Western Conference First Round Recap

The first round for the western conference wrapped up yesterday with Nashville taking a close game 7 against Anaheim. For the first time in 5 years, neither L.A. nor Chicago made it past the first round of the playoffs, and Chicago being eliminated means that 2016 will see a new Stanley Cup Champion.

If you missed any of the series, here is a brief recap of what we saw.

Minnesota vs. Dallas

The only reason the Wild made the playoffs was because Colorado played even worse down the stretch. This series looked like an easy task for the Stars, despite slowing down in the second half of the season.

The Stars did not seem to notice that they were missing Tyler Seguin, as they rolled through the Wild in game 1 for a 4-0 victory. The story in game 2 revolved around a strange Antoine Roussel goal in which he attempted to stop the puck with his skate behind the Wild net, however it deflected off his foot up in the air and on towards Dubnyk’s back and sort of into the net which was coming off its moorings. The goal was reviewed and allowed because it was obvious that Roussel was not trying to kick the puck into the net from behind the goal line. But there was still the question of whether the puck crossed the goal line, and it did, but would it have been under the crossbar? I don’t know. It was a weird goal, have a look for yourself. The Stars added another goal, and held on for a 2-1 win.

In game 3 Patrick Sharp scored two quick goals for the Stars and they had a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes. But the Minnesota offense who had scored once in the series up till this point managed to put 4 unanswered goals past Kari Lehtonen. Minnesota won the game 5-3 and cut the deficit to 2-1 in the series. Though Lehtonen was not to blame for the loss, Lindy Ruff chose to start Antii Niemi in game 4 and Niemi rewarded him with a win stopping 28 of 30 shots faced.

Game 5 was in the hands of the stars with a late 4-3 lead, but Mikko Koivu’s goal tied the game up and sent it to overtime. 5 minutes into overtime, Koivu tipped a point shot in and gave the Wild a shot at game 6. Lindy Ruff once again changed goaltenders for game 6 and went back to Kari Lehtonen. Ruff stated that he is comfortable with the two-goalie system as both the coaching staff and the team are comfortable with both goaltenders. They each had 25 wins in the regular season. Dallas took a 4-0 lead into the third period of game 6, but Minnesota stormed back to score 3 goals in the last 11 minutes of the game. Dallas added another weird goal as Alex Gologoski’s point shot tipped up into the air and Dubnyk lost sight of the puck. It ended up bouncing right in the crease and Dubnyk backed it up into the net. Minnesota added another but could not tie the game up, Dallas won the game 5-3 and the series 4-2. Dallas was the better team, but the Dallas defence, Goligoski and his D-partner Klingberg particularly, did not have play well defensively over the last half of the series.

Chicago vs. St. Louis

This was a series many people were looking forward to, the Stanley Cup Champions coming off a really good regular season facing an equally good team in the Blues.

I have not seen a game start off with as much intensity as game 1. Both teams skated hard to the puck, finished every single check yet still managed to make quick effective passes to get out of their respective d-zones. Brian Elliott and Corey Crawford were perfect through regulation and game 1 went to overtime. Midway through overtime, David Backes banked a cross-crease pass off Trevor Van Riemsdyk and into the net for a 1-0 Blues win.

Game 2 saw the return of Duncan Keith to the Blackhawks lineup after returning from a 6-game suspension. Keith helped Chicago tie the game up in the second period period with a slap shot from the point. In the third period, Andrew Shaw jammed in a powerplay goal to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead. The goal was reviewed for goaltender interference but allowed even though it seemed Andrew Shaw pushed Elliott on his own. Chicago held on for the win and tied the series up at one a piece.

The Blues came from behind in game 3 and tied the game up on a deflected Patrik Berglund shot. Jaden Shwartz converted on a Blues powerplay to give the Blues a 3-2 lead and they held on for the win. The Blues scored 2 more powerplay goals in game 4 and again came back from being down 2-1 to win the game 4-3.

St. Louis looked to eliminate the Blackhawks in game 5, but fell behind 3-1 at the end of the second period thanks to an Artemi Panarin goal with 0.4 seconds remaining in the period. The third period however was dominated by the Blues, especially the line of Backes, Berglund, and Fabbri. Fabbri helped the Blues force overtime with a goal and an assist. It took till three minutes into double overtime for a decision, as Patrick Kane won the game by wrapping a puck around the net into a half empty Blues goal.

