Classic Friday Night in the NHL Playoffs

There was potential for some good stuff Friday night in the NHL playoffs. After all, five games were scheduled, and three of them featured desperate home teams trying to avoid 2-0 deficits in their respective series.

The NHL should be proud. Every one of these games lived up to the billing, and you could argue the night as a whole far exceeded any reasonable expectations.

Great action could be found in every game, and there were some big moments that helped define a great night of classic playoff hockey.

Just think: this is the first round. Even better, these are the opening games of the first round.

It's only going to get better from here.

Game 2: Ottawa at Pittsburgh

The first memorable moment happened at the Igloo, where Sidney Crosby absolutely took over after Peter Regin's goal at 18 seconds of the first period gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead and stunned the crowd.

Crosby scored on a rebound in the first to tie the score at 1-1, and he set up Kris LeTang's game-winner with great work against Jason Spezza behind the Ottawa net.

But it was at the other end of the rink that this classic night began to evolve.



Love or hate him, it's hard to argue the notion that Crosby elevated his game when his team needed him most. That's the kind of leadership that makes a guy a great captain.

Game 2: Philadelphia at New Jersey

Zach Parise has scored some big goals in his career. The biggest might have been Friday, were it not for Dainius Zubrus.

Instead of Parise, it was Zubrus, with his stick in front of Parise's, getting the game-winning goal with just under five minutes to go. It capped a super game, with the Devils showing the desperation of a team that could ill afford to fall behind 2-0 before the series shifted to Philadelphia.

Ilya Kovalchuk's empty-netter iced it, and gave us the first two-goal final score of the playoffs (the first eight finals were all one-goal decisions).



Game 1: Nashville at Chicago

The Predators had never won a road playoff game ... before Friday night. Nashville stuck with the high-octane Blackhawks throughout the night, and they took advantage of the close game in the third period.

J.P. Dumont's 50-foot goal got a lot of attention, but watch them outwork the Blackhawks later in the third, leading to Dumont's game-winning goal.



Nashville added two late empty-netters to win by three.

Game 2: Detroit at Phoenix

Down 1-0, the Red Wings knew they had to be more physical with Phoenix. That worked marvelously, as Detroit seemed to wear down the Coyotes, especially the defensive corps. Ilya Bryzgalov was hung out to dry a number of times, with Detroit getting breakaways and odd-man rushes. They cashed in six times on Bryzgalov, added an empty-netter for Henrik Zetterberg's hat trick, and decisively won 7-4 in a game that was far closer than that final score indicates.

There were two parts of this game that stood out. The teams frantically traded goals -- five of them over a stretch of 4:58 -- in the second period, turning a 1-0 Phoenix lead into a 3-3 tie.



After Detroit took a 4-3 lead in the third, the Coyotes answered, just like they had all night to that point. This time, it was captain Shane Doan providing a great image of what playoff hockey is all about.



Zetterberg scored the game-winner off a rebound later in the third period.

Game 2: Colorado at San Jose

Despite Evgeni Nabokov's best efforts, San Jose pulled even in this shootout of a game. The Sharks never led until Devin Setoguchi scored his second of the game in overtime.



Before that, the Sharks tied it in the final minute of regulation, thanks to Joe Pavelski.



All night long, San Jose worked hard around their net, and they never let Colorado get them down, even after the Avalanche answered every Sharks goal. It was an entertaining game and a great way to close out a super night of playoff hockey.