The Ducks bounce back against the Predators to win Game 4.
The Anaheim Ducks tied the best of seven series against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night with a 3-2 win in overtime.
The Western Conference Finals have been a back-and-forth affair between these two clubs with Nashville winning Games 1 and 3 while Anaheim snatched Games 2 and 4. Three of the four games in this series have been decided by a single goal, two of them in overtime. The goaltender battle here has been a treat to watch. Both Anaheim’s John Gibson (143 of 153 shots saved) and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne (102 of 112 shots saved) have been key components for their respective clubs. This is surprising news for Gibson, who came into this series with a few question marks. Anaheim’s win last night makes this a best-of-three series to determine who will represent the Western Conference in the 2016-17 NHL Stanley Cup Finals.
With this series living up to its hype, we can only expect the tension to heat up with the final games of the series soon on the horizon. The next time these teams face will be Saturday night at 7:15PM on NBC.
Senators surprise everyone but Ottawa with lead in series against Penguins.
The Ottawa Senators claimed a 2-1 series lead with a 5-1 drubbing of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night. Until then, the first two games of the series had been a low-scoring affair with just four goals scored. Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson (10W, 2.20 GAA, and .923 Sv%) has played exceptionally well this series and has found a way to stifle some of the best goal scorers in the NHL. Senator forward Bobby Ryan (5G, 8A) has also taken center stage in the series after scoring the game-winner in the first meeting. On Wednesday night, he contributed three assists, bringing him to four points in the series so far.
The big talks coming out of Pittsburgh is will the Penguins turn to goaltender Matt Murray after Marc-Andre Fleury received the hook in Game 3 after surrendering four goals on nine shots? The answer to this is yes as the Penguins announced earlier today they will be going with Murray in net. This is surprising as Fleury only had one bad game this series.
With a talented team like the Penguins on the other end, Ottawa cannot slow their stride. Pittsburgh is hungry to jump right back in this thing as these two clubs play the pivotal fourth game tonight at 8:00PM on NBCSN.
United States eliminated from IIHF World Championship.
The United States were knocked out of the IIHF World Championship after suffering a 2-0 loss against Finland on Thursday. USA had finished atop Group A but was unable to pass the quarterfinals mark. Team USA’s head coach, Jeff Blashill, was disappointed with the outcome, but congratulated Finland on their win. It was indeed a disappointing outcome for the USA hockey team, which had the talent to win the tournament, but could not complete the task. The top performers on team USA were Johnny Gaudreau (6G, 5A in 8 games), Dylan Larkin (2G, 8A in 8 games) and Anders Lee (5G, 3A in 8 games).
The final four teams in the tournament include Canada vs Sweden and Finland vs Russia.