In game 6, St. Louis jumped out to a 3-1, but were dominated by Chicago for the remainder of the game. The Blackhawks scored 5 unanswered goals and tied the series up 3-3.

St. Louis again jumped out to a lead in game 7 as they finished the first period up 2-1. Andrew Shaw tied the game up at the start of the second period and it remained tied till midway through the third period. St. Louis had several chances to take the lead, but didn’t until Try Brouwer took three attempts put the puck into a mostly vacated Chicago net. A Duncan Keith point shot would later hit both posts and stay out and the Blues held on for a 4-3 series win. In the end the Blues depth both up front and on the back end was better than the Blackhawks’ and gave them the edge in the series.

Nashville vs. Anaheim

Anaheim looked to have this series under control as they came in as one of the hottest teams in the league. But they had a lot of trouble with Nashville in games 1 and 2 which Nashville won, both by scores of 3-2. John Gibson was okay, but not great in both games, and the Ducks chose to go with Fredrik Andersen for game 3. Andersen stopped all 27 stops he faced in game 3, and 30 of 31 in game 4 and helped the Ducks tie the series at 2 games each.

Game 5 was back in Anaheim and this time the Ducks took care of business at home beating the Predators 5-2. Anaheim looked in control and poised to win the series in Nashville, but Nashville got a hold of a 2-0 lead and held on for a 3-1 win.

In game 7, Nashville again jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but a Ryan Kesler powerplay goal with 15 seconds left in the second period gave the ducks some life. They had an entire period to score another goal and tie the game up, but they could not do it.

As Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf put it: “We were playing catch-up the whole game, the whole series, the whole year”.

San Jose vs. Los Angeles

This series only lasted 5 games, but was easily one of the most entertaining. Back and forth games, great saves, lots of checking, and lots of speed.

After multiple lead changes, Joe Pavelski put the Sharks up 4-3 early into the third period of game 1, and they held on for the win.

San Jose went up 2-0 in game 2 on a Logan Couture powerplay goal on which Jonathan Quick overplayed the initial shot by Pavelski and wound up leaving the net empty. Quick’s lateral movement no doubt is the best in the league and helped him make some stellar saves in the series, but also cost him a couple important ones, such as Couture’s 2-0 goal in game 2.

Game 3 saw scoreless second and third periods and the game went into to overtime tied 1-1. Tanner Pearson scored early into the overtime period on a two-on-one break for L.A. created by a Dustin Brown hit at the blueline.

With some life, L.A. looked to tie the series up in game 4, but San Jose scored three powerplay goals to take a 3-0 lead in the game. The Kings pushed back hard and with the help of Luke Schenn’s goal and assist brought themselves within one goal. Unfortunately for the Kings, they could not score one more, and San Jose took a 3-1 lead in the series.

Drew Doughty tried his best to get inside the minds of the Sharks players and remind them of their 2014 loss after giving up a 3-0 series lead. Game 5 again started with a 3-0 lead for San Jose, but this time L.A. had time on their side. The Kings pushed back and dominated the second period erasing a 3-0 lead and tying the game up. The Sharks ended the period looking like they were about to break. But San Jose came out of the intermission looking to end the series, they played the game with the same speed and intensity that won them games 1, 2, and 4. Joonas Donskoi scored early into the third period to give the Sharks the lead, and they continued to press. Joe Pavelski all but ended the Kings playoffs scoring the 5^th Sharks goal with less than eight minutes left in the game. San Jose added an empty-netter and won the game and the series.

The Sharks at points in this series seemed to just score at will, their speed was not manageable for the Kings. The Kings matched the Sharks offensive talent, but on defence, the Kings could not support Doughty and Muzzin sufficiently. Luke Schenn and Rob Scuderi each played 25 minutes a night, when they probably should have been playing closer to 15. In the end Drew Doughty just could not mop up for the remaining defenders and the Sharks were able to advance.

On to the next round:

The Blues will play the Stars in a coaching rematch of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. It will be interesting to see how well St. Louis is able to shut down the Dallas offense.

Nashville became the second team this year, and the second team since the divisional playoff format was brought back, that crossed over and beat the other division’s winner. They will face the Sharks and it will certainly be a greater challenge for Pekka Rinne than facing the Ducks.