Sunday, April 24, 2011

Stanley Cup Playoffs: Flyers, Blackhawks Force Game Sevens With OT Wins; Predators Win Playoff Series For First Time

The opening round of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Playoffs continued with three more games.


Eastern Conference:


At Buffalo, New York:


Danny Briere scored twice (once on a power play) and Ville Leino scored the game winner at 4:43 of overtime as the Philadelphia Flyers overcame deficits of 3-1 and 4-3 to defeat the home standing Buffalo Sabres 5-4 to square their conference quarterfinal series at three games apiece and force a seventh and deciding game back home at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday.


Western Conference:


At Nashville:


Nick Spaling scored twice while Pekka Rinne made 25 saves as the Nashville Predators eliminated the visiting Anaheim Ducks with a 4-2 victory in game six of their first-round series, advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.


At Chicago:


Ben Smith scored the winning goal at 15:30 of overtime as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the visiting Vancouver Canucks 4-3 to even their opening-round series at three games apiece.  This marked the seventh time that the team that trailed three-games-to-none in a best-of-seven series came back to force game seven.  Three of those teams (Toronto, 1942 Stanley Cup Finals; New York Islanders, 1975 quarterfinal round; Philadelphia, 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals) were able to complete the comeback.  The Blackhawks will try to complete the comeback on Tuesday night at Vancouver.

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