The NHL playoffs continued on Thursday night, as the NY Rangers won over the Philadelphia Flyers, the St. Louis Blues won in overtime over the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, while the Colorado Avalanche also won in overtime against the Minnesota Wild and the San José Sharks dominated the Los Angeles Kings.
The New York Rangers came out on top of the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of their series at Madison Square Garden after scoring three goals in the final period and now they have a 1-0 lead in the eastern conference playoffs matchup. The Rangers wanted to come out aggressive and the game was back and forth for the first two periods and backup Ray Emery was mostly brilliant for the Flyers while stepping in for an injured Steve Mason until the third period.
The Rangers struggled on the power play all season, but on Thursday after they got a double minor from Jason Akeson, they scored twice with Brad Richards and Derek Stepan scoring goals and that propelled the team to a victory. The Rangers and Flyers have not played each other in two decades in the playoffs and Brad Richards was key with three points, including one goal and two assists, while goalie Henrik Lundqvist had 14 saves in the game.
The Blues got 39 saves from Ryan Miller and he was fantastic in the overtime period and Paul Stastny had a clutch goal to tie the game and he also added the winning goal in overtime as the Avalanche scored two in the third period to force it. Patrick Roy got his first win in the playoffs as head coach, while Patrick Kane scored along with Brent Seabrook for the Blackhawks. The Kings were totally dominated on Thursday and while Jonathan Quick had 31 saves, he allowed six goals and the team scored three in the third, but it wasn't enough to beat the Sharks.