The home teams used the home ice to their advantage Tuesday night.
Starting north of the border, where the Montreal Canadiens almost watched a 3-0 lead evaporate to the Boston Bruins.
P.K. Subban has been the heart of the Canadiens during this Stanley Cup Playoff run. Subban picked up an assist, along with Thomas Vanek, on Tomas Plekanec’s opening period goal against the B’s.
Subban would then take a Penalty shortly after the goal. Upon coming out of the box Lars Eller found Suban and he beat Tuukka Rask for the 2-0 opening period lead.
Dale Weise made it 3-0 for the Habs, before Boston finally got on the board.
Patrice Bergeron found his way in front of the net, for a tip in past Carey Price, making it 3-1. Boston would fight back, as Jarome Iginla found a tip in of his own with a little over two minutes to play.
In a last ditch effort, the B’s pulled Rask, but were unsuccessful as Lars Eller scored the empty net goal for the win.
The Canadiens go up 2-1 in the series with that win, and look to take a stranglehold on the series, which continues Thursday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
“I get all the microphones in my face but it’s a group effort, it’s not just me,” Subban said.
If that quote doesn’t scare the Bruins, Montreal may take this series.
“It’s not one or two guys, it’s everybody. It starts with Pricey on the ice from our defense to our forwards and we’re sticking together. When we have adversity we’re sticking together and we’re doing the right things, and as a player it’s fun to play on teams where you know guys are going to support you whether you make a mistake or not.”
It’s scary how well the Canadiens are playing, but I’m sticking with my pick. It’s a guarantee that the B’s won’t win in five, but I like their chances if they can get back to Boston 2-2.
If you like defensive hockey the Wild-Blackhawks game took the cake last night.
The story of the game was blocked shots. The Blackhawks outshot the Wild 19-18, but couldn’t figure out Ilya Bryzgalov last night.
The Hawks stopped 16 shots with blocks, as voiceless Niklas Hjalmarsson, who took a puck off the throat in game 2, led the team with 4 blocks. The wild on the other hand blocked 14 and dominated the Hawks last night.
This game went scoreless through two periods, and the Wild knew they had to win this game going into the third.
That’s exactly what the Wild did, dominated the third period, and may have gotten in Corey Crawford’s head.
It took only two minutes for Erik Haula to break the scoreless tie. Three minutes later Mikael Granlund made it 2-0, and put the game out of reach for the Hawks.
Zach Parise added a power play goal in the closing minutes. Down 3-0, Chicago decided to pull Crawford in an attempt to come back, but ultimately failed as Granlund added his second goal of the period with an empty netter.
The fanfare of the Xcel Energy Center was a big part in the win.
“They just keep on outdoing themselves,” Parise said of the fans, who roared at deafening levels every time Minnesota was able to establish a beachhead in the Chicago zone. “They really pushed us on.
Blackhawks captain, Jonathan Toews, said it best following the loss.
“To us it doesn’t matter, we knew we have to play better than we did. We’re still looking for that type of game we know how to play; we just haven’t brought it yet. It has nothing to do with being the first game on the road. Obviously, we won two games on the road, but I don’t think we’re happy with the way we played either. I think tonight we realized we have to bring it on Friday.”
Chicago knew they weren’t going to sweep the Wild this series. Tuesday night solidified that fact, and come Friday night the Xcel Energy Center will be rocking in hopes to even the series at two before heading back to Chicago.
Game Predictions
Penguins 3-2
photo credit: getty images gifs: sohockeyeh
