The National Hockey League kicked off the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night as three best-of-seven series got underway and six teams took the ice to jumpstart their quest to hoist the Stanley Cup in June. Here is a roundup of what happened on a busy Wednesday night in the NHL.
Canadiens 5, Lightning 4 (OT): The very first playoff game on the 2014 slate fittingly went to overtime at the Tampa Bay Times Forum as Dale Weise scored for the Canadiens 18:08 into the extra frame to clinch Game 1 for the Canadiens 4-3.
Atlatantic Division preview/predictions
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov scored the first goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs 10:09 into the first period to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead. Tomas Plekanec drew Montreal even just 19 seconds later.
Steven Stamkos notched two goals for the Lightning and Alex Killorn also found the twine for them. Canadiens scorers included captain Brian Gionta (short-handed), Lars Eller and Thomas Vanek in regulation.
Carey Price made 21 saves and allowed four goals in net for the Canadiens while Anders Lindback made 39 saves but let five goals get by him, including the overtime game-winner.
Montreal leads series 1-0.
Penguins 4, Blue Jackets 3: The Penguins stormed back from a 3-1 deficit on the back of goals by Beau Bennett (power play), Matt Niskanen (power play) and Brandon Sutter to mount a Game 1 comeback victory at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.
Metropolitan Division preview/predictions
Columbus drew first blood when Jack Johnson notched his first of two goals 6:20 into the first period. Jussi Jokinen nodded things for Pittsburgh at 17:13 of the same frame until former-Penguin Mark Letestu notched a power play goal to give the Blue Jackets the lead back just 45 seconds later.
Derek MacKenzie added a short-handed goal for the Blue Jackets to give the team a 3-1 lead until the Pens rallied back with three straight goals and hung on for the win.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves and allowed three goals in a winning effort while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 Penguins shots and allowed four goals.
Pittsburgh leads series 1-0
Ducks 4, Stars 3: The Ducks skated out to a 4-0 lead with four unanswered goals through the first half of the game on home ice at the Honda Center in Anaheim, but had to squeak out a Game 1 victory after the Stars rallied with three unanswered goals of their own.
Pacific Division predictions/preview
Kyle Palmieri started the scoring for the Ducks 1:53 into the game while Ryan Getzlaf and Mathieu Perreault (power play) also added first period goals. Matt Beleskey notched a power play goal in the second period to stake the Ducks to a 4-0 lead and close out their scoring for the night.
Undeterred, the Stars began to rally back when Jamie Benn netted a goal on the man-advantage 16:36 into the second period. Colton Sceviour found the back of the net less than two minutes later to pull Dallas within two. Tyler Seguin then notched his first of the playoffs 13:53 into the third period but the Stars rally ended there.
In net, Frederik Andersen stopped 32 Dallas shots and allowed three goals while Kari Lehtonen made 31 saves for the Stars and allowed four goals.
Anaheim leads series 1-0.
It was a memorable start to the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night and the action will continue all the way up until June when a new Stanley Cup champion is crowned.
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