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And we are headed back to New York City for game five with the series all tied up as it should be between the 7^th and 8^th place overall regular-season Eastern Conference teams.

Some players find success late in their careers, for example, Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Mr. Pat Maroon who was on the Cup-winning Blues team and contributed three goals in 26 playoff games and then 13 goals over the next two Cup-winning playoff runs with Tampa Bay.

Mr. Maroon may not score often but last night’s score was a beauty after picking up a rebound off of a Mr. Bogosian shot for his third of these playoffs while playing 10 minutes, shooting the puck once, and dishing out three hits for the game.

Tampa Bay played like a team desperate to win and New York played like a team desperate to end the series early and at the halfway point of the second period the game was choppy and chaotic.

Once the initial goal is scored the game is blocking, shots wide, hits, choppy skating and passing, rebounds were there even with the low SOG, and a “no goal” review/call on a brilliant save from Mr. Shesterkin.

A moment of offense as Mr. Palat passes to Mr. Kucherov skating right down the middle to score on Tampa’s 13^th SOG and then the game resumed its grind and when Mr. Stamkos scored you could feel that this game was won.

The Rangers were able to stymie Mr. Vasilevskiy in his shutout bid when “The Bread Man” Mr. Panarin elevated a shot up to the corner glove side after gifted a deflection from Mr. McDonagh.  

The series resumes Thursday, June 9^th for game five at eight o’clock in Madison Square Garden.

An exciting elimination game last night in Edmonton with two-goal leads, multiple lead changes, 11 goals, and finally an overtime win.

Nearly four minutes into the game Mr. Makar scores on the power play after Mr. Rantanen checks Mr. Hyman off the puck affording Mr. Lehkonen an opportunity to gather the puck and pass it to Mr. Makar whose shot from way out in the prairies eludes Mr. Smith’s glove. 

The first ten minutes highlight some good hitting and great backchecking by both teams and Colorado’s forecheck is relentless as witnessed on their second penalty kill outshooting Edmonton 3-1.

With 90 seconds remaining Avalanche defenseman Mr. Byram falls into the post and while on the ice Mr. Smith gave him a good shot to the head with the blocker, a whack to the ankle for being in the crease is one thing but this was uncalled for.

The Avalanche take the first seven shots of the second period, hit a post, the announcers contemplating that HC Woodcroft does not trust his depth then the Oilers break through Colorado’s layers of defense and tie the game at one.

Moments after the tying goal Mr. Landeskog inadvertently crashes into the dasher boards with Mr. Kassian after which Mr. Kassian gets up and attacks Mr. Landeskog with a wrestling hold on the ice, Oilers on the power play, and Mr. Kassian received a free shot.  

Mr. Nugent-Hopkins breakaway resulted from a bad pass turnover that he backhanded up and over the blocker enabling Edmonton to score twice on five shots, minutes later Mr. McDavid scored on the power play off the post glove side for the two-goal lead to finish the period. 

The third period was an absolute barn burner with six goals and beginning at 31 seconds in Mr. Toews shoots the puck off of the leg of Mr. Ceci and off Mr. Smith’s glove edge and in the net as both Colorado goals are scored by a defenseman.

Edmonton responded a few minutes later with a 4-on-2 odd-man rush that culminated with Mr. McDavid to Mr. Draisaitle to Mr. Hyman and off of the face mask/cage of Mr. Francouz for the 4-2 lead and the Oilers are skating well.

When Mr. Landeskog was able to score Mr. Smith had a fit and slammed his very flexible goalie stick on the ice in frustration, (it did not break), and the score was not challenged or “looked at” so it was a good goal.

Six and a half minutes remaining in the game when Mr. McKinnon scores a beautiful goal from inside the bottom of the faceoff circle upstairs “where Momma hides the cookies” and the game is tied.

