The Stanley Cup Playoffs are essential viewing for many NHL fans and the season reached its halfway point with the 6-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes by the New York Rangers.
This brings us into the second half of the season – so let’s take a quick second to recap all of the most entertaining and surprising moments in the first half of the season. These games saw tons of action and if you’re the gambling type who places bets, you’ve had plenty of chances for some wild bets.
Game 7 saw Oettinger absolutely shine
Jake Oettinger, the goalie for the Dallas Stars, absolutely blew up in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup this season, leaving his mark and showing everyone why he’s as valuable as he is in the league
At only 23 years old Oettinger has shown he has some crazy potential, making a huge 64 saves during the game. The Flames eventually lost 3-2 thanks to an absolute pin point accurate shot by Johnny Gaudreau which marked an end to the series.
Another incredible shutout by Vasilevskiy
Game 2 for the Eastern Conference Second Round saw Goalie for Tampa Bay Lightning Andrei Vasilevsky show why he’s absolutely unstoppable and one of the giants when it comes to ice hockey.
The team the Lightning were up against – the Florida Panthers – were playing a rush style of game and not wasting any time. The entire game saw the Lightning looking like they were on the back foot, responding to everything the Panthers threw at them.
Enter Vasilevskiy. He made a huge 49 saves during the game, earning a stalwart place as the team’s MVP after his shutouts helped the team eventually win 2-0 and take a step closer to winning the Stanley cup (again!).
Makar shows his brilliance
Whilst there have been some mesmerizing and magnificent plays throughout the playoffs, there’s something special about any defensive player who can dig deep and play a brilliant play. Cale Makar did exactly this in Game 1 of the Western Conference for his team the Colorado Avalanche against the Nashville Predators.
The brilliant play in question saw Makar collecting up a loose puck and skating all the way back towards the line – as if he was going for a reset. He then bolted off towards the net. After fending off a check from Jeannot, he then lifted the puck skillfully and bounced it off of the mask of the Predators goalie to score. This helped Colorado secure a 4-0 lead in the first period and allowed them to play the rest of the game comfortably.
An Utterly Wild ‘Battle of Alberta’
One of the craziest games in recent history was played in the Scotiabank Stadium when The Calgary Flames faced off against the Edmonton Oilers. What can you say – when oil meets flame you’re guaranteed an explosion!
The match-up saw a crazy flurry of activity within 71 seconds – an astonishing 4 goals were scored in total in the time frame, setting a new NHL record.
People have referred to the frenzy of goals as ‘nuts’. Whilst the game was a tense 4-4 for a while, the Veniza Trophy finalist Jacob Markstrom managed to secure Edmonton a victory in an already heated game.
An Overtime Hero Appears – Artemi Panarin
Game 7 is a tense and passionate game for many NHL fans – and one thing that can add to the passion is when it goes into overtime. Guess what happened in game 7 of this season’s playoffs at the one and only Madison Square Garden faced the Penguins and the Rangers.
The atmosphere of the crowd was already electric as the game started and was even crazier when the Rangers took the lead… for the Penguins to take the lead… only for the Rangers to take the lead again!
The rangers then tied once again, which caused the crowd to go into a frenzy as the game went into overtime. The stakes were high, but the Rangers managed to finally hold off The Penguins as Artemi Panarin managed to score during overtime, sending the team through to the second round.
