The Stanley Cup Playoffs continued yesterday with two games. The first game was the first game of the second round. The New York Rangers took on the Carolina Hurricanes in game one of their second round series. The second game was the last game of the first round. The Dallas Stars took on the Vegas Golden Knights in game seven of their first round series. There is only one game happening today. The Boston Bruins are taking on the Florida Panthers in game one of their second round series. That series is a rematch from last season.
The New York Rangers took on the Carolina Hurricanes in game one of their second round series. The Rangers swept the Capitals to reach the second round. The Hurricanes beat the Islanders in five games to reach the second round. This game was in New York. Three minutes into the game, #93 Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers. His goal was assisted by #96 Jack Roslovic and #23 Adam Fox. Just over a minute later, #74 Jaccob Slavin scored for the Hurricanes to tie the game. Halfway through the first period, #93 Mika Zibanejad scored his second goal of the game to take the lead for the Rangers. His goal was assisted by #20 Chris Kreider and #16 Vincent Trocheck. With under four minutes left in the first period, #16 Vincent Trocheck scored to give the Rangers a two goal lead. His goal was assisted by #93 Mika Zibanejad and #20 Chris Kreider. The score after the first period was 3-1 Rangers.
Neither team scored in the second period. The score was still 3-1 Rangers going into the third period. Three minutes into the third period, #88 Martin Necas scored for the Hurricanes to bring the lead back down to one goal. His goal was assisted by #48 Jordan Martinook and #7 Dmitry Orlov. Halfway through the third period, #10 Artemi Panarin scored to give the Rangers another two goal lead. His goal was assisted by #13 Alexis Lafrenière. With under two minutes to go, #24 Seth Jarvis scored for the Hurricanes to again bring the lead down to one goal. The final score was 4-3 Rangers. The New York Rangers have taken a 1-0 series lead.
This was a close game that the Hurricanes almost came back in. The big difference in this game was the power play. The Rangers scored on both of their powerplays. The Hurricanes did not score on any of their five powerplays. This series looks like it will be much more of a challenge for both teams.
Game two of this series will be on Tuesday, May 7th. That game will be in New York. Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 PM.
The Dallas Stars took on the Vegas Golden Knights in game seven of their first round series. The series was tied at 3-3. The winner of this game would advance to the second round. The loser would be eliminated from the playoffs. This game was in Dallas. With five minutes left in the first period, #53 Wyatt Johnston scored for the Stars. His goal was unassisted. The score was 1-0 Stars after the first period.
With just under five minutes to go in the second period, #21 Brett Howden scored for the Golden Knights to tie the game. His goal was assisted by #22 Michael Amadio and #71 William Karlsson. The score was tied up at 1-1 going into the third period.
Less than a minute into the third period, #12 Radek Faksa scored to give the stars the lead. His goal was assisted by #15 Craig Smith and #55 Thomas Harley. The final score was 2-1 Stars. The Dallas Stars have won this series 4-3. The Dallas Stars have advanced to the second round. The Vegas Golden Knights have been eliminated from the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Stars scored late and kept their lead to win. The Golden Knights had plenty of missed opportunities in what turned out to be a really close game. This was a really close series between two good teams. No game ended with more than a two goal lead. Four games in this series were won by one goal. The Dallas Stars get their revenge after last years loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Finals. The defending Stanley Cup Champions are out of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. This is only the third season in a row where the defending champions will not win the Stanley Cup. It is also only the second year in a row that the defending champions will not be in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Dallas Stars will take on the Colorado Avalanche in round two.
The Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vegas Golden Knights have been eliminated from the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, and Dallas Stars have advanced to the second round.
The number three seed Florida Panthers take on the number four seed Boston Bruins in the second round. The Panthers had a win percentage of .634 during the regular season. The Bruins finished the regular season with a .573 win percentage. The Bruins won all four of their regular season meetings. Their last meeting was on April 6th. The Bruins won that game 3-2 in overtime.
The Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lighting in five games to reach the second round. The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games to reach the second round. Both teams had the opportunity but failed to sweep their first round opponents. Boston really struggled to close out their first round series. Florida didn’t have as much trouble in the first round. This series is a rematch from last season. The Panthers defeated the Bruins in the first round last season. That was a huge upset as the Panthers were the lowest seed in the Eastern Conference and the Bruins set a record for the most wins during the regular season. The Panthers went on from there to reach the Stanley Cup Final. So there is a lot of recent history and bad blood between these two teams. This should be an interesting series. It should be a close series. The Bruins might take an early lead in the series but the Panthers might take full advantage of the Bruins struggles to close out playoff series.
2024 regular season head to head record:
| GP | W | L | OTL | PTS | GF | GA | GD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panthers | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 13 | -5 |
| Bruins | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 13 | +5 |
2024 regular season record:
| GP | W | L | OTL | PTS | GF | GA | GD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panthers | 82 | 52 | 24 | 6 | 110 | 268 | 200 | +68 |
| Bruins | 82 | 47 | 20 | 15 | 109 | 267 | 224 | +43 |
2024 playoff record:
| GP | W | L | OTL | GF | GA | GD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panthers | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 12 | +5 |
| Bruins | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 12 | +6 |
Game one of this series is today. Game one will be in Florida. Puck drop is set for 5:00pm PST. The winner of this series will play the winner of theNew York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes series in the Eastern Conference Final.
Zac Electrifly 
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