The determined Avalanche score on the power play as they earn three goals on five shots in less than six minutes and the Oilers respond quickly as Mr. Nurse slams/checks Mr. Rantanen to the ice, two passes and a rebound later Mr. Kassian ties the game at five.

We are headed to OVERTIME!

It did not take long, at the 18:41 mark with what has been analyzed as a good goal the initial touch at shoulder height resulted in a shot, not a goal had the puck entered the net it would have been high sticking and no goal.

When it is a SOG a high stick is determined by the height of the player’s shoulder, when a goal is scored a high stick is determined by the height of the crossbar.

When the announcers referred to the most loathed referee Mr. Koharski about this goal while watching the slow-mo replay Mr. Koharski said, “holy sh*t” live on air, classy.

Edmonton played well in game four but Colorado is a beast and swept the Oilers and now await the winner of the Rangers and Lightning series, game four tonight in NYC with the Rangers holding a 2-1 series lead.

Three attempts in the regular season and two in the playoffs before Tampa Bay finally beat the Rangers, but only after taking 52 SOG, scoring twice on the power play, outhitting New York, and fortunately with 41.6 seconds remaining Mr. Palat scoring and saving the day.

The first period was not one to brag about as ESPN commentator Mr. Chelios stated that he did not say Tampa had a good first period, but that they were sloppy and had a better second period.

As Mr. Zibanejad sat in the penalty box, gooney perry hits Mr. Shesterkin in the face to receive a “slashing” penalty, and 59 seconds later the “Z-man” is out of the penalty box and scoring the game’s first score for his 10^th and 6^th power-play goal.

Continuing their broad street bullies/charlestown chiefs style of play less than two minutes after goony perry’s penalty Mr. Nash goons it up by running Mr. Shesterkin to earn an “interference” penalty that afforded New York to go up 2-0 on the power play.

The game was all New York with the Rangers scoring two power play goals 127 seconds apart for the 2-0 lead halfway through the period, but 66 seconds later a shot Mr. Shesterkin should of stopped gave the Lighting their first goal of the game.

Finally one last belligerent takes the ice at the end of the period as pat MaGoon maroon whose stat line highlights six hits and one giveaway while playing almost nine minutes for the whole game goes after Mr. Zibanejad.

The third period looks positive for New York sporting a 7-1 record leading after two periods and not having lost to Tampa Bay even once all season long but in under three minutes to start the period the Lightning ties the game on the power play.

Five minutes later Mr. McDonagh pushes Mr. Vatrano into Mr. Vasilevskiy with no space to skate away and Mr. Vatrano gets penalized unbelievably for goaltender interference but this does not work for the Lightning as the Rangers penalty killers are blocking shots and clearing the zone.

Two times Cup champion with Tampa Bay Mr. Goodrow now with New York had such a severe ankle shot block that it required going to the locker room, but he returned, but who did not return after a cross-check to the lower back was Mr. Strome.

Before the 10-minute mark of the third-period elbows are flying and Tampa high sticking is not being called, then Mr. Kucherov receives his comeuppance with a four-minute double high sticking minor penalty after putting “the lumber” to none other than in the face of Mr. Zibanejad.

Mr. Trouba is called for his third minor penalty of the game, some 4-on-4 hockey, all the goals are a power play, and the announcer referred to goony perry as the most gifted offensive player on the ice during the 4-on-4 which made me spit my beer through my nose.

New York and Tampa Bay are heading into overtime but Mr. Palat scores with only 41.6 seconds remaining to save the Lightning’s bacon with a 3-2 Conference Final home-opening win.

Edmonton hosts Colorado for game four tonight at eight o’clock and with the Oilers’ firepower they should be able to win this last home game to prevent the Avalanche from sweeping them out of the playoffs.

Edmonton scored first on a Mr. McDavid shot just :38 seconds into the game and the Oilers are rolling, or so it seemed but :28 seconds later Mr. Kane takes out Mr. Kadri (who did not return) with a cross-check into the dasher boards earning a five-minute penalty.

