1st Round

The NHL playoffs have arrived and so far have been great.

In the East's 1 seed vs 8 seed series, the Sabres faced the Isles.

In game no.1 the Isles got totally dominated by the Sabres as they could not muster any offence against the powerful Sabres. The final score was 4-1. But the 2nd game was a much different story. For game 2 the Isles had Rick Dipietro back from injury. In the 1st 11 minutes, the Isles scored 2 goals from Trent Hunter and Bruno Gervais. But the Sabres scored 1 before the break to get within 1. After a scoreless 2nd Buffalo tied it up early in the 3rd. Then, on the powerplay, Marc-Andre Bergeron scored to give New York the lead. Buffalo could not come back from that as the Isles took game 2 3-2. In the 3rd game, the 2nd period was the factor. Buffalo scored 3 while NY scored 2 in that period. No teams scored any more as the Sabres took a 2-1 series lead. In game 4, the teams tied through 1. But in the next 2, Buffalo dominated scoring the only goals from the 2nd on to win 4-2. In game 5, the Sabres dominated the 1st 2 periods scoring 3 goals in that span. But after the teams exchanged goal;s, the Isles scored 2 more. But that wasn't enough as the Sabres won the series 4-1.


In the other 1 vs 8 series, the Flames faced the Red Wings.

The 1st game was all Detroit as they scored 4 goals through 2 before the Flames could muster 1, which came late in the 3rd. Detroit's defence made sure Iginla wouldn't be a factor as he had no shots on goal. In the 2nd game, the Red Wings came out good scoring on a early powerplay and again 2 minutes after that. In the 2nd, the Flames started a comeback when Dion Phaneuf scored to make it a 1-goal game. But all hopes of a comeback were squandered by a late goal in the 3rd by Detroit. Game 3. Skip to the 3rd where the game was tied, Detroit got the lead from Kris Draper. But Calgary came back as Mark Giordano scored to tie it up. Then, late in the game, Jarome Iginla scored to give the Flames the lead. Detroit couldn't come back as the Flames got back in the series with a 3-2 win. In the 4th game, Calgary came out great with a early powerplay goal. But then Todd Bertuzzi scored to tie it up. After the teams exchanged goals before the 2nd, Daymond Langkow grabbed his 2nd of the game and the lead for Calgary. A period and a half went by after that goal and no one got another one as the Flames tied up the series 2-2. In game 6, Detroit dominated scoring 4 goals before the Flames scored 1! That led to a 5-1 win for Detroit and a 3-2 lead in the series. In the game, Calgary's Jamie Mclennen slashed Johan Franzen which resulted in a 5 game suspension. In the 6th game, Detroit and Calgary traded goals in the 2nd. The next goal that was scored was in an O.T period.
In the O.T, Johan Franzen got his revenge scoring the series winner.

In a 7 vs 2 series, the Devils faced the Lightning.

The 1st game was close, but Tampa was plagued by bad goaltending. With the game within 1 goal for Tampa in the 3rd, Holmqvist saved a shot, but didn't cover it up. Instead he let it go. The puck then went to the Devils and Brian Gionta scored to clinch it for the Devils. In game 2 the Lightning looked for redemption. This game was controlled more by Tampa. The Lightning scored the 1st goal in the game short-handed, but the game was later tied by Zach Parise. After the teams exchanged goals the 3rd started. Early in the 3rd, Vincent Lecavalier scored to give Tampa Bay the lead. New Jersey couldn't come back from that as the Lightning tied up the series 1-1. In the 3rd game in Tampa, the teams exchanged goals over the 1st 2 periods until the 3rd. In the 3rd period, Brad Richards scored to give Tampa a lead, but Zach Parise scored to tie it up. But then, late in the game, Tampa's Vaclav Prospal scored to give Tampa the lead. New Jersey couldn't come back as the Lightning grabbed a 2-1 series lead. In game 4, the game went to O.T. In the 1st overtime period, after some exciting end-to-end action, the Devils scored to win the game and tie the series. In game 5, New Jersey dominated not letting Tampa score in the game and getting 3 goals themselves to win 3-0 and get a 3-2 lead in the series.
In game 6, New Jersey got a 2 goal lead early in the 2nd. But Tampa wouldn't go away scoring one right after New Jersey got their 2nd goal. But that's all Tampa would muster as New Jersey took the game 3-2 and the series 4-2.

In the West's 2 vs 7 series, the Wild faced the Ducks.

