Around the NHL: Stayin’ Alive

There were four teams facing elimination from the playoffs this week. Three managed to hold on to fight another day. Nashville, Ottawa and Vancouver all won their elimination games. Unfortunately for Jets fans, Winnipeg did not. 

The Anaheim Ducks were able to complete the four game sweep of the Jets with a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night. Anaheim trailed in the third period of each of the first three games but was able to come back and win each time. Wednesday's game was the only game in which the Ducks led going into the third. They now await the winner of the Vancouver and Calgary series.

Speaking of the Canucks, they were able to stay alive with a 2-1 win on Thursday. This series has been arguably the nastiest of all so far. The two teams have been playing very physical hockey through the first five games. 

The Flames will have a chance to close it out on Saturday in front of their fans in game six. 

The Nashville Predators remained alive with their 5-2 win Thursday over the Chicago Blackhawks. For the first time in the series, Chicago goalie Scott Darling looked beatable. Nashville used a Filip Forsberg hat trick and a four goal third period to send the series back to Chicago. 

If the Hawks can win the Cup with Darling between the pipes it will be the third championship in six years with three different goalies. They need to go one step at a time though and that starts with defeating the Predators. Game six will be Saturday.

There are two more elimination games tonight. The Rangers have a chance to send the Penguins home and Montreal can close out the Senators.

Ottawa was the third team to avoid an early exit with a 1-0 shutout of the Canadiens on Wednesday night. Craig Anderson made 28 saves for the Senators in the win. Montreal still has a firm three games to one lead in the series but as Ottawa has proven throughout the season, you can never count them out. 

 The Penguins will need an effort similar to the one the put forth in game two of the series in order to not be sent packing. It will be a tough task after losing a heart breaker in overtime on Wednesday night.

Marc-Andre Fleury has played some his best playoff hockey since the teams run to back to back finals in 2008-09.  Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, Henrik Lundqvist has been a little bit better for New York.  

Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill on Twitter @wtfd103074