Edmonton’s penalty killers and Mr. Smith were up to the task and were tested again as Mr. Nurse earns a delay of game for shooting the puck up and over the glass from his defensive zone a few minutes after Mr. Kane comes out of the box.

In the second period, Mr. Smith and Mr. Francouz made save after saving as both teams combine for 32 SOG and Colorado was able to get an early one past Mr. Smith as the Avalanche collected 19 SOG for the period.

In the third period, the Oilers tied the game when Mr. McLeod surrounded by no less than three Avalanche players skated over the blue line and shot from the directly top center in between the two faceoff circles to whip it past Mr. Francouz.

With 7:45 minutes remaining Edmonton rips a loud shot off the iron behind Mr. Francouz but sees the puck come back as Mr. Compher checks Mr. Bouchard off the puck and into the dasher boards for control of the puck and then fires it past Mr. Smith for the 3-2 lead.

Colorado’s Happy Net goal was particularly disturbing to watch as Mr. Draisaitl carelessly tosses the puck towards center ice that cannot make it past both Colorado players to a teammate then hangs his head and skates slowly towards his net.

Edmonton’s 40-year-old backup goaltender, Mr. Nurse, Mr. Hyman, Mr. Russell, or Mr. Kulak did not lose this game you can however lay the blame on the ice in front of the skates of Mr. McDavid, Mr. Draisaitl, Mr. Kane, and Mr. Nugent-Hopkins for their non-offensive output. 

The Oilers’ four most gifted offensive players were a combined 9 SOG with 1 goal, 7 hits, 5 GVAs, 1 block, and a -10 plus/minus, completely unacceptable for the first home game of the Conference Finals since 2006, a better effort is required or break out the brooms.

This afternoon at three o’clock Tampa Bay hosts New York for game three of the Eastern Conference Finals as the Rangers take their 2-0 games lead to the Sunshine state.

In a seven-game series, the home team is expected to win the first two games and New York did just that and now Tampa Bay will play two incredible games at home to tie the series, in most playoff scenarios that would probably happen.

Tampa Bay could only score on Mr. Shesterkin when gifted a power-play opportunity at the beginning of the game and after pulling their goalie for the extra man with only a few minutes remaining while down by two.

Less than three minutes into the game Mr. Reaves and Mr. Maroon were “jostling” before a center ice faceoff when the Rangers player assessed a minor penalty but not the Lightning player, commentators Mr. Messier and Mr. Chelios explained why the call should have been different.

This power play affords Tampa Bay to score the first goal of the game fortunately for New York they were able to get that one back a few minutes later to tie the game.

With a few minutes remaining in the first period, Mr. LaFreniere rings a shot off the post and the Rangers maintain possession and Mr. Fox makes a pass through two Lightning defenders to Mr. Kaapo Kakko (pronounced…” Cup A Cocoa”) who scores New York’s second goal of the game.

The second period had an entire game’s worth of SOG and ironically no goals were scored in a tight one-goal game.

As the third period begins to wind down Mr. Kucherov takes the puck off the dashboards and blindly throws it out of the zone where it hits a Rangers player in the skate creating an odd-man rush.

The Rangers Mr. Fox passes to Mr. Zibanejad shooting from the top of the faceoff circle absolutely blows it past Mr. Vasilevskiy blocker side for the 3-1 lead.

Just when you thought it was over HC Cooper with a few minutes remaining and down by two goals pulls the goalie and with 2:02 remaining and things became more interesting as Tampa Bay scored with the extra skater.

Shots going wide, blocking Rangers, scrambling in front of the net and final seconds puck possession is all New York for the 3-2 final and the 2-0 games lead in the series and a daunting two games in Tampa Bay next.

Tonight the Edmonton Oilers in Rogers Place should be firing on all cylinders for games three and four if they want to make a series of this Western Conference Final, they have the necessary firepower that can and must score often for the Oilers to come out on top.