The first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs concluded on Sunday evening with the Avalanche, Rangers, Flames, Hurricanes, Lightning, Oilers, Panthers, and the Blues punching their tickets to the 2nd round.
COL vs. NSH: COL wins the series 4-0
The only sweep of the opening round belonged to the Western Conference's top seed who pushed aside an unlucky Predators team in a top seed vs wild card matchup (Boy is that lopsided). Andre Burakovsky started the scoring for the Avalanche in Game 4, which would end up being a 5-3 victory for Colorado. Burakovsky only needed just under 2 minutes into the game to make it 1-0 Avs. At 18:59, Nashville tied things at 1 courtesy of Yakov Trenin. Trenin would score his 2nd of the game in period 2 at 16:49 to tie it at 2 after Colorado retook a 2-1 lead off of Cale Makar's 3rd goal of the series. In the 3rd period, Nashville managed to take a 3-2 lead but it was the last goal they would score as Colorado added 3 unanswered goals to send the Preds to extinction. The Avs' goals were scored by Devon Toews (3) at 8:55, Valeri Nichushkin (2) at 12:02, and Nathan MacKinnon (5) on the power play at 19:04.
Team Stats:
Shots: COL 38, NSH 31
Hits: COL 46, NSH 44
Faceoff Wins: COL 31, NSH 35
PIM: COL 4, NSH 4
FLA vs. WSH: FLA wins the series 4-2
The President's Trophy-winning Florida Panthers needed only 6 games to punch their 2nd round ticket, eliminating the Washington Capitals on the road in overtime with a 4-3 victory. Although no goals took place in the first period, Washington opened the 2nd-period scoresheet off of Nic Dowd's 1st of the postseason at 3:44. Florida would later tie things at 1 with Ryan Lomberg's first at 6:13. Those would be the only goals by both sides heading into the 3rd period. In period 3, both squads scored a pair of goals for a 3-3 tie heading to the first 20-minute overtime period. Florida tallied goals by Claude Giroux (3) at 8:18 and Aleksander Barkov (2) at 14:17, while Washington countered from Nicklas Backstrom (2) at 1:37 and T. J. Oshie (6) on the power play at 18:57. At 2:46 of the first overtime period, Carter Verhaeghe (6) sent the Cats to the 2nd round.
Shots: FLA 31, WSH 37
Hits: FLA 50, WSH 51
Faceoff Wins: FLA 40, WSH 38
PIM: FLA 10, WSH 6
TOR vs. TB: TB wins the series 4-3
An unlikely hero helped the 2-time defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning eliminated the perennial playoff losers Toronto Maple Leafs with a 2-1 victory in just the first of many Game 7s.
Nicholas Paul, a left winger who only played 21 of 82 regular-season games for Tampa, scored both of their goals to help the Lightning strike out Toronto, scoring his first ever playoff goals at 18:24 of the first period and later at 16:32 of period 2. No goals were scored by either side in period 3 and Paul's first goal was the only tally in the opening period. Morgan Reilly scored the lone Leafs goal at 13:25, his 3rd tally of the 2022 postseason.
CAR vs. BOS: CAR wins the series 4-2
The Carolina Hurricanes edged the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a hard-fought Game 6 win to advance past a tough first-round matchup that looked like they had in the bag early on. Teuvo Teravainen (2) opened the scoring at 18:36 of period 1 for the clinching game's first and only goal of the first period. In period 2, Max Domi (1) would score the first of his first 2 2022 playoffs goals starting at the 3:17 mark for a 2-0 Carolina lead and then a 3-1 Hurricanes advantage at 10:33. In between his efforts, Boston got on the board from Jake DeBrusk (2) at 5:04 to initially put the B's within 1. And while Boston once again got within 1 from David Pastrnak's 3rd of the postseason, it came far too late, at 19:38 (i.e., with 22 seconds left) when Carolina already had the series sealed.
