Schwarzesbrett » the Ducks effort, scoring a goal and adding an

NEW YORK -- The last time the New York Rangers had a game to forget, they responded with five straight wins that put them on the cusp of the Stanley Cup finals. They are still there, and the Montreal Canadiens arent going away without a fight. New York needs one more victory to reach the championship round for the first time in 20 years. The Rangers know that Game 6 at home on Thursday is their best chance to get it. They returned home from Montreal on Wednesday, one day after a wild 7-4 loss cut their series lead to 3-2. If New York doesnt end it Thursday, the Rangers will have to go back to Montreal for a deciding Game 7. New York, which went the full seven games in each of the first two rounds of this years playoffs, will be playing its 20th post-season game. No team that played a pair of seven-game series before the conference finals has reached the Stanley Cup finals. "Its an opportunity to win the game to go to the Stanley Cup final," Rangers forward Brad Richards said. "I think everybody is alert and ready that way. We were talking about it all (Tuesday) how excited we were to get on the ice and start playing. "We had some mental breakdowns, but I dont think it had anything to do with (fatigue). Weve had a lot of rest this series. The opportunity that faces us right now, were pretty excited about it. I dont think there is too much letdown." In the second round, a poor performance at home in Game 4 against Pittsburgh dropped the Rangers into a 3-1 series hole. But New York won Game 5 on the road, took Game 6 at home, and won the clincher back in Pittsburgh to set up the matchup with Montreal. Now that the Canadiens have staved off elimination once, the Rangers are wary of giving them any more hope they can turn the tables. "You learn a lot from it. Thats why experience is experience," Richards said. "You go through many situations. (Tuesday) night was a bad feeling, but today were getting on a plane to go back to our city, and we get to play in front of our fans. "Its always, forget as quick as possible and try to remember the good things that were doing. It was one bad night, but weve been doing a lot of good things in this series." The Rangers won the opening two games in Montreal and then split a pair of overtime decisions at home. Even though they have had success on the road and in recent Game 7s, they know that going the distance again works against them. "Its a desperate time," Richards said. "You dont want to go back to a Game 7 where anything can happen. We want to get this done. Theyre a good team anywhere. "Were going to have to be a lot better, and we will be." This is as far as New York has advanced since captain Mark Messier led the club to the 1994 Stanley Cup title -- breaking the Rangers 54-year drought. The Garden will be ready to celebrate again Thursday. After the Rangers lost Game 4 to Pittsburgh, the loyal fans thought they might not see their team again until next season. That will be the situation again if the Canadiens pull off another victory. "You win a game, and things change in your locker room and you start feeling better about yourselves," Rangers defenceman Marc Staal said. "We know how it feels coming back in a series, but it doesnt change anything in our room. We are as confident as ever going into our building, and looking forward to it." So are the Canadiens. They know that if they wouldve scored in overtime of Game 4 as they did in Game 3, they wouldve had a two-game sweep at the Garden and would be the ones looking to advance Thursday. "Well be ready for one of those tight-checking games," defenceman Josh Gorges said Wednesday after an optional practice in Montreal. "Im sure it will be again one of those hard-fought games that well have to make sure that were even better than we were last game." Montreal will have rugged forward Brandon Prust back in the lineup after he served a two-game suspension for a late hit on Derek Stepan in Game 3 that broke the Rangers forwards jaw. Stepan returned Tuesday and scored two goals while wearing a full faceguard. The Rangers will be without defenceman John Moore. He was suspended for two games Wednesday after receiving a match penalty Tuesday night for a hit to Montreal forward Dale Weises head. Henrik Lundqvist will be back in goal for the Rangers after he was pulled in Game 5 on a rare off night in which he allowed four goals on 19 shots in less than two periods. He avoided the loss when New York rallied from a 4-1 deficit to get even. Backup goalie Cam Talbot gave up two goals in relief. "(Tuesday) night was probably the best game weve played in this series," Canadiens forward Lars Eller said. "If we keep doing a lot of those things, I think the end result will be good." Cheap College Jerseys 2020 . I wondered how NHL coaches would feel about a playoff schedule that allowed them to open a best-of-seven series on the road, which many claim to favour, yet still gave them the precious home-ice edge for a seventh game. College Jerseys Outlet . -- The Chicago Bears have agreed to a one-year contract with cornerback Kelvin Hayden. https://www.ncaajerseys2020.com/ . scored 18 of his career- high 28 points in the first half, as fifth-ranked Ohio State dominated No. Cheap NCAA Jerseys Authentic .com) - Richard Shermans two interceptions highlighted a dominant defensive effort, as the Seattle Seahawks routed the San Francisco 49ers in a highly anticipated NFC West Thanksgiving clash. Fake College Jerseys .C. -- Lucy Li made two double bogeys, a triple bogey and finished her historic round at the U.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. 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.dddddddddddd 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. ' ' '