A pair of lucky 7′s

April 25, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Seven was a lucky number to open a pair of Conference Semis last night. Both first games between the Flyers-Canadiens and Avalanche-Red Wings totaled that exact amount of goals with each winding up 4-3 for the home team.

Montreal used some late dramatics getting an Alex Kovalev power play goal with under 29.3 seconds to play in regulation and a Tom Kostopoulos winner 48 seconds into overtime to comeback and stun Philadelphia 4-3 at an electric Bell Centre to steal Game One.

The Flyers led the game 2-0 and 3-2 but had a break go against them when Mike Richards was sent to the box for tripping Kovalev with a little over 60 seconds to play. His knee collided with the smooth skating Russian as he made a move falling to the ice. AK27 struck off a faceoff win, sneaking a wrister past Martin Biron short side to force sudden death.

It wouldn’t take long to decide as Andrei Markov kept a puck in and forced Biron to kick out a rebound right to Kostopoulos who put home a second attempt for his third of the postseason sending the Habs to a huge win in a game they didn’t deserve. That’s the playoffs in a nutshell where if you get a break, sometimes it’s all you need.

The Flyers will try to bounceback in Game Two tomorrow night.

In Game One of a Western Conference semi between old rivals Colorado and Detroit, the Wings answered a Paul Stastny goal with four straight getting two from unsung hero Johan Franzen in chasing a flu-ridden Jose Theodore. Speaking of bounces, they got a couple including a seeing eye Dan Cleary shot which deflected off a maze of players past Theodore for a 2-1 lead.

Franzen neatly deflected home a power play goal and also came through by finishing off a three-on-two cross ice feed to put the home team up three. But the Avs didn’t go away as John-Michael Liles beat Chris Osgood short side and Milan Hejduk finished off a beautiful passing play from Stastny to cut it to 4-3 with a period left.

In the third with five minutes left, Hejduk nearly tied it but his shot which had Osgood beat rang off the left post. The Detroit netminder didn’t see a lot of rubber but made his biggest save with 8.3 seconds left robbing Liles on the doorstep to preserve the win.

Tonight, the other two Conference Semis get going as the Rangers visit the Penguins and the Sharks play host to the Stars. Both can be seen on Versus with coverage at 7 ET.