The last time Edmonton won the Stanley Cup was 1990 and that was the fifth time they had done so in seven seasons. The years with Gretzky, Messier, Kurri and others have long since been gone though and so was Edmonton’s prominence until now. Last night Edmonton became the first eight-seed ever to make the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The Oilers won the series 4-1 and relied heavily on their goalie Dwayne Roloson. The Ducks outshot Edmonton in every game including a 33-25 performance last night, but Roloson stopped all but one of them. The Stanley Cup normally ends up over the head of the goalie who gets in the zone during the playoffs and right now Roloson looks like that man.
Well, the Carolina Hurricanes didn’t want to fall in the same hole they did at the beginning of their first series. They thoroughly pistol-whipped the New Jersey Devils on Sat., 6-0. The Devils have been on cruise control over past little stretch, and having no trouble in the first round. Well, Carolina applied the brakes behind a balanced scoring attack, with 5 players scoring the 6 goals. New Jersey also hurt themselves, as 5 of the 6 goals were scored on power plays. Can’t win giving the other team that many opportunities. You have to think the series won’t be quite this easy for the Hurricanes, but it helps to start off on the right foot and not be pushed against a wall.