Johan Holmqvist, Lightning.
in case you hadn't guessed that by now...
Rangers/Thrashers
Johan Hedberg actually played very well for Atlanta, he made 37 saves, and despite the 2-1 loss, he was not to blame.
The first goal was an unlucky bounce after an Avert dump-in along left-wing boards, he went out to play the puck but it ended up taking a funny bounce and going in to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored a great goal early in the 3rd period, he snapped the puck past a screened Lundqvist top-shelf.
It was all for none as Sean Avery buried his second of the game with 4 minutes remaining on a lunging Hedberg in the slot to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead heading back to MSG.
Lightning/Devils
After a paltry performance in Game 1, Johan Holmqvist stepped his game up, and led the Lightning to a surprising 3-2 victory over Brodeur's Devils.
What surprised me more, is that Johan was able to outplay the Devils' netminder, after a really crappy show in Game 1.
The big guys, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis carried Tampa to victory with a little help from Filip Kuba, who scored a short-handed marker in the first and Martin Brodeur, who clearly wasn't on his game especially after allowing St. Louis' goal from a seemingly impossible angle.
"I was just trying to put it on net and get some air underneath it," St. Louis said. "I don't know where it went but it found its way in."
Brodeur's reply.
"I was there, it just went through me," Brodeur said. "I would love to have it back, but it doesn't work like that in hockey. He had nothing to lose and he hammered it as hard as he could and it went through me."
Zach Parise continued his fine play and scored for the Devils, on the powerplay late in the first, and Jamie Langenbrunner had the other New Jersey goal.
Pens/Sens
Very good game by both teams, especially Ottawa for the most part.
Pittsburgh really woke up in the third period.
The Sens kept their play cool and organised all game long, you can tell there was nothing to complain except the powerplay if Bryan Murray wasn't over his head after the game.
But, the powerplay is not very cool at all. (1 for 9 in this game)
"They got a goal on their first shot and our power play wasn't very good - understatement - but I thought that we really didn't give up any chances for two periods," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "We couldn't score enough to do any damage and at least get the game in a position where you could just play a checking game. And then they played a great third period."
Sidney Crosby scored on a mirror-play of Alfredsson's setup by Spezza and Heatley ON THE POWERPLAY in the second, that proved to be the game-winner.
Crosby scored just two minutes after another youngstar, Jordan Staal sniped it passed Ray Emery to tie the game at 3.
Jason Spezza scored for Ottawa, and so did Chris Kelly.
Ryan Whitney and Gary Roberts scored powerplay goals for Pittsburgh, respectively in the first and third period and Marc-Andre Fleury rebounded after a terrible playoff debut, and made 34 saves.
He also stoned Mike Fischer with a little over 10 second remaining to steal the win for his team.
Ray Emery was not-so-hot, and he needs to step up his play a notch.
He allowed 4 goals on 21 shots, hardly the .918 SPCT% he put up in the regular season.
Isles/Sabres
Wow, just a good all-around game, thanks for giving us a nice performance!
The Islanders were a completely different team in Game 2, they scored the first goal and even went ahead 2-0 before the Sabres crawled back to tie it.
They had 1 shot in the first period in Game 1, well, in Game 2 they had 12.
Trent Hunter and Bruno Gervais put the Isles up 2-0, and in response, defencemen Tony Lydman and Dmitri Kalinin (who played an awesome game) tied the game at 2.
Rick DiPietro was MARVELOUS in his first game back in nearly a month, and made so many spectacular saves to lead New York to an upset 3-2 win over Buffalo.
The game-winner came from Marc-Andre Begeron on the powerplay, with 10 minutes left to play.
The Sabres, played a good game, but not good enough in Lindy Ruff's eyes.
"We weren't moving our feet," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "Obviously, we want to clean up the first 10 minutes of the game (when the Islanders went up 2-0)."
"It was nice," DiPietro said of the win. "We did a lot of the things we talked about."
It looks like they actually listened to Ted Nolan for a change, anyhow, the series is tied at 1 heading in New York...
-Ottawa will be looking for revenge in PIT, as they face Crosby and the Penguins today at 6:00 PM...Read More
-Calgary tries to even things up today at 1:00 against Detroit while they get Robyn Regehr back while the Wings don't get Bertuzzi back... Read More
-Two "late" games includes Minnesota, at home, trying to come back from a 2-0 deficit to the Anaheim Ducks...Read More...and the 'Nucks trying to take the lead against the Stars in Dallas...Read More
Until later...
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