COLUMBUS
Tampa Bay Lightning Hoodies Authentic , Ohio (AP) Three straight overtime finishes to start the postseason? No problem.That’s what the Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals were saying after Tuesday night’s double- OT game, one that finally ended when the puck pinballed around the front of the net, hitting Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski and the Capitals’ Lars Eller before squirting past goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.”Real ugly” was how Eller put it afterward.But it was a win, one that Washington badly needed after losing two straight overtime games at home. The Capitals needed 89 minutes to win Game 3, the longest game in Blue Jackets history and one played in front of the largest hockey crowd ever at Nationwide Arena.Of the first 26 games of the NHL playoffs, there have been four overtime games in all, with three of them in this series (Vegas and Los Angeles also had a double OT game during the Golden Knights‘ sweep). It is the sixth time in playoff history that the first three games of a series went to OT.Care to make it four?The two teams go at it again on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. EDT, USA) with Columbus looking to take a 3-1 lead. Despite the extra hockey and nail-biting drama, nobody is feeling the burn. At least not that they’re saying.”I didn’t see any guys dying out there,” Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. ”I think we’re in really good condition for this time of year. I don’t think any guys worried about that.”Washington coach Barry Trotz said his team is accustomed to managing overtime games and then coming back. It all builds character, he said.”The playoffs are a test of will, even if it’s not overtime
Tampa Bay Lightning Hats Authentic ,” he said. ”What I think overtime makes you do is concentrate when you’re tired. You have to be in that moment. You can’t cut that corners, you can’t do that fly-by when you’re really tired, you can’t cheat because those are the times the puck ends up in the back of your net.”Columbus coach John Tortorella said he thinks his guys are fine.”I’ll tell you right now, if we’re fatigued three games in, holy crap,” he said. ”We’re just starting. It was a long game last night and we’ve had some overtime games, but that’s all part of it. You just can’t be tired. I don’t even think you can start talking about fatigue until you’re in a couple of rounds from now.”POWER LINEAfter recording 20 points in the first two games against the Maple Leafs, the Boston line of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron was held scoreless in Game 3. The Bruins are counting on their production to return for Game 4 in Toronto on Thursday night.”I thought our top line was fine for the most part, they just didn’t finish,” coach Bruce Cassidy said after the 4-2 loss that cut Boston’s lead in the series to 2-1. ”They (the Maple Leafs) were determined to keep them off the score sheet, and they did.”While the Leafs had bad luck in the first two games – though that wasn’t their only problem
Custom Tampa Bay Lightning Jerseys , as the combined 12-4 score could attest – in Game 3 it was Pastrnak who hit the post on one shot and then Toronto’s Frederik Andersen made great saves on two others, first with his glove and then with his stick.After two games, four Bruins led the NHL in postseason scoring – Pastrnak (4 goals, 5 assists), Marchand (1, 5), Bergeron (0, 5), plus defenseman Torey Krug (0, 5). Pastrnak’s nine points still led the league heading into Wednesday night’s games.ABOUT THAT CALLCassidy took issue with a penalty call he says NHL officials made on a hunch in a 4-2 loss to Toronto in Game 3.Bruins forward Riley Nash was handed a delay of game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass on Monday. But the puck touched the glass before entering the crowd, which would negate the minor penalty, and officials missed it. Nash was sent to the box at 16:58 of the first period.Seven seconds later
www.officialmapleleafsproshop.com , James van Riemsdyk scored to put Toronto ahead 1-0. It was the first time in the series the Leafs scored first.Cassidy, whose team leads the series 2-1, spoke to the officials at the beginning of the second period and wanted to know who of the four (two referees, two linesmen) decided to give Nash the two-minute penalty.”My question was: who made the call? There’s no call immediately,” he said. ”When a referee makes a call you kind of live with it because it’s decisive. So now they get together and I assume they want to make the right call, that’s the idea, but to me they got together and clearly they guessed because it hit the glass and we saw that. I think you’re kind of innocent until proven guilty.”Game 4 is Thursday at Air Canada Centre (7 p.m. EDT, NBCSN).—AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.— Through the early part of the season, the San Jose Sharks have had a hard time holding leads and closing out opponents. After a disappointing road trip, San Jose looks to reverse those trends on Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres.The Sharks are back at SAP Center after dropping three of five, capped by a 3-2 setback to the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. In three losses, San Jose (2-3-1) either let leads slip away or failed to capitalize before a contest was out of reach.Article continues below ...“We’re not scoring enough and not getting enough saves; it’s a bad combination
Toronto Maple Leafs T-Shirts Authentic ,” coach Peter DeBoer said after the game in New Jersey.The Sharks surrendered three third-period goals in a 4-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Oct. 8. Three nights later, San Jose yielded the tying goal in the third before falling in overtime to the New York Rangers. DeBoer’s club then gave up two goals in the final 20 minutes of the loss to the Devils.In the opening game of the trip on Oct. 5, the Sharks wasted an early two-goal lead before beating the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in overtime.But San Jose’s struggles go beyond end results. One facet of the club’s special teams unit is struggling while another is flourishing. The Sharks are 2 for 21 with the man advantage, but also has three short-handed goals this season. The club registered eight such tallies in 2017-18.“We have to find a way to get another goal a night, and part of that is power play and part of that is 5-on-5,” said DeBoer. “We have to find a way to get another save a night. Part of that is defending a little tighter and part of that is getting another save.” One player off to a solid start is San Jose winger Evander Kane, and he’s scheduled to face the team that traded him away last winter for the first time.Selected fourth overall in the 2009 NHL Draft, Kane never lived up to high expectations in nine-plus seasons with three clubs before being dealt to the Sharks in February.But Kane provided an immediate boost for San Jose. In 17 games, he collected nine goals — including a career-high four against the Calgary Flames on March 16. In his first playoff action, the 27-year-old notched four goals in nine contests, but the Sharks lost in the second round to the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in six games.Kane, who signed a seven-year contract extension in May
Toronto Maple Leafs Hoodies Authentic , leads the Sharks with four goals and is tied with Kevin Labanc for the team lead with five points.Buffalo has split the first two games of a five-game swing after falling 4-1 to Vegas on Tuesday. Vladimir Sobotka scored in the final minute to help the Sabres avoid being blanked for the second time this season.“We’ve got to make sure our execution has to be ready when the puck drops,” coach Phil Housley told the Buffalo News. “Not 10 minutes into the game or at the end of the first period.”Even with the loss, Buffalo is 6-1-1 in its last eight road games against Pacific Division foes. However, the Sharks swept both meetings in 2017-18 and are looking for their fourth straight win in the series.Sobotka, who is playing with his first Eastern Conference team after nine seasons with the St. Louis Blues, has eight points in his last eight matchups versus the Sharks. The native of the Czech Republic registered the only hat trick of his NHL career on March 9, 2013, in San Jose.While Carter Hutton has struggled with nine goals allowed in his last two games, the Sabres’ new starting netminder could be poised for a bounce-back game. Hutton is 4-1-1 with a 1.32 goals-against average and .955 save percentage in his career against San Jose.Linus Ullmark, who earned his first NHL shutout last Saturday by making 36 saves in a 3-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes, has never faced the Sharks.