Team Stats:
Shots: BOS 29, CAR 31
Hits: BOS 40, CAR 35
Faceoff Wins: BOS 31, CAR 33
PIM: BOS 10, CAR 6
MIN vs. STL: STL wins the series 4-2
St. Louis continued their march to their 2nd Stanley Cup title with a dominant 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at home. The first red light of the night came from St. Louis' Nick Leddy at 14:59, which again would be the only goal by either side in the opening period. Period 2 was all Blues, as they tallied 3 unanswered goals for an impressive 4-0 lead heading to period 3, courtesy of Ryan O'Reilly (5) on the power play at 9:26, Tyler Bozak's first of the postseason at 13:25, and Vladimir Tarasenko's 5th of the playoffs at 18:36 which also came on the man advantage. Matt Dumba would get Minnesota's only goal of the night, his 1st of this postseason at 6:25. At 18:19, Colton Parayko's first of the postseason sealed Minnesota's fate.
Team Stats:
Shots: MIN 26, STL 27
Hits: MIN 27, STL 12
Faceoff Wins: MIN 26, STL 31
PIM: MIN 12, STL 10
LA vs. EDM: EDM wins the series 4-3
The Edmonton Oilers set up the first postseason Battle of Alberta since 1991, a date with provincial rivals Calgary with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. No goals were scored in the first by either side (you know, I'm starting to see a pattern here), and just like Tampa Bay wiping out Toronto with Nick Paul, Edmonton's Cody Ceci played the role of the unsung hero by opening the 2nd-period scoring towards the end of it at 13:15 for his first postseason goal of 2022. At 16:07, Connor McDavid scored on a wrap-around to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead and the eventual game plus the series win.
Team Stats:
Shots: LA 29, EDM 41
Hits: LA 38, EDM 38
Faceoff Wins: LA 34, EDM 29
PIM: LA 2, EDM 0 (Whaa? In a playoff game? How?)
DAL vs. CGY: CGY wins the series 4-3
Good ol' Johnny Gaudreau scored at 15:09 of the first overtime period to send the Flames past the Dallas Stars with a 3-2 victory in Game 7, the 2nd of two Game 7 overtime winners on May 15 of 2022. It didn't start that well for Calgary, though- Stars cap'n Jamie Benn needed a mere 40 seconds for his first of the postseason and a 1-0 Dallas lead. And yes, it was once again the only goal of the opening period. Sheesh. The Flames had a fast response of their own in period 2, as Tyler Toffoli needed 1:46 to tie the game at 1. However, Dallas would snuff out that effort from Vladislav Namesnikov's 1st playoff goal at the 2:17 mark for a new 2-1 Dallas lead. At 8:44, though, Calgary would tie things back up again, this time from Matthew Tkachuk (1). No goals occurred in the 3rfd period, setting the stage for 20 minutes of OT tied at 2. And we all know what happened next.
Team Stats:
Shots: DAL 28, CGY 67 (no, that is not a typo)
Hits: DAL 22, CGY 35
Faceoff Wins: DAL 35, CGY 42
PIM: DAL 6, CGY 2
PIT vs. NYR: NYR wins the series 4-3
In the first of the two Game 7 overtime winner games, the New York Rangers lived up to their playoff motto of "No Quit in New York", eliminating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the final game of the series in overtime courtesy of Artemi Panarin's (3) PPG at 4:46 to complete a 3-1 series deficit comeback. Chris Kreider opened the Blueshirt's scorebook with his 5th of the postseason at 7:36. Much later on at 18:51, Danton Heinen (3) on the power play tied things up for the Pens for that exact tie heading to period 2. This time, Pittsburgh drew first blood at the 10:18 mark, with Jake Guentzel's PPG for his 8th goal of the series, which tbh, I was really getting sick of. Luckily, K'Andre Miller (1) had the remedy for the Rangers with his first postseason goal at 11:23 to tie the game at 2. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh would have the last laugh, as Evan Rodrigues' (3) shorty at 17:24 gave the Pens a 3-2 lead heading to the 3rd period. Only 1 goal was scored by either side in that frame, and as fate would have it, it was my birthday buddy Mika Zibanejad (we were both born on April 18, me in 2000, him in 1993), his 3rd of the postseason tying things at 3 and setting things for another 20-minute overtime period. And the Breadman, Artemi Panarin definitely delivered.
Team Stats:
Shots: PIT 42, NYR 30
Hits: PIT 14, NYR 25
Faceoff Wins: PIT 30, NYR 29
PIM: PIT 10, NYR 12
Round 2 Matchups:
COL vs. STL
CGY vs. EDM
FLA vs. TBL
CAR vs. NYR
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