Edmonton 4 Detroit 3: After blowing a two-goal lead in the third period, Edmonton got the game winner in the second OT from Jarret Stoll to take a 2-1 series lead. Dwayne Roloson continued to outplay Manny Legace, stopping 44 of 47 Detroit shots, including 18 in the two OTs.
Initially, it looked like Jason Williams had won the game in the first extra session, but the video said otherwise:
However, video replay showed that the puck slid under the side of the goal after Oilers netminder Dwayne Roloson bumped into it and caused it to lift up slightly.
"It is tough when you think you win," said Detroit's Kirk Maltby, who scored at 2:39 of the second overtime in the opening game of the series. "We were hoping if we got off the ice soon enough, they wouldn't review it."
With all the guff the league has gotten since Brett Hull's OT goal that won the 1999 Finals deep into the night in Buffalo, there isn't a chance in Hell that the league will ever let that happen again.
Here's Colby Cosh, who thinks the Oilers are getting it done with an awfully tiny margin of error:
Until the Oilers caught a break in front of Manny Legace, Detroit had all the good chances in the 5th period tonight. And even leaving age aside, Chris Chelios, who once played the "rover" position for the Ottawa Silver Seven, arguably appears better-conditioned than some of the younger Edmontonians.
Of course, this isn't good news for the Wings or their fans. If they were buffaloed after the two games in Detroit, when the Oilers formed a hoplite phalanx in the neutral zone and were accused of playing "Minnesota Wild hockey," what would you call them now, after losing a relatively open game on a proper surface? (Maybe you guys were hoping we'd play "Columbus Blue Jackets hockey"?)
[S]eeing Williams celebrate with some bewilderment, with a lip-read "I'm not sure how it went in," coupled with Roloson looking more confused than utterly crushed, the video review offered some hope. Seeing the puck nowhere near the red line has to be one the great moments of the season, single-handedly offering the Oilers a chance to change the storyline of the series, and more importantly, as MacT put it, forcing Manny Legace to "skate 100 feet back to his net" after dancing "a jig" on the redline.
Eeek. Premature jocularity is never a good thing. Of course, with what happened last night in the O.C...
Edmonton leads series, 2-1:
Calgary 5 Anaheim 2:...We're two games closer to seeing the Canadian prairie catch fire again after Calgary's workmanlike victory over Anaheim.
Then again, you need to keep in mind where all the work was done:
Five players scored for Calgary, and coach Darryl Sutter, asked who played especially well, said, "I don't think you can single out anybody. You can single out 27 minutes of special teams, and that's where it paid off."
Toss in Anaheim's seven power plays, and that's more than half the game played with at least a man advantage. What does it all mean? For more, click here.
More bonus video: Here's the montage the Flames play at home to get the fans riled before the opening faceoff. Lots of blow torches and melted steel:
Calgary leads series, 2-1:
Ottawa 8 Tampa Bay 4: It was 5-0 before John Tortorella mercifully lifted John Grahame in favor of Sean Burke. The rest might as well have been windown dressing, as Martin Havlat surged into the spotlight with a pair of early goals, looking all the more like his long layoff in the regular season left him without much rust at all.
A point was made by someone who I’d love to credit for their insight if I could remember their identity: Sunday night’s win by the Lightning saw them play a near perfect game, while Ottawa played a very pedestrian, and yet the Bolts only won by a goal. It’s doubtful Tampa could maintain this high level of play all series since it was hardly consistently ushered out in the regular season, and the odds of Ottawa playing that badly for the rest of the series were slim to none.
So the Chicken Littles probably needed a reality check, and I think that’s what this was. Tampa fell back to Earth while Ottawa played only 75% of how well they can and still handed them their...
The Sens might kill us worse in a regulation game where order was maintained by the officials… I really wouldn’t mind that (that’s right, I wouldn’t mind it) in part because the game would have proper enforcement of the rules. The better team would truly win and assclowns like Chris Neil wouldn’t be a factor. The skill of Martin Havlat would be the focus and further accentuated, or Dany Heatly’s machismo, Martin St. Louis’ deftness or Brad Richards total game. In other words - the players and their performance would be the focus, as it’s supposed to be.
Instead, the officials are doing what they always do and grabbing the spotlight by trying not to do anything.
Playoff frustration, it's catching. Here's some more video I missed earlier today:
More fight talk from the hive mind at Sportsfilter.
Ottawa leads series, 2-1.
San Jose 4 Nashville 1: Patrick Marleau had two goals, and Vesa Toskala stopped 16 shots as San Jose took its second straight game from Nashville.
16 shots? That's all? That's like a period for Roloson in Edmonton.
From PJ's brief account, it looks like the Sharks controlled this one from the outset, with Chris Mason's 14 first period saves the only thing preventing this contest from becoming a wipeout early on.
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Comments
HA! JohnF couldn't hold a candle to one of my legendary playoff rants, and he knows it.
I mean, there's frustration--and then there's unleashing a righteous blast of ire.
Posted by:
at April 26, 2006 10:29 AM
CBJ Hockey? (In reference to Colby's comments). See, if that happened, the Wings would be up by 3 goals by the start of the 3rd period, only to blow the lead, have to scrape for a goal and tie it, then lose in Overtime anyway.
Though I think that'd probably be more fun and demoralizing.
Posted by:
at April 26, 2006 10:53 AM
Strikes me as unreasonable to scold Legace or anyone else for reacting when the red light went on, especially in that situation. I know I was jumping up and down, and I'm sure many an Oilers fan had chucked the remote across the room. We're human. And of all people Legace was in no position to see that the non-goal was questionable.
By the way, a friend just wrote to remind me that this same thing happened in the regular season with Rolo in goal against the Avs, but the goal wasn't recalled. So that net-tipping is maybe a habit he wants to break.
Posted by:
at April 26, 2006 11:53 AM
(Roloson was still with Minnesota.)
Posted by:
at April 26, 2006 11:54 AM
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