Ducks, Blackhawks Win Their Series, Ready for Round Two

On Sunday, two NHL teams wrapped up their first-round series and will head to the second round. This included the Anaheim Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Anaheim’s 5-4 win came in OT to give them a 4-2 series victory against the Dallas Stars. Entering the final period ahead 4-2, Anaheim scored twice (Nick Bonino and Devante Smith-Pelly) in the last 2:10 of the game’s regulation time. It was Bonino’s overtime goal that gave his team the win.

For the Ducks, they reported multi-goal comeback No. 10 for this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs (24.4 percent of the 41 playoff games played). According to NHL.com, this represents a record for the greatest number of wins in the first round for the postseason; for all of 2013’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, there were just eight comeback victories.

Nick Bonino

Bonino said of the team’s penchant for comebacks via NHL.com, “I think we’ve come back a lot this season. We’ve had one of the best comeback records. No one was down. I think we believed the whole time. It’s easy to say that now, but we have a lot of character and it showed.”

Jonas Hiller had 12 saves as he relieved Frederik Andersen (12 saves). Veteran Teemu Selanne at 43-years-old and 207 days is now the second-oldest league player to achieve a multi-assist game in the playoffs. He sits behind Detroit’s Chris Chelios, who had two assists at 45-years-old and 102 days from 2007’s playoffs.

For Anaheim, Selanne now has 66 career playoff points, tying captain Ryan Getzlaf for the most in Anaheim’s history.

In Sunday’s game, Dallas’ 4-2 advantage got started with two goals by Trevor Daley (first and second periods) as well as additional ones in the first period by Cody Eakin (one assist) and Ryan Garbutt.

Kari Lehtonen have 25 saves while Alex Goligoski had two assists.

Looking ahead, Anaheim will either play the San Jose Sharks or Los Angeles Kings. On Monday, these two teams will face off in Game 6. The Sharks lead the series 3-2 and the Kings will win this one (-115, 5 o/u).

Anaheim sits at 6/1 to win the 2014 Stanley Cup.

In Sunday’s first game, the Blackhawks defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-1 and punched their ticket to the second round. But it wasn’t always an easy road as Chicago found themselves in a 2-0 deficit before winning four straight games.

Chicago will now play either the Colorado Avalanche or Minnesota Wild. Colorado has a 3-2 series advantage and Game 6 will come on Monday. Vegas gives Minnesota the win (-130, 5 o/u).

For the Blackhawks, Sunday’s big victory was an all-around team effort as Duncan Keith scored one goal with three assists while Bryan Bickell,Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Andrew Shaw also added goals for Chicago–all in the third period.

Goalie Corey Crawford had 35 saves for the game.

Duncan Keith

Keith, who tied his career high for playoff points, said of the series via NHL.com, “We knew those first two games could’ve gone either way and we knew that we didn’t play our best hockey. It’s a seven-game series for a reason. We’ve been through enough playoff series to realize that. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon.”

Chicago sits at 5/1 to win this year’s Stanley Cup.

In Sunday’s game, St. Louis’ sole goal came in the first period by T. J. Oshie. They outshot Chicago 36-27 in the game and had an opportunity to take the lead but instead they were 0 for 6 in 10 minutes of power-play time in the game’s first two periods, reported the Associated Press.

For this final game, goalie Ryan Miller had 22 saves.

The Blues have now endured their second straight disappointing first round loss of the playoffs. Last year, the Kings, also the defending Stanley Cup winners, defeated them in six games. St. Louis also won the first games then lost the next four.