The Fifth Liners

The return of Sidney Crosby was the main subject of last nights clash and many had big expectations- well it appears that the New York Islanders didnt read the same script as everyone else and helped themselves to a 4-3 win at the Consol Energy Center and have now tied the series at 1-1! In the first period things went like a text book for the Pittsburgh Penguins with Evgeni Malkin scoring inside 43 seconds and Crosby netting a comeback goal three minutes later! Matt Moulson put the islanders back in contention after 7 minutes but Crosby scored again 20 seconds later to push the Penguins 3-1 ahead. But from there the Penguins offense seemed to run out of gas as Colin McDonald and Matt Martin both scored in the second period for the Islanders to tie the scores at 3-3. Then it was left to Kyle Okposo to score mid way through the third to give his team the most unlikely win! It is great to see Crosby back in action after his horrific broke...

San Jose Sharks took another giant step towards advancing to the Western Conference semi-final as they beat the Vancouver Canucks in overtime at the Rogers Arena! This win seems to give further evidence to the fact that they cannot be ruled out for a run to the final! Joe Thornton got San Jose started with a goal in the first period, but the Canucks swooped into the lead early in the third period thanks to an impressive double salvo by Ryan Kesler. But just as the home fans were beginning to celebrate a well deserved win, Patrick Marleau levelled the scores with 55.1 second left to push the game to overtime! Five minutes into overtime, the Sharks made a bold call to pull their goalie Antti Niemi in favour of the extra skater and it was a move that paid off as former Canuck Rafi Torres roofed a shot past Luongo to give San Jose the win! With the series now moving to the HP Pavilion for the next two games, it will be no easy task to get a result away from home for Van...

Love him or hate him, Sidney Crosby is back, he's been ok'd to play in the Pittsburgh Penguins ' second game against the New York Islanders . Click  here  for the full story.

Montreal Canadiens Center Lars Eller was stretchered off the ice and taken to hospital during the Habs' game with the Ottawa Senators . Eller received an unexpected pass in center ice and turned into Sens' defenseman Eric Gryba who maintains the hit was clean. Eller has concussion, facial and dental fractures caused by the hit and the landing on the ice. Replays show that Gryba's shoulder caught Eller in the chest and head. Coach Paul MacLean has stated that it was a poor pass that led to the collision. We wish Eller a quick recovery. Was it a bad hit or was Eller just unfortunate in the hit? Watch the video  here  and tell us what you think. Update. Gryba has been handed a 2 game ban.

The St. Louis Blues are determined to ruin my predictions.  The Blues are now 2-0 up in the series against the current cup holders the LA Kings . Although Dustin Brown gave the Kings an early lead, goals by Patrik Berglund and Barrett Jackman in the third gave the Blues the win. Full story  here.

A second period flurry by Washington Capitals helped them to a 3-1 win over New York Rangers at the Verizon Center last night and in doing so take a 1-0 game advantage! Carl Hagelin gave the Rangers the lead late in the 1st period, but Washington Captain Alexander Ovechkin scored on a power play early in the second period to give us a tie game! It was then left to Marcus Johansson and Jason Chimera to score late in the 2nd and give the Capitals the win. They were all aided by a great goaltending display by Braden Holtby who made 34 saves in net to keep the Rangers offensive at bay! With two impressive sets of forward lines, the coming games in this series will be one to keep both eyes on!

Last night the Detroit Red Wings evened the score against the Anaheim Ducks to tie the series. It's tough being a Detroit fan, no doubt there was lots of shouting at the TV coming from Michigan. The Wings took an early lead in the first period, netting twice to no reply. After Johan Franzen scored a third, it looked like the Wings had this one in the bag. Then something happened, either Anaheim turned up or Detroit switched off; cos the game was turned on its head. Saku Koivu put the ducks on the board in the second and at the start of the third, the Wings found themselves 4-1 up. Goals by Ryan Getzlaf , Kyle Palmieri and Bobby Ryan brought parity to the proceedings and it was down to Detroit's Gustav Nyquist  to score the winner in overtime. Justin Abdelkader and Damien Brunner also scored for the Wings. The next two games are at the Joe Louis. Anaheim did well to come back from a three goal deficit and will be disappointing to have not taken any...