After struggling on the offensive end last week, the Boston Bruins finally seem to have it all figured out. Saturday marked a successful win over the Buffalo Sabres, followed by the B’s dominating Sidney Crosby and the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers 3-0 yesterday at the TD Garden.

Crosby is in a bit of a slump himself, recording just two shots on the night. He’s now been left out of the stat book for the fifth consecutive contest.  Longtime veteran and former Penguin Mark Recchi knows the young phenom will be back in regular form soon enough. “It’s just one of those things where he’s in a rut right now,” said Recchi. “It won’t be very long he’ll be in it, I know that. He’s a great player and when they break out, they can go the opposite way, and everything they touch turns to goals.”

Matt Hunwick scored first for Boston 1:36 into the second period.  Daniel Paille and Patrice Bergeron supplied the bonus goals in the third. Tim Thomas denied all 27 Penguins shots on goal. The Bruins are next set to host the Florida Panthers this Thursday, November 12th at 7:00 PM.

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Despite losing team captain Sidney Crosby early in the second period, the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied to win game 7 of the Stanley Cup championship. Max Talbot provided all of the Pens offense, scoring goals at the start and middle of the second period.  “Max came up with some big goals there,” Crosby said. “We don’t get to this point without everyone contributing. I knew the guys were going to find a way to pull it off.” With Talbot’s goals and Marc-Andre Fleury’s dramatic last-second diving save on a Nicklas Lidstrom shot, propelled Pittsburgh to win the rematch of last year’s championship series. “I knew there wasn’t much time left,” Fleury said. “The rebound was wide. I just decided to get my body out there and it hit me in the ribs so it was good.” The championship is the team’s third, the first since two in a row from 1990-1992.

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For the first time since 1983/1984, the Stanley Cup Championship will be a rematch of the previous year’s. In the 2007-2008 finals, the Red Wings won the series four games to two and sent the pride of the NHL, Sidney Crosby, home without any hardware. Detroit has a chance to extend their dynasty further if they can repeat.  Detroit has won four of the last 11 championships, and has made the playoffs every year since 1990. The Pittsburgh Penguins dominated the NHL in the 1990’s as well, winning two consecutive Cups and qualifying for the playoffs each season for the entire decade. It would take Sidney Crosby’s debut in 2005, as well as Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal joining the team the next year to help the Penguins gain a playoff berth.

The series starts on Saturday night. 2009 Stanley Cup Finals tickets are available now!

The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings may be on a Stanley Cup finals collision course again. Both teams won the first games of their respective Conference Championship series’, and seem to have the edge in making it to the finals. The Pittsburgh Penguins held off the Carolina Hurricanes’ late charge on Monday to secure win number one. Pens defenseman Phillippe Boucher notched an assist, and his first playoff goal since 2004. Boucher sat for much of the regular season with a foot injury, and only dressed for four of Pittsburgh’s playoff games so far. Boucher made his presence felt in Monday’s game though.

“He’s been ready, he stayed ready and worked hard,” Pens coach Dan Bylsma told the AP’s Alan Robinson. “He didn’t get a lot of minutes, but when he did he cashed in.”

The Red Wings had an easier time than the Penguins, beating the Blackhawks 5-2 on Sunday night. Former Blackhawk Daniel Cleary victimized the team that drafted him, notching a goal at 8:23 to tie the game in the first period, as well as a late goal that put the nail in Chicago’s coffin.  “I wasn”t in Chicago very long, so no hard feelings,” Cleary said in a post-game press conference. Detroit’s defense was solid, and netminder Chris Osgood stopped 30 of 32 shots that made it to him. The Red Wings have won 4 of their last 5 games, and seem to have the momentum to carry them to the finals.

Detroit Red Wings tickets and Pittsburgh Penguins tickets are available now.

In the midst of the final week of the regular season, teams are preparing for the tough playoff road ahead in a tight Eastern Conference.  The Boston Bruins hold the best record in the league at 51-18 with three games to go before the opening rounds.  After making an early exit in the quarterfinals last season, the Bruins are eager to go back and make a better run for the Stanley Cup.

The Bruins might run into the Pittsburg Penguins later in the playoffs, which would make for an outstanding series.  Pittsburg went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals last year but failed to beat out the Detroit Redwings.  Team GM Ray Shero has made moves within the last month to assure his team is back in contention.  He recently acquired forwards Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz, who have been able to fit right into the lineup along with Sidney Crosby.

The Atlantic Division is packed this season with contenders who have goals to make it far in the playoffs.  Along with the Penguins the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers are teams to watch out for.  The Devils are known for their high power offense lead by Zach Parise and Patrick Elias.  The Rangers are on a roll as of late with Sean Avery, Nik Antropov, and Derek Morris taking control.  New York is still fighting to make the playoffs but if they do clinch, they can compete with any team.

Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Matchups

(1) Boston Bruins vs (8) Montreal Canadiens
(2) Washington Capitals vs (7) New York Rangers
(3) New Jersey Devils vs (6) Carolina Hurricanes
(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs (5) Philadelphia Flyers

Look for one of the most exciting Eastern Conference post-seasons to date.  NHL Eastern Conference Playoff Tickets are now available with us at Aceticket.com!

