image: Zuma Press

Throughout the second and third periods, 16 penalties were called including a 10 minute match penalty for Carolina’s Ryan Bayda, and a matching 10 minute game misconduct for Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang.  As the minutes went by and the goals kept coming, both teams just seemed to reach their boiling point.  Players looked frustrated and angry but one person on the ice was celebrating.

image: Zuma Press

Evgeni Malkin had an incredible night.  He got a hat trick and his parents were screaming and cheering so much in the stands that I’m sure it made it that much better.  Carolina was definitely trying to get physical with him and, instead of falling apart, he channelled his energy and became unstoppable.  He completed his first career playoff hat trick with a suitably amazing goal – a backhander right into the net.  Incredible.  Watch his three goals.

After their 7-4 victory last night, the Penguins lead the series 2-0 as they get ready to head to Carolina for games 3 (Saturday, May 23) and 4 (Tuesday, May 26).   Since Carolina has been full of surprises throughout the playoffs, I’m very interested to see what they do when they’ve got home-ice advantage.

images: Zuma Press

Post from: Hockey Beat

For the first time in the postseason last night, Jonas Hiller showed how human he really is.  He got knocked in the net and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, his helmet fell off and when he went to stand up, he hit his head on the crossbar.  He ended up getting pulled (he still made 36 saves) and was replaced by Jean-Sebastien Giguere who, correct me if I’m wrong, hadn’t made an appearance in the playoffs until that moment.

I was starting to think that this game was going to go to overtime but with just three minutes left in the game, Dan Cleary won for the Red Wings, sending the defending Stanley Cup champions to the Western Conference finals for the third straight year.

On the east coast, the Carolina Hurricanes upset the #1 Eastern Conference seed, the Boston Bruins, by eliminating them in overtime of Game 7.  It doesn’t get much closer than that.

I really was a little shocked and disappointed by this turn of events.  Truly, as naive as it might sound, I thought that the Bruins and the San Jose Sharks might be the last two teams standing after the amazing seasons they had but they were eliminated by teams that I really had dismissed (Carolina and Anaheim, respectively).  Sometimes I like being wrong but this isn’t one of those times. 

The Bruins’ amazing season came to an end last night at 18:46 into overtime when Scott Walker used his hands to put the puck behind Bruins netminder, Tim Thomas, instead of using them to punch Aaron Ward in the face. 

The Hurricanes will go on to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals which means that Eric Staal and Jordan Staal will be competing against each other.  They will be just the fourth set of brothers to do that.  Who are their parents going to cheer for?

images: Zuma Photos

Post from: Hockey Beat