We had plenty of dramatics last night with Ottawa’s 2-1 double-overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Boston Bruins also took a 2-0 series lead, meaning that tonight’s series is the only one in the second round to involve a road team winning.
Game 3: Detroit Red Wings host Chicago Blackhawks (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/Live Extra)
Series tied at 1-1
Everything seemed to click for Detroit in Game 2. Rookie Damien Brunner netted his second goal in as many games, Valtteri Filppula extended his recent hot streak after a disappointing regular season, and Johan Franzen scored his fourth goal of the playoffs.
The Red Wings still face an uphill climb to win this series, but now they have put the pressure on Chicago to win at least one game at Joe Louis Arena.
“Losing home ice, (it was) one of those days when they were much better than we were,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said in a CSN Chicago report. “And it certainly got our attention.”
Chicago’s Andrew Shaw added that his team is going to have to “ramp up our intensity in Game 3.”
One change for the Blackhawks might be the addition of Viktor Stalberg after he was listed as a healthy scratch for the last two games. Even when Stalberg has played, Chicago has barely utilized with the man advantage in the playoffs, so it will be interesting to see if he gets any playing time in those situations.
For Detroit the key will be maintaining what they did in Game 2. They need to continue to get production from players other than Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk in order to win this series.