadiens tonight in a massive 6-1 win to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs! With injuries and power play goals at the center of the night, it comes as little surprise that the Senators pushed their way to a win.

The first period started out looking like a Montreal game with shots flying around left and right. But only two minutes into the game Ottawa slipped in with a goal from Smith to tally the first goal. Ten minutes later Conacher made an appearance to take the second goal of the period.

But Montreal refused to be counted out yet. On a power play in the last minute, Subban put the Canadiens on the board with just fifteen seconds left to play. Too bad this type of play couldn’t last for Montreal.

The second period was rather dull in comparison. With one power play goal on Turris for Ottawa half way through the period and some “too many men” penalties, it was time to move on to the third.

Now here is a period that may go down as one of the Senators best periods in this season’s playoffs; scoring wise at least. This was the period of the power play, with captain Alfredsson scoring six minutes in to make the game 4-1. Six minutes later, Conacher tallied his second goal of the night, again on the power play. Might as make three times the charm as Condra scored, again on the power play, with just under four minutes left to play.

So who was hot and who was not? Well to start with the Canadiens’s goalie Price went out of the last Ottawa-Montreal game with an injury that doctors determined would side-line him for the remainder of the series. In Price’s place backup goalie Budaj put on his best effort to keep the Canadiens in the series.

As well on the injury list, Montreal captain Gionta was ruled out for the season with an arm injury along with White and Prust scratched for the night. The Senators were also missing three players due to injury.

With a five game series under their belts, who will they Senators face next? That has yet to be decided as the team heads back to Ottawa for a break and to keep an eye on the Pittsburg Penguins and the New York Islanders to see who’s next to face.