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April 9th Recap: Captain Clutch Saves the Night

By Grant Beery • Apr 10th, 2008 • Category: Daily Deke, Hockey

Wednesday night was a night of upsets with only one top seed winning their game. In case you missed it, here’s a wrap up of last night’s games.

Penguins 4, Senators 0

Don’t blame Gerber for this loss; the Senators just didn’t show up last night. Between the pipes was the only good part of Ottawa’s game last night, with Gerber showing some incredible resiliance against Pittsburgh. It takes more than good goaltending to shut down the likes of Crosby and company, however. The seasoned veteran Gary Roberts notched two goals in the contest, one on the power play. Sykora and Malkin scored the other two goals, and Sidney Crosby didn’t register any points. Fleury made 26 saves for the first playoff shutout of his career.

Rangers 4, Devils 1

Scott Gomez showed his old team up with 3 assists on the board last night. It also didn’t help the Devils that their star goaltender, Martin Brodeur was off his game. Ryan Callahan scored a shorthanded goal in the second period. If your team is giving up goals like that in the playoffs you aren’t going very far. Shanahan, Avery, and Dawes (an empty netter) notched the other goals for New York, and New Jersey’s only goal came from Paul Martin. Lundqvist put up 26 saves for the Rangers, while Brodeur stopped 24 shots on the other end.

Flames 3, Sharks 2

Of all the home team upsets, this one was the most surprising to me. Not only did the Flames keep up with the Sharks, they made them look unprepared for the playoffs. San Jose did outshoot Calgary 39-23, but Kipprusoff looked great and kept his team ahead the entire game. The late push by the Sharks was impressive and idicative of their might and ability, but it was too little, too late. Stephan Yelle and Ryane Clowe both notched two goals for their teams.

Avalanche 3, Wild 2 OT

Joe Sakic saves the day for the Avalanche once again. After giving up two unanswered goals in the third to the Wild, the Avs captain took a rebound from Ruslan Salei’s shot in overtime to wrestle home ice advantage away from the 3rd seed in the West. That’s Joe Sakic’s 8 career OT goal, the best in history and two more than Maurice Richard. Jose Theodore played amazingly, keeping the Wild at bay in the first period, keeping the score 0-0 through 11 shots compared to the Avs’ 2. Each team played very disciplined and showed that they could definitely keep up with the other, so expect a very tight series.

Tonight’s games:

  • Canadiens v Bruins - 7PM ET on CBC and RDS
  • Predators v Red Wings - 7PM ET on Versus and TSN
  • Flames v Sharks - 10PM ET on CBC and RIS
  • Stars v Ducks - 10PM ET on RDS, Versus, and TSN
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Grant Beery is a Denver native who lives and breathes NHL hockey, especially the Colorado Avalanche. You can follow him on Twitter.
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