Rangers  3

Devils    1

The eastern conference kicked off the second round with this interesting match-up. The team that was largely built by GM Larry was vacated to head to expansion and after a bit of tinkering by new GM Greg (AKA Lance uppercut)went on to have a very solid season and then a rather unexpected broom job of the Islanders in round 1. The Devils under GM Tim also had a very good season and served notice that he will once again be a force after ousting Rex and his Panthers rather easily in 5 games. This game was a road "picasso" for the Rangers as they kept the shots and chances against low and somehow manged to outshoot the hometown Devils in all three periods. After a uneventful first that ended scoreless Logan Couture finally made an appearance for the Devils in the playoffs scoring his first but before the cheers even subsided Kris Letang answered for the Rangers to once again knot the score. The third period kicked off with both teams looking to take the early advantage but the Rangers were rewarded for their good play by getting four straight PP's and scored on 2 of them to send the home crowd home very disappointed. Rangers lead series 1-0

Senators  5

Habs     4

Montreal came into these playoffs as what was felt the co-favorite to come out of the Eastern conference with the Isles. Both of these strong franchises have run into significant issues as the isles went out unexpectedly in 4 straight and the Canadiens despite getting through the first round have lost their starting goalie for likely the playoffs and that loss was evident in this one! The Habs came out flying in front of the home crowd and dominated scoring 4 goals on 17 first period shots and chasing the Sens starter from the game! After stating that one would think that this game would be a cakewalk but the problem was that Habs starter Mason must have forgot the game time as he didn't show up and let in 3 of the only 6 shots he faced in the period to allow the defending champs to hang around. The game settled in after that early fiasco with the Sens getting the only goal in a far more even second period and when the puck dropped for the third period it was evident that neither team wanted to give the game away with a bad turnover. The third ended with not much action and no goals on a 7-6 shot advantage for the Sens and off to overtime these 2 went. Matty Duchene ended this contest at 6:48 of overtime to give the Sens an unexpected 1-0 series lead despite having their starter pulled and being largely outplayed !