We are now eighteen days into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There was two games yesterday. In the Eastern Conference the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Florida Panthers. In the Western Conference the Dallas Stars played the Seattle Kraken. There is only one game today. Todays only game will be game two of Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils series.
The Toronto Maple Leafs took on the Florida Panthers in game two of their series. The Panthers lead the series 1-0 coming into the game after a 4-2 win in game one. Alexander Kerfoot scored the first goal of the game. His early first period goal gave the Maple Leafs the lead. Ryan O’Reilly scored on the powerplay to put the Maple Leafs up by two goals. Anton Lundrell scored to get the Panthers back to within one goal. The score was 2-1 Maple Leafs after the first period.
Aleksander Barkov scored under 2o seconds into the second period to tie the game. Gustav Forsling scored less than a minute later to give the Panthers the lead. The score was 3-2 Panthers heading into the third period.
Neither team scored in the third period. The final score would remain 3-2 Panthers. The Florida Panthers now have a 2-0 series lead as the series shifts to Florida.
Toronto did respond well to their game one loss and is now down by two games. Things are not looking good for Toronto. Toronto is out shooting and out hitting Florida but they are still not finding ways to win. They need better shot selection. They also need to create better chances. Florida is out playing Toronto. Having a lot of momentum coming out of round one, Florida has proven to be too much for Toronto to handle right now. Will Toronto respond in game three? Can Florida keep outplaying Toronto?
Game three will be on Sunday, May 7th 2023. Puck drop is set for 3:30pm PST.
Coming into game two the Seattle Kraken had a 1-0 series lead over the Dallas Stars. The Kraken won game one 4-2. No one scored in the first period of this one. The score was tied at 0-0 after the first period.
Wyatt Johnston scored the first goal early in the second period to give the Stars the lead. Evgenii Dadonov scored to add to the Stars lead. Tye Kartye scored to get the Kraken on the board. Joe Pavelski scored on the powerplay to get the Stars back up by two goals. The score was 3-1 Stars going into the third period.
Tyler Seguin scored to get the Stars up by three goals. Jordan Eberle scored the final goal of the game. His goal got the Kraken back to within two goals but it was not enough. The final score was 4-2 Stars. The Dallas Stars have now tied their series with the Seattle Kraken. Both teams have won a game.
This was a solid response from Dallas after dropping the first game in overtime. They out shot the Kraken and won most of the faceoffs. Dallas lacked a little bit in hits. I also think their powerplay did enough in this game either. One for three on about ten minutes of powerplay time might have been enough in this game but might not be enough moving forward. Right now it looks like this is going to be another close series. As the series heads to Seattle I think that will benifit the Kraken a lot. How will the Kraken respond after being out shot? Will The Stars up their aggressiveness in game three? Who will break the tie?
Game three will be on Sunday, May 7th 2023. Puck drop is set for 6:30pm PST.
How will the Devils respond in game two? Will the Hurricanes continue to dominate this series?
The Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Seattle Kraken, and New Jersey Devils have advanced to round two. The Winnipeg Jets, New York Islanders, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, and New York Rangers have been eliminated.
The Vegas Golden Knights will play the Edmonton Oilers in round two. The Carolina Hurricanes will play the New Jersey Devils in round two. The Dallas Stars will play the Seattle Kraken in round two. The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Florida Panthers in round two.
Zac Electrifly 