The Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens grabbed 2-0 series leads today.
Brian Rafalski and Tomas Holmstrom each contributed 2 points as Detroit beat the Predators 4-2 this afternoon.
And the Eastern Conference’s highest seed also came away victorious. Although the Canadiens required OT to do it, they came away with their perfect record against Boston this season intact. Alex Kovalev got the game-winner on the Power Play only 2:30 into extra time.
The Washington Capitals scored three unanswered goals in the third period to overcome a 4-2 deficit. Alexander Ovechkin scored the game-winner after picking Lasse Kukkonen’s pocket in the Philly zone.
Daniel Briere and Vaclav Prospal each had two goals for the Flyers. Caps defenseman Mike Green had two goals in the third, David Steckel scored in his first game back after missing the final 14 regular season games.
Former Flyer Donald Brashear picked up a rare goal in the first.
The New York Rangers took a 2-0 lead heading back home after a 2-1 win over Martin Brodeur and the Devils. Sean Avery scored his second goal of the series 4:26 into the third and Jaromir Jagr picked up his first a mere 23 seconds later. John Madden added a late goal, but Henrik Lundqvist prevented New Jersey from evening the series. The Rangers are now 9-0-1 against the Devils this year.
Sidney Crosby picked up 4 assists, Evgeni Malkin got three, Marian Hossa added two more and Ryan Malone and Petr Sykora both scored two goals to help Pittsburgh take a 2-0 series lead. The Senators actually showed a little bit of fight in them this time, coming back from three down to tie it with about 11 minutes left in the third. But Malone picked up a PP goal with 1:02 left in the game and ensured the victory with an empty net goal with 6 seconds to go.
Cory Stillman, Shean Donovan and Cody Bass scored for Ottawa. Sergei Gonchar was the only single-goal getter for the Pens.
Keith Carney hammered the puck past Jose Theodore 1:14 into the first OT to give Minnesota a split heading to Colorado. It is only his second tally all season and the only shot by either team in the extra frame. Peter Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Avs and Milan Hejduk got Colorado’s other score. Pavol Demitra and Mikko Koivu scored in regulation for the Wild. Both Koivu and Hejduk scored with less than two minutes left in the third. Both games in the series have gone to overtime and both game-winners were scored by players with at least 15 years in the League.
