The two best teams will meet in the Finals.
Belfast and Berlin battled to the very end of the season for the President’s Trophy and they are about to begin another battle for the most prestigious trophy in Europe.
David Krejci scored about five minutes into overtime Tuesday to end the Southern Conference championship series as the Smurfs eliminated Paris in five games. The last three games of the series went into overtime, with two of them going deep into second overtime periods. Alexander Semin of Paris scored with 3 seconds left in double overtime of Game 3 to provide one of the most dramatic moments of the playoffs and give Paris its lone win in the series. Two nights later, Logan Couture was the OT hero when he notched his 11th goal of the playoffs to give the Smurfs a rare win in Paris.
In the two double overtime games, goalie Jimmy Howard was super busy, stopping 65 and then 52 shots. Howard has been a key player for Berlin in the playoffs, compiling a 2.12 goals against average and 91.4 save percentage. That means the two best goalies of the playoffs and the two best teams will be scratching and clawing for the Cup this week.
Couture, Ryan Callahan and Loui Eriksson form Berlin’s top line and they will draw the most attention from Belfast in the series, but Krejci has been a force. The second-line center has generated 76 shots (most in the league) and 22 points in 17 playoff games, by far the best numbers of his career.
The most noticeable difference between the two teams is scoring from the blue line. While Giant defensemen have scored 11 goals in 13 games, Smurf Dmen have tallied just 6 times in 17 games. But Berlin blueliners have produced offense. Three Berlin defensemen have contributed an average of more than half an assist per game (Dion Phaneuf, Alexander Edler and Matt Carle) while on the Belfast side, only P.K. Subban can claim that level of production.
Both teams will enter the series totally healthy. The series will start in Belfast, thanks to the Giants’ narrow, one-point edge in the regular season standings. The teams will make a four-hour flight to Germany for games 3 and 4.
Belfast and Berlin met twice in the regular season and, you guessed it, the games were both very close. Quick and Howard squared off against each other in both games. In the first game, the Giants were outshot 40-28 but won in a shootout. Mikko Lehtonen and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in regulation for Belfast, while Nathan Horton and Edler scored the Smurf goals. By the way, if Berlin had won that shootout, the Smurfs – not Belfast – would have home-ice advantage in the finals.
In the second game between the teams this season, Belfast won 2-1, shots were 29-27 in favor of Belfast and Sidney Crosby made the difference with a goal in the last 4 minutes. He didn’t play against Berlin in their first encounter. Callahan had scored to put Berlin up 1-0 before Matt Duchene tied it in the second period.
