Nashville 5, San Jose 2
In the post game interviews, the coaches said it all. “We came here to play hockey tonight,” Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. “We knew it was an important game, and they turn it into a street brawl.” And what about the other team? San Jose coach Ron Wilson, who lost a player to injury for a second straight game, stalked into the post-game news conference and picked up the microphone. “I have no comment,” Wilson said before walking out of the room.
Yes, this is playoff hockey. Sharks center Joe Thornton said. “I’m sure if he wants us to play this way, we can play this way. It’s in his hands, and we’ll see what happens.” The “he” in this statement is Colin Campbell. After 32 combined penalties for 141 minutes and six game misconducts in the final minute, the NHL issued a statement not to expect any disciplinary decisions until Saturday.
The Predators evened the series at one game each by beating the Sharks 5-2 in this penalty and fight filled game. After having been beaten in the 2006 conference quarterfinals, by the Sharks, Nashville spent the past year adding size to compete, signing Jason Arnott and J.P. Dumont and trading for Peter Forsberg. Dumont scored a short-handed goal and added a power play goal 2 1/2 minutes later. The Swede scored his first two goals this postseason, rookie Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist in the first period, and Marek Zidlicky had two assists as the Predators punched, pun intended, their airplane ticket back to Nashville for Game 5.
The worst part of the rugged play happened in the second period. Alexander Radulov skated up and elbowed Steve Bernier into the boards, snapping Bernier’s head back before the Sharks forward fell face-first onto the ice. A gurney was called for before Thornton and Marcel Goc helped him off. Bernier did not return as a precaution and had his head and neck X-rayed. San Jose could not score on the ensuing five-minute power play, and went 0-for-5 on the power play for the night.
These two teams have hated each other since Wednesday night. San Jose forward Jonathan Cheechoo was knocked out of that game with a sprained knee. The Sharks keep calling it a dirty hit, which the Predators called an unfortunate collision that should not have resulted in Scott Hartnell’s ejection.
Ahhh, it is playoff hockey, with the hits and all the rhetoric.
Dallas 2, Vancouver 0
Score early, and let Marty Turco do the rest. Jeff Halpern and Joel Lundqvist scored on the opening shift in each of the first two periods, and Marty Turco made 35 saves as the Stars evened their first-round playoff series with a 2-0 win over Vancouver. Stu Barnes assisted on both goals for the Stars, who head back to Dallas tied in the Western Conference quarterfinal. After playing two plus games of hockey the night before, the stars seemed the most rested and had the energy to prove it.
Roberto Luongo, after saving more then seventy shots in that overtime game played well, but was beaten on two very good plays. Left alone in the slot after a defensive zone breakdown by the Canucks, Halpern deflected Sergei Zubov’s pass from the point behind a sliding Luongo. Then again at the start of the second period, the Canucks left Lundqvist unchecked to convert Mike Modano’ cross-ice feed just 45 seconds in. Luongo made 25 saves in his first postseason loss, but had little chance on the two goals. Also, Vancouver was 0-for-6 on the power play, but only two lasted the full two minutes as the Canucks took themselves off the advantage by taking more penalties.
Turco, under fire for an 8-15 record and five straight overtime losses in the playoffs, made his best saves in the final six minutes. He slid across to stop Willie Mitchell in the slot and got a piece of hard blasts by Mattias Ohlund and Sami Salo to preserve his first shutout in 24 career playoff appearances. Turco, 1-7 in his previous eight road playoff games, was also good in the first period, getting his left toe on Jannik Hansen’s deflection and sprawling to stop Henrik Sedin on a rebound in the slot. He wasn’t tested often in the second period as the Canucks missed the net on the few scoring chances they did generate, and Jan Bulis hit the goalpost from the slot with 2:30 left in the period.
This series heads to Dallas with each team having won a game.
Anaheim 3, Minnesota 2
The Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild split four regular-season games, each winning twice at home. That trend continued in the playoffs as the Ducks won their second straight home playoff game, 3-2. “We needed to take advantage on home ice and we did that,” Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin said Friday night after scoring twice. “Now we’ve got to go back there and keep playing our game. Their fans are good, and that’s a great place to play. They’re a good defensive team, and we knew going in the games were going to be close.”
Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said: “I thought we played a great game. It was just getting the power play to go a little better and staying out of the box. The rest of the game was fine.” The Wild struggled again on the power play, going 0-for-6 after failing to convert on four power plays in the 2-1 opening loss. Then there was the Ducks’ short-handed goal. “They got two power plays and a shorty. That was the difference in the game,” the Wild’s Brian Rolston said. Beauchemin beat Niklas Backstrom with a slap shot late in the second period to put Anaheim up 2-1. Ryan Getzlaf made a cross-ice pass to Beauchemin from the top of the right circle, and Beauchemin’s shot sailed into the upper right corner of the net.
Getzlaf scored 2:26 later, his first short-handed goal ever in the playoffs. Backstrom faced 25 shots.
Ilya Bryzgalov made 30 saves to help the Ducks to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference series. Bryzgalov, starting in place of Jean-Sebastien Giguere again, had 24 saves in the Ducks’ 2-1 victory in Game 1 victory on Wednesday night. He also started the final three games of the regular season while Giguere remained home to be with his wife and newborn son, who had a medical problem.
The Ducks have beaten the Wild six in a row in the postseason including Anaheim’s sweep in the 2003 conference finals. With the game heading back to Minnesota, hope is the change of venue will change the results, too.
