The Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins, the two betting favorites to win the Stanley Cup before the NHL Playoffs began, were both eliminated from the postseason on Sunday. They join the San Jose Sharks and the Detroit Red Wings as teams who will watch the rest of the playoffs from home. In the day's other game, the Boston Bruins fought off elimination.
NHL Scores, 2012 Playoffs: Penguins, Canucks Eliminated
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks have been eliminated, while the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals are headed to a Game 7.
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Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 Pittsburgh Penguins
This game was more or less a nightmare for the Pens, and Ilya Bryzgolov finally putting in a great performance was the last thing that the Senators and Rangers wanted to see. Claude Giroux scored the opening goal 32 seconds in and the Flyers eventually jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Evgeni Malkin pulled a goal back in the second period, but he was answered by Danny Briere less than a minute later. Brayden Schenn finished off the scoring in garbage time in the third period.
Boston Bruins 4-3 Washington Capitals (OT)
The Bruins live to fight another day, and will host Game 7 of this series at home in Boston. Tyler Seguin was the star of the show, setting up the Bruins' third-period goal and scoring the overtime winner. With the game tied 2-2 after the second period, Andrew Ference scored 11:57 into the third period to give Boston the lead. Alex Ovechkin eventually answered three minutes later, and his goal forced overtime. The OT period lasted less than four minutes, with Seguin scoring the winning goal on a great move to beat Braden Holtby.
Los Angeles Kings 2-1 Vancouver Canucks
Jonathan Quick and Cory Schneider were both nearly flawless in this game, but Quick came up just a little bit bigger in the end. Henrik Sedin scored on a power play in the first period and the game was goalless for an extended period of time after that until Brad Richardson tied it up early in the third period. Early on in overtime, Quick made a stunning pad save on a wrap-around shot by Mason Raymond to keep his team in the game. The Kings ended the series shortly afterwards on a goal by Jarrett Stoll, 4:27 into the overtime period.
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