In the 1st game, the Wild scored the 1st goal, but later lost the lead because of Teemu Selanne. Then, in the 3rd with 6 minutes left, Dustin Penner scored to give Anaheim a lead that the Wild could not come back from. In the 2nd game, the Ducks got the 1st goal from Beauchemin. In the 2nd though, the Wild tied it up from Marion Gaborik. But the Ducks bettered that by scoring 2 goals before the break. The Wild tried a comeback when Mikko Koivu scored with 4 minutes left, but that's all Minnesota could get. The Ducks lead the series 2-0. In game number 3, the Ducks controlled the game until the final minute, where Anaheim had a 2-goal lead. In that final minute, the Wild scored to give themselves a chance, but they could not come back to give the Ducks a win and a 3-0 lead in the series. In game 4, a game the Wild had to win, they came out good. Despite a good start, the Ducks got the 1st goal in the 2nd from Pronger. But they tied it up before the 3rd. In the 3rd, Minnesota scored 3 straight goals to grab the win and to get back in the series. In the 5th game, Minnesota didn't come out like it was a must win as they lost the series on a 4-1 game.

In the 1st 6 vs 3 series, the New York Rangers faced the Atlanta Thrashers.

In the 1st game, New York got a early 1-goal lead at the end of the 1st. After a goal by each team, New York added to their 1 goal lead to get a 2-goal lead into the 3rd. In the 3rd, Atlanta tried a comeback, but fell short to lose 4-3. In game 2 the Rangers again got an early 1-goal lead and held on to it until the 3rd. That's when Kovalchuk scored to tie up the game. But late in the 3rd, Brendan Shanahan scored to give New York a late lead. The Thrashers could not come back from that as the Rangers took game 2 2-1 and lead the series 2-0. Game 3 was all Rangers. They scored 3 in the 3rd and didn't look back scoring 4 more before the game's end to win it 7-0 and get a 3-0 lead in the series. In game 4, the Rangers looked for the sweep. After a tie through 2, New York came out with 2 quick ones in the 3rd to get a 2-goal lead. Atlanta couldn't get 2 more goals to tie it as the Rangers took this series 4-0.

In the West, Dallas and Vancouver faced off.

The 1st game of the series was very exciting. With the game tied in the 2nd at 2's, Markus Naslund scored to give the Canucks a lead. They then added to that in the 3rd. But the Stars came back as they scored 2 quick goals from Antti Miettinen and Ladislav Nagy. The game then went to O.T For the 1st 4 O.T periods , there were no goals scored. But in the 5th, Henrik Sedin scored to win it for the Canucks. In the 2nd game, the Stars came out and got 2 goals through the 1st 2 periods. Vancouver could not muster up a goal on Marty Turco which allowed the Stars to tie up the series. In game 3, it was a 1-1 tie in reglation, so the teams went to O.T. In the 1st overtime period, the Canucks' Taylor Pyatt scored to give Vancouver their 2nd O.T win of the series and a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 was a low scoring affair. The 3rd was where all the scoring was as the Canucks scored 2 and the Stars 1 in the period. That equaled a 2-1 win for the Canucks and a 3-1 lead in the series. In game 5, no one scored until the 1st O.T period, a period in which Brendan Morrow scored on a powerplay to get back in the series. Game 6 was another low-scoring affair. Dallas got the only 2 goals in the game which were scored by Modano and Halpern to tie the series and get it to go to a game 7. In that game 7, the Stars started out great scoring the 1st goal of the game in the 1st. But in the 2nd, Henrik Sedin scored to tie it up. Then, in the 3rd, Trever Linden scored off a tip in to give the Canucks the lead. The Stars pressed for the goal that would tie the game. But with the goalie pulled, Vancouvere scored to get a 2-goal lead. They added another to take the series 4-3.

In the 1st 5 vs 4 series, the Ottawa Senators faced the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The 1st game was all Ottawa as they scored 2 early goals and didn't look back winning 6-3. n the 2nd game though, Pittsburgh came out great as they scored early in the 1st. But in the 2nd, Ottawa scored 2 quick ones to grab the lead. In the 3rd, the Sens were still up by 1 when the Penguins scored 2 quick ones to take the lead. The Sens couldn't come back from that as the Pens took game 2 4-3. In game 3, the Senators dominated yet again capped of by a 3-goal outburst in the 2nd to take it 4-2 and to take a 1 game lead in the series. In game 4, the teams exchanged goals through 2 to lead to a tie. In the 3rd, Ottawa scored to get a 1-goal lead. Pittsburgh couldn't come back from that as they go down 3-1 in the series. In a must win game for the Pens, they played bad. They couldn't get a goal and gave up 3 in the 2nd. That led to a 3-0 win to close out the Penguins season.

In the final series, the San Jose Sharks faced the Nashville Predators.

Skip to the the 3rd period in game 1 were the Preds were down by 2. They scored 2 quick ones in the final 7 minutes to tie it up. The game ended up going to O.T, where in double overtime, Patrick Rissmiller scored to win it for the Sharks. In game 2, the Preds dominated San Jose outscoring them in 2 periods and winning 5-2 to tie up the series. In game 3, after a quick Nashville goal, the Sharks dominated. They scored 3 goals in the next periods to win 3-1. In a must game 5 for the Preds, the Sharks came out with the 1st goal. But they tied it up in the 2nd. And then, with 4:21 left in the game, Patrick Marleau scoree to silence the Preds and win the series 4-1.