Anaheim 5, Vancouver 1
One team had a decent rest between series, the other, just won a game seven. Would a rusty team need more time to get in sync? Uh, nope. Any questions about the Ducks’ long layoff or the lack of output from their top line in the Stanley Cup playoffs were firmly put to rest to begin the Western Conference semifinals. The trio of Andy McDonald, Teemu Selanne and Chris Kunitz are alive and well as they cut through the Vancouver Canucks for four goals to take Game 1 with a 5-1 victory.
The Canucks were fresh off a 4-1 victory at home over the Dallas Stars in Game 7 Monday night to capture their first playoff series win since 2003. On the other hand, the Ducks hadn’t played a game for five days and had a poor Game 1 history after an extended break. “We wanted to get going right off the bat and make sure that break didn’t hurt us,” said center Ryan Getzlaf, who also scored.
It didn’t help that Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo, two of their top four defenseman, were sidelined. Bieksa has flu, according to Canucks officials, and Salo sat out with an injured torso. Vancouver actually jumped out first as Jeff Cowan chipped in a goal seven minutes into the period. Then the Ducks went to work.
McDonald swept in a loose puck after Chris Pronger’s booming slap shot hit Kunitz and the Canucks’ Mattias Ohlund in front of a screened Luongo as Vancouver was trying to kill off a bench minor penalty. It gave the Ducks a power-play goal in each of their last five playoff games. The floodgates were opened. Selanne took apart the Canucks’ Brent Sopel with a nifty move to his backhand before sweeping the puck past Luongo. “Right now, we’re just trying to put pucks on the net and try to get things to go in,” said Kunitz, who had three assists. “The last series, obviously, we didn’t get some bounces. This time, we were shooting and they were going in.”
Luongo faced 31 shots as the Ducks kept the pressure on by crowding in front of the Vancouver goal. Jean-Sebastien Giguere had 26 saves for the Ducks.
Buffalo 5, NY Rangers 2
It must have looked like a Buffalo snowstorm to Henrik Lundqvist, the New York Rangers goaltender. With players swirling left and right, shots hitting him like wind in the face. But like a big snowplow, Lundqvist remained perfect. No matter how many power plays they were given, no matter how many shots they took, for nearly 35 minutes the Buffalo Sabres harassed the New York Rangers goalie but couldn’t get a single puck past him.
“You want to burst his bubble,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “The more saves he makes, the better he feels about himself. A big save is almost like scoring a goal. Sometimes that momentum goes the other way.” Then pop, pop, pop. The Sabres scored three times on four shots late in the second period to blow the night wide open and cream the Rangers, 5-2, and take Game One of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. Thomas Vanek tallied the first and third goals on the scoring spree that lasted 4:05. Ales Kotalik struck in between.
The Sabres totally controlled the Rangers, whose best chance to get back into the game came with a five – on – three power play for a full two minutes 6:27 into the third period. The Rangers had four shots, but Miller stopped them all, including a glove snap on Brendan Shanahan to preserve Buffalo’s 3-0 lead. Sabres defenseman Toni Lydman also blocked two shots.
“We have a team that can smell blood sometimes,” Sabres goalie Ryan Miller said. “We were doing a lot of things right and finally got rewarded.” Jason Pominville scored with 6:13 remaining in the game, and Drew Stafford tacked on an empty-net goal to help ease any anxieties that may have built up through the Sabres’ firstround performances in getting past the New York Islanders. “We don’t like that,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said. “We want to stay away from the track meet. They’re just too quick. Their transition game is excellent and they can score from any number of locations in their lineup.”
Track meet, snowstorm, same thing, just different things blowing by you.
