by Larry Leavitt

Los Angeles vs. Anaheim: The Ducks are trying to get the feeling on how the Kings are defending them and trying to pick them apart. The Kings are managing the games really well so it’s not getting out of hand with too many fights and physicality. The Ducks are letting a lot of the good checks go and there have been a lot of hitting and there have been a lot of bad penalties.

The officals have been allowing these two teams to play a lot of trash hockey, both of these teams are very quick. The Ducks are resting goaltender Fredrick Andersen with a lower body injury which is the knee, the Ducks have called up goalie John Gibson from Norfolk of the AHL affiliate.

Anderson had been doing well he actually started the playoffs, as far as players go, they’ll just have to wait and see how their going to fill in the holes and you know the Ducks have been able to fill in the holes very well. All their bench players have been called up and have been asked to play and they have really stepped up which they showed in game three.

Minnesota vs. Chicago: The Wild who caught up to the Blackhawks to tie the series at 2-2 after being down 2-0. They have some superstars on the team but it’s not the team. Every player on the the Wild from the first line to the fourth line are contributing and their all playing hard.

For the most part people thought the Blackhawks were going to roll over Minnesota. This isn’t the case the Wild are a powerful team that came out to play, there was a boarding call that was supposed to be called against the Hawks but the officials didn’t call it.

It’s intresting to see how the defense plays and if a real good team is a playoff team if they play hurt they play good hurt. So that’s how good of a job that Minnesota has been doing. The Hawks Brandon Bolig who is serving a two game suspension for boