The Montreal Canadiens follow Rene Bourques lead, Pavel Datsyuk makes the difference for the Red Wings and Ryan Getzlaf makes the difference for the Ducks.
Nike VaporMax Plus Bleached Aqua Black+Bleached Aqua-Vivid Sulfur . Scott Cullen looks at Friday nights NHL playoff games. HABS FOLLOW BOURQUE Canadiens LW Rene Bourque, who has scored 21 goals and 37 points in 128 regular season games for Montreal since arriving in a trade from Calgary, scored a pair of goals to pace the Montreal attack in a comfortable 4-1 win at Tampa Bay, giving the Habs a 2-0 series lead. Both of Bourques goals required significant individual effort, allowing him to remind people that hes a three-time 20-goal scorer -- that he had been known to finish on occasion before he joined the Canadiens. While Bourques contribution counts as something of a surprise, the Canadiens also took advantage of what was supposed to be their greatest advantage coming into the series: goaltending. Carey Price stopped 26 of 27 shots, his shutout broken with less than two minutes remaining on a Teddy Purcell power play goal. In Tampas net, Anders Lindback was yanked after allowing three goals on 23 shots, replaced by rookie Kristers Gudlevskis, who allowed one goal on three shots. Lightning coach Jon Cooper downplayed any goalending controversy but, as expected, the non-Ben Bishop options arent ideal for the Lightning. The unfortunate part for the Lightning is that they had a relatively strong possession game. Defencemen Mike Kostka and Eric Brewer, along with forwards J.T. Brown, Cedric Paquette and Nikita Kucherov all had a Corsi percentage of 66.7% or better, meaning that at least two of every three shot attempts were in the Lightnings favour with those players on the ice. The funny thing is that the Montreal line that was torched, possession wise, was Lars Eller, Brian Gionta and the aforementioned Rene Bourque. The Habs are up two games to none and going home, with the Lightning having a clear deficit in goal. Its a favourable situation for Montreal, but they cant get complacent. MAGIC ACT The top-seeded Boston Bruins were upset in Game One, as Detroits Pavel Datsyuk scored a spectacular goal with 3:01 remaining in the third period, to give the Red Wings a 1-0 win in the game and 1-0 lead in the series. While the Wings had every right to believe they could compete with Boston coming into the game, its one thing to believe it and another to carry 58% of the possession play on the road against the Presidents Trophy winners. The Bruins were missing defencemen Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller, which resulted in Corey Potter and Andrej Meszaros playing; both were break-even in possession terms. The real tough night for the Bruins came for the top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Jarome Iginla. They were matched up against the Red Wings line of Riley Sheahan, Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist, with Danny DeKeyser and Kyle Quincey on defence. Sheahan had better than 70% Corsi% to lead all skaters. Even Bruins stalwart D Zdeno Chara had a 35.1% Corsi%; he had a Corsi% lower than that twice all season, both in games against the San Jose Sharks games this season. Chara spent his night matched against Datsyuk and the edge clearly went to Datsyuk. Naturally, in a 1-0 game, the goaltenders played well. While thats pretty standard for Vezina favourite Tuukka Rask in the Boston net, Detroits Jimmy Howard had an uneven season, but he allowed two goals in each of his last five starts, before opening the playoffs with a 25-save shutout. In 43 career playoff games, Howard has a .919 save percentage, which ranks seventh among active goaltenders (Rask, incidentally, ranks second). Detroit utilized their depth. Everyone in the lineup played at least 12 minutes -- Daniel Alfredsson, at 12:14, played the least for the Wings -- and, as a result, their top four defencemen were the only ones to play more than 20 minutes. It wasnt easy for the Wings, but their Game One performance showed a template for how they can push the Bruins in this series; use a disciplined, puck-control game and dont get caught up in Bostons aggressive physical game. DUCK AND COVER The Anaheim Ducks held on for a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars, taking a 2-0 series lead. Ducks C Ryan Getzlaf, playing with facial protection after taking a Tyler Seguin slapshot in the cheek late in Game One, led the Ducks effort, scoring a goal and adding an assist. RW Corey Perry also scored for the Ducks and stands contrast to the performance of the Stars Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, who have not had the same kind of impact. The games puck possession metrics were tilted dramatically by score effects, after the Ducks took a 3-1 lead, as Anaheim held a decided edge in score-close possession, but the Stars led in 5-on-5 possession numbers overall after outshooting the Ducks 15-2 in the third period. Ducks LW Matt Beleskey missed Game Two, with a lower-body injury, creating an opportunity for Devante Smith-Pelly to skate on the top line with Getzlaf and Perry. Stars LW Ryan Garbutt, who scored the Stars second goal, registered eight unblocked shot attempts in just 9:53 of ice time. In the end, Stars G Kari Lehtonen allowed three goals on 19 shots, while Ducks rookie G Frederik Andersen stopped 34 of 36. If the lower-seeded Stars are going to get back in the series, and harbour hopes for an upset, they need to win the goaltending battle and have Seguin and Benn contribute at a level closer to Getzlaf and Perry. Otherwise, the hill will be awfully steep. Scott Cullen can be reached at
Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook.
Cheap Vapormax Plus China . Jackson Houck added a goal and two assists for the Giants (28-23-10), who halted a five-game slide, while Tyler Morrison, Mason Geertsen and Dominik Volek each scored once. Matt Bellerive scored both goals for the Blazers (12-43-5), who are 1-9-0 in their last 10 outings.
Cheap Vapormax . Dane Dobbie and Shawn Evans each had two goals and two assists for the Roughnecks (8-5), who outscored Minnesota 6-2 in the fourth quarter after being tied through 45 minutes. Curtis Dickson scored once and set up three more for Calgary and Dan MacRae, Geoff Snider, Tor Reinholdt, Karsen Leung and Matthew Dinsdale.College Park, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - The 12th-ranked Maryland Terrapins survived a double-overtime battle with Michigan State on Tuesday, and will now go for their seventh straight victory as they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers in a Big Ten Conference clash at the Xfinity Center. Minnesota took on Purdue in the teams conference opener Wednesday, and watched as an eight-game win streak came screeching to a halt with a 72-68 defeat at the hands of the Boilermakers. The Gophers are 11-3 this season, as two of those three losses have come on the road. Maryland has won six consecutive games, which includes a double-overtime contest against Michigan State on the road on Tuesday. The Terrapins survived the Spartans in their Big Ten Conference debut, 68-66. Maryland is 9-1 at home this season. This meeting between Minnesota and Maryland will mark just the fifth all-time contest for the programs. Maryland has won all four previous matchups in the series, which includes two wins at home. Minnesota held an 11-point lead over Purdue on Wednesday when the two teams broke for halftime, but the Gophers were sloppy defensively in the second period. They allowed Purdue to shoot 53.6 percent from the floor and hit 14- of-16 from the free-throw line to make a comeback for the win. Maurice Walker and Joey King each scored 13 points to lead the charge for the Golden Gophers, while Nate Mason added 12 points. DeAndre Mathieu chipped in with 11 points and Carlos Morris added 10 with five assists and five rebounds in the losing effort. Andre Hollins, whoo netted just seven points in the teams loss to Purdue, still maintains the team lead in scoring entering this matchup with Maryland, as the guard is averaging 13.
Cheap Vapormax Flyknit 3. .2 ppg on 46.1 percent shooting. Morris checks in behind Hollins in the category at 12.8 ppg, and Walker comes in with 12.0 ppg and a team-leading mark in rebounding at 5.6 boards per outing. Mason (10.8 ppg) and King (10.1 ppg) round out the teams double-digit scorers for Minnesota. Mathieu tops the squad with 87 assists and 37 steals coming into the clash with the Terps. Maryland managed to survive against Michigan State in a tight double-overtime battle despite turning the ball over 21 times in the contest. The Terps won the battle from the free-throw line by outscoring the Spartans from the charity stripe, 26-19. Melo Trimble scored 17 points to lead the scoring charge, and Dez Wells chipped in with 16 points and seven rebounds, although he did turn the ball over seven times in the win. Maryland held Michigan State to 32.3 percent shooting in the Big Ten clash. The Terrapins have played consistent basketball on both ends of the court. Maryland enters this clash netting 74.4 ppg on 46.5 percent shooting from the floor, and is also holding opponents to just 61.5 ppg this season. Trimble has overtaken Wells as the teams leading scorer, averaging 15.9 ppg to Wellss 15.3 ppg mark, although Wells has missed half of Marylands games this season. Jake Layman rounds out a trio of double-digit scorers with 14.9 ppg, adding in a team-leading 6.4 rpg as well. ' ' '