NHL Playoffs Roundup: Patrick Kane Saves Blackhawks Again as Champs Stay Alive

The game finished with a certain player dropping to one knee and tommy-gunning the air in jubilation, after he scored a huge overtime goal in a playoff game. Anyone want to venture a guess who that might have been, in a game featuring the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks?

It was Patrick Kane, of course. 

With his team one shot away from going home for the summer, one shot away from boxing up their Stanley Cup to ship off to somewhere else, Kane came through again for Chicago. His wraparound goal on Blues goalie Brian Elliott—right after he'd been stopped on the other side of the net on a first scoring attempt—early in the second overtime beat the Blues 4-3 and kept the defending Cup champs alive for at least one more game.

Chicago still trails the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series three games to two, but has Game 6 at home Saturday night.

"We didn't have the best first overtime, but came out and got a couple chances in the second one and I was able to put one away," Kane told NBCSN after the game. "I just tried to make a move and get something at the net."

Chicago got the win despite being dominated for good portions of the game possession-wise. Corey Crawford was easily the game's No. 1 star for Chicago despite Kane's ending heroics, though defenseman Duncan Keith was outstanding too.

NBC analyst Mike Milbury put it well in the intermission before overtime: The Blackhawks looked too much like a team just trying to survive, not playing to win. That's not their identity, and it wasn't any coincidence that the Blues came back to get the game to overtime as a result, after Artemi Panarin put the Blackhawks up 3-1 after two, on a goal with 0.4 seconds left.

Robby Fabbri cut it to 3-2 at 6:57 and David Backes scored on a gorgeous redirect of Alex Pietrangelo's slap shot with 5:10 left. The Blues outshot Chicago 14-6 in the third, and came out flying in overtime. Only some great goaltending from Crawford kept the game going. Crawford's best stop was on Alex Steen, who had a one-timer from about seven feet out and nearly snuck it under his armpit. 

Chicago's only real good scoring chance in OT came on a 2-on-1 break, but Artemi Panarin couldn't control a pass and never got a shot off on Brian Elliott.

When the game went to the second OT, though, you got the sense that maybe St. Louis had just blown their chance. Maybe that's easy to say after the fact, but it's the old saw that proved right again: If you get the champ on the ropes, you gotta knock 'em out right then and there. 

St. Louis had the Blackhawks hemmed in for large portions of the first OT, but couldn't finish. One guy who seemed noticeably absent for the Blues was top scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, who was held pointless in the game with four shots on net. The Blues' best line most of the night, especially later on, might have been the third line of Stastny, Steen and Troy Brouwer. The problem: they couldn't finish either.

Kane, in the second OT, could.

Lightning Advance to Second Round, as Datsyuk's Red Wings Career Comes to Sad End

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

Pavel Datsyuk skated down the middle of the ice with the puck, with the clock ticking to less than 10 seconds left and his Detroit Red Wings down by a goal in an elimination game. The 37-year-old Russian, at the end of what could prove to be his final NHL game, gained the zone of the Tampa Bay Lightning and bore in on goalie Ben Bishop for a backhand scoring chance.

The fairy tale ended there. Bishop gloved Datsyuk's shot, just like he'd stopped Detroit's 33 previous shots on net. The Lightning ran out the final four seconds on the clock and eliminated the Red Wings with a 1-0 victory in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Thursday at Amalie Arena.

Datsyuk, at least, went down firing. A likely Hockey Hall of Famer, he recently told the Detroit Free Press' Mitch Albom that he was likely to return to Russia, despite having one year remaining on his contract with Detroit.

The likely end of Datsyuk's great career happened faster than expected because of one man: Bishop. The 6'7" goalie outplayed counterparts Jimmy Howard and Petr Mrazek in the series, finishing things off with a brilliant performance in Game 5. Detroit was clearly the better team possession-wise, outshooting Tampa Bay 34-24 and winning 56 percent of the game's faceoffs.

Mrazek was outstanding, too. Until he made a bad mistake, with 1:43 left in the third, that is. Mrazek, trying to dish the puck around the boards behind his net, had his rim-around intercepted by Ryan Callahan. 

Callahan quickly centered a pass out front, and teammate Alex Killorn outmuscled Wings defender Niklas Kronwall for position before chipping it past Mrazek. The Red Wings had a six-on-four advantage with less than one minute left, with a power play and Mrazek off for the extra skater. But they just couldn't solve Bishop.

Questions for Detroit moving forward: How will the team replace Datsyuk at center, not to mention possibly Brad Richards as well? How will Detroit maneuver the salary-cap ramifications of Datsyuk's deal, which has $7.5 million left on that last year and can't be wiped out even if he returns to Russia? What will the Red Wings do with goaltender Howard, who has three years and nearly $16 million left on his contract? 

General manager Ken Holland has all summer to ponder those questions. His Tampa Bay GM counterpart, Steve Yzerman, will be busy getting ready for the next round.

Penguins Looking Just Fine with Malkin after Easy Game 4 Win

Julie Jacobson/Associated Press

So, let's answer a question posed in a Bleacher Report headline after Game 2 of the Pittsburgh Penguins' first-round series against the New York Rangers: No.

No, Evgeni Malkin's return to the Penguins lineup has not disrupted the team's chemistry, as we wondered about after the Rangers' Game 2 win. Malkin and the Penguins completed a sweep of the Madison Square Garden portion of the series so far with an easy 5-0 win Thursday night. The Penguins can close out the series with a victory in Game 5 in Pittsburgh Saturday.

Malkin had two goals and two assists for a Penguins team that chased Henrik Lundqvist in the second period, after Malkin made it 4-0 on the power play.

Everything looks like it's back in top form for the Pens. How dangerous could this team be now that Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel all appear in sync? The defense and goaltending might still be a worry (No. 1 goalie Marc-Andre Fleury missed another game with a concussion), but Matt Murray has stepped in to temporarily ease fears in the net. 

Murray, who took over for Jeff Zatkoff in Game 3, had another easy time of it against a Rangers team that looks like it's checked out already. New York's offense was a study of discombobulation in Games 3 and 4, with veterans Eric Staal and Rick Nash looking feeble. 

The Penguins, after that Game 2 hiccup, look firmly in control again. Lundqvist and the Rangers have historically been a tough team to close out early, but things aren't looking great from their perspective as the series moves back to Pittsburgh.

Ducks Humming Again After Game 4 Win over Predators in Music City

Mark Zaleski/Associated Press

Home-ice disadvantage.

That’s your summation story angle after the first four games of the Anaheim Ducks’ first-round playoff series with the Nashville Predators. While road teams were 16-14 in playoff action entering Thursday night’s games, it’s been more pronounced in this series, where either team has yet to win at home.

The Ducks evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece with a 4-1 win over the Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Game 5 is Saturday at the Honda Center. It is the third time in the Ducks’ history that they’ve come back from a 2-0 deficit to even a series 2-2.

Ryan Getzlaf, Nate Thompson, Jamie McGinn and Andrew Cogliano scored goals for the Ducks, who got a strong, 30-save performance from Frederik Andersen.

A few boos could be heard from the crowd at Bridgestone, but it’s not like their team was awful in this one. Nashville outshot Anaheim 31-25, won nearly 59 percent of the faceoffs and out-hit the Ducks 41-27.

But the Preds’ top forwards and top D-men just couldn’t finish against Andersen, who took over in Game 3 from John Gibson. Andersen has allowed only one goal in the two games he’s played. Top center Ryan Johansen has yet to score a goal in the series, and neither has top-six forward Mike Ribeiro.

The Preds were tagged with eight official giveaways in Game 4, and it seemed like more. Goalie Pekka Rinne, meanwhile, hasn’t been bailing his teammates out like usual in those situations.

So it’s back to Southern California in this thing. Maybe that’s the best news the Predators could get.