The Boston Bruins split their recent weekend campaign, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4 which followed a close win over the Islanders 2-1.  Against New York on Saturday the Bruins put in their first two shots passed Islanders goalie Yann Davis.  Tim Thomas had 21 saves for the Bruins, only giving up one goal to Mark Streit in the first.

Late in the third period Milan Lucic and Blake Wheeler were both in the penalty box for tripping, creating a five on three advantage for the Islanders.  New York couldn’t capitalize and the Bruins were able to luckily hold on for the win.

Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh was more of an offensive battle with the score at 2-2 just after the first period.  Blake Wheeler scored the  only goal of the second period for Boston to give them a 3-2 lead.   Things went sour at the start of the third when the Penguins scored back to back goals in the first minute.  The Bruins were able to score once near the end, but it was not nearly enough to match Pittsburgh’s four goals in the final period.

Boston remains on top of the East heading into the final stretch of the regular season.  They will square off against the Los Angeles Kings Thursday, March 19th at the TD Banknorth Garden.

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New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist got his 20th win and 1st shutout of the year last night stopping 27 Penguins shots en route to a 4-0 Rangers win.  It was Lundqvist’s 18th career shutout.  The Rangers who have struggled of late especially on the power play got off to a good start with 2 power play goals in the 1st two periods.  Nigel Dawes got the 1st period pp goal while Paul Mara added the 2nd in period 2.  Chris Drury and Scott Gomez added 3rd period insurance goals as the Rangers regained their lead in the Atlantic Division. The Rangers will host the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday 1/7 at Madison Square Garden before hitting the road for games against the Sabres, Senators, Islanders, Blackhawks, and Penguins.  New York Rangers tickets are available for all remaining 2009 games. 

Unwilling to accept one year offers from several NHL teams, including the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Edmonton Oilers, Jaromir Jagr has signed a deal to play for the Russian League team Avangard Omsk. The deal is for two years with an option for a third year and will pay Jagr about $7 million tax free per year. The move wasn’t easy for Jagr.”It was the toughest decision in my life, hockeywise. … No question about it. I hate making changes,” Jagr told The Canadian Press.

Rangers GM, Glen Sather wanted to bring Jagr back for another year, but grew tired of waiting for a response from Jagr’s camp. In the meantime Sather sealed Jagr’s fate with New York by signing free agent Markus Naslund away from the Vancouver Canucks.

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The combination of early goals and stellar defense has been the key and just enough for the Detroit Red Wings to capture victories over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Monday night, Chris Osgood made 22 saves for his second shutout in as many games to propel the Red Wings half way home to winning their 11th Stanley Cup. Their last Championship season came in 2002 but they are two wins away from capturing the title again. The shutout was Osgood’s 13th playoff shutout of his career.

“I play the game as it comes,” Osgood said. “I love playing behind these guys. I don’t need 40 shots to play the game or to feel good. I’m confident regardless. I’m not really into stats too much, just into winning.”

Brad Stuart scored the Wings first goal 6:55 into the first period and Thomas Holmstrom netted the games second goal 11:18 into the same frame. This was Holmstrom’s 4th goal of the playoffs and gave his defense a little breathing room, not that they really needed it.

This Penguins offensive unit that scored 247 goals during the regular season has now been held scoreless for 6 consecutive periods. Captain Sidney Crosby hopes that things can change when the series shifts to Pittsburgh for Games 3 and 4.

“We just have to execute,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “Did they really get that many scoring chances on us? I don’t think they did. They got a few and put them in. We hit a post, and pucks go through us by the net that we don’t put in. That’s the difference.”

The series continues Wednesday night at 8:00 pm in Pittsburgh.

After some enthralling game 7’s the 1st round of the 2008 NHL Playoffs is now complete. 2nd round matchups are now set and NHL Playoff tickets are now available for all games.

Eastern Conference

Montreal Canadiens vs Philadelphia Flyers: Both teams played a hard fought 7 game series in round 1. After getting off to a 3-1 game lead over the Boston Bruins the Canadiens were forced to play game 7 at home. The Habs shutout the Bruins 5-0 in that deciding game to advance. The Flyers won game 7 in overtime against the Washington Capitals.

Canadiens Playoff Tickets
Flyers Playoff Tickets

Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Rangers: The Penguins made quick work of the Senators in round 1, sweeping Ottawa in four straight. The New York Rangers also had a quick 1st round, eliminating the Devils in 5 games.

Penguins Playoff Tickets
Rangers Playoff Tickets

Western Conference

Colorado Avalanche vs Detroit Red Wings: The Avalanche needed 6 games to get past The Wild in round 1. Colorado will face the Red Wings in round 2. Detroit also had a 6 game 1st round series disposing of the Nashville Predators.

Avalanche Playoff Tickets
Red Wings Playoff Tickets

Dallas Stars vs San Jose Sharks: The Stars needed 6 games to eliminate the Anaheim Ducks in round 1. They will face the San Jose Sharks in the 2nd round. The Sharks are coming off an exciting 7 game series with the Calgary Flames.

Stars Playoff Tickets
Sharks Playoff Tickets