Playoff update: We will have two Game 7’s on Saturday to decide who advances in the Southern Conference.
Northern Conference
Gothenburg defeats Stockholm in 6 games – Game 6 featured great goaltending in both nets and for the first time in the series, the away team won, and that meant elimination for Stockholm. Pekka Rinne made 34 saves for Gothenburg, while Braden Holtby made 30 saves for the losing team. The home team opened the scoring late in the first period when Jeff Carter slid a goal-mouth pass to Bobby Ryan for a tap-in goal. But the Eagles got into major penalty trouble in the second period and that led to a tying goal by Carl Hagelin on one of six powerplays Frolunda had in the period. Stockholm tried to regain their composure in the third period and both teams committed to a wide-open style of play. But the goalies were great and made a total of 26 saves in the period. The golden moment for Gothenburg came with 17 minutes remaining when forechecking Adam Henrique poke checked the puck off Olli Maatta’s stick as the defenseman wheeled around his own net. Henrique quickly grabbed the puck and fired a bad-angle shot that slipped between Holtby and the goal post. Henrique was the most dominant skater in the game. In his 27 minutes of ice time, he won 21 of 30 draws, blocked 2 shots, fired 6 pucks on Holtby and ended the game with a goal and an assist. He was also the best player in the series with 30 shots and 10 points in 6 games. Gothenburg will play Minsk in the second round. Three Kharlamov Division teams have advanced.
Belfast defeats London in 6 games – Matt Moulson and Nathan MacKinnon scored third-period goals for the Giants to help them advance to the second round to face Moscow Spartak. London Coach Ken Hitchcock elected to let Rick Nash rest another day although the right winger and team doctor both said he was healthy enough to play, and that decision might have helped Belfast. The Giants had a 10-shot advantage over London in the game and the line of Ondrej Palat, Matt Duchene and MacKinnon scored two goals. Duchene led everyone in shots with 8 and he was good in the faceoff circle, winning 16 of 24 draws. The Duchene line was the best line in the series, playing at a plus 7 rate through the six games and racking up a total of 25 points. Several London players seemed to have trouble finding their groove in the series. The third defense pair of Jake Muzzin and Marco Scandella struggled and finished the series minus 9 and minus 7, respectively. Michael Grabner also struggled once Nash got injured and the lines had to be juggled.
Southern Conference
Munich and Athens tied 3-3 – Cory Schneider absolutely stole a game in Athens from the Greeks. In the 2-1 Munich win, the Dire Wolf goalie stopped 51 of Athens’ 52 shots. Munich managed only 17 shots on Jaroslav Halak, but the absence of activity seemed to allow his concentration to drift and two pucks got past him. Gareth Roberts scored his first goal of the playoffs early in the first period and veterans Henrik Sedin and Patrick Marleau combined on a pretty play during a second-period power play. Marleau’s first goal of the series held up as the game-winning tally. Only Scotty Hartnell was able to get a puck past Schneider and that score came on a first-period powerplay when Hartnell deflected a Staffan Kronwall shot from the point. For Athens, Anze Kopitar had 9 shots on goal and Brandon Sutter had 7. Eric Gryba of Munich helped Schneider a lot in the game, as the defenseman blocked 5 Athens shots. The teams will return to Munich for a deciding Game 7 on Saturday. It should be a close game. Schneider is just a tad fatigued and his teammate Tomas Flesichmann should miss the game due to injury, but Athens should be without injured defensemen Nicklas Kronwall and Alex Goligoski.
Madrid and Bratislava tied 3-3 – Bratislava has had success on the road all season long but have lost all three games played in Madrid this series. They will get a final chance to pull out a road win on Saturday, thanks to a convincing win in Slovakia on Thursday. Gabriel Landeskog and Blake Wheeler tried to get their Madrid team through to the second round, playing great games, but they didn’t have the necessary help from their teammates. Landeskog opened the scoring by deking Bratislava goalie Corey Crawford and scoring late in the first period. Until then, the play was slow and methodical and Madrid might have rested on their laurels a little after that goal because suddenly, the Eagles – and particularly Tyler Toffoli – came alive. The young right wing tied the game with 3:26 left in the period and then scored again 2 minutes later on a powerplay. Wei Yang Zhang earned assists on both goals. In the furious second period, Madrid got into penalty trouble but still managed to score the only goal of the period when Landeskog beat Crawford with a shorthanded goal. In the middle of the period, Nathan Gerbe of Madrid gave Martin Hanzal a two-hand slash after the big Bratislava center slammed Gerbe into the boards. The hatchet job resulted in a 5-minute Eagle powerplay and Gerbe was ejected from the game. Hanzal was OK, and in fact he dominated play in the third period while he was out there, assisting on goals by Zemgus Girgensons and Simon Despres. The big questions for Game 7 are: Will Shea Weber be healthy enough to return to the Royals’ lineup and Who will start in goal for Brent Sutter’s Eagles? Crawford was better than Marc-Andre Fleury during the regular season, but Fleury was much better in the playoffs last season. Crawford started the first two games of the series, lost both in Madrid, and Fleury got the Eagles back into it by winning two of the next three games. Many were skeptical when Sutter reinserted Crawford into the position for Game 5, but it worked out for the coach.
