Stanley Cup playoffs: Rangers avoid sweep, Wings and Kings win

But you don’t care about all that. You just need to see the GIFs:

The Bruins gave up 2-0 and a 3-2 leads in the game, and the Rangers won it in overtime to avoid the sweep:

Let’s look at the three big questions we were tracking in Game 5:

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As is his wont, he’ll even use salty language to underline the point.

The two go way back, to their 2004 Stanley Cup championship together in Tampa Bay. And he wants to make that clear:

But the Kings continued to put on the pressure, and were eventually able to sneak one by Niemi late in the period:

The shots were 18-11 in favor of the Kings at the second intermission.

The Kings led in hits, 23-12, in the period, and led in shots, 9-6.

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The first period was scoreless as both teams just missed on their opportunities, including several stretch passes by the Hawks that could not find a conversion past Howard.

But the story of the game was how the Red Wings got to Hawks captain Toews, who showed his frustration in an impressive run during the second period where he committed three consecutive penalties in a 5:34 span.

Chicago was breaking through, however, outshooting Detroit 14-10 in the period and starting to spend more and more time in the Detroit zone.

Though it was still scoreless, the Wings will need to be better (outside of Howard) to take this one and grab a 3-1 lead in the series.

It looked bad for the Rangers, but they did get a bit of help from this awkward mistake from Rask, which gave them a fluke goal and cut the Bruins’ lead in half:

The Bruins led 2-1 at the second intermission. They led in shots 21-12.

Sometimes when a goalie doesn’t get a lot of work in a game, his mind can wander. It can be hard to keep focused on the action. A guy can start to daydream, maybe even get a bit sleepy.

Was Rask napping? Did he get bored and sit down to start drawing on the ice with his stick?

New York appeared disjointed for most of the period, which doesn’t bode well for their ability to avoid elimination.

The Bruins led in shots, 12-4, at the first intermission.

It must be as good a time to be a Detroit Red Wing right now as it has been in any time since they won their last Stanley Cup in 2008 (or perhaps when they won the right to compete for another in 2009). You’ve got a 2-1 series lead on one of your arch rivals the season before you’ll likely not face one another again in the post-season for many years. Nobody expected you to be here: in the post-season, in the second round, ahead of the Blackhawks. None of this was predicted, expected, or even believed when I told people it was happening.

That said, there’s a downside in that everyone still doesn’t really expect much of them. The Blackhawks will find their form in time for tonight’s Game 4 and run off three consecutive wins to take the series. Jonathan Toews will find his scoring touch again. The defense will play better in front of Corey Crawford, who will also play better. The Red Wings are just biding time until the stars of the Hawks return.

The New York Rangers were out-shooting the Boston Bruins 14-9 after Ryan McDonagh scored the team’s only goal. McDonagh’s point shot through a screen came at 3:53 of the second period to make it 1-0 Rangers in a pivotal Game 3 that could swing the two teams’ Eastern Conference Semifinal series. Here was the Rangers’ chance to make it a homer series and prove to the Bruins that this would be a long, epic battle.

Instead, the Bruins took over. Boston outshot New York by a count of 25-10 over the last 36 minutes of the game, getting third period goals from Johnny Boychuk and a bizarre one from Daniel Paille to skate out of Madison Square Garden with a 2-1 win. Insane that this same Bruins team was seconds away from being eliminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs but 10 days ago. A testament to Claude Julien and his excellent team that they have found their gear when it was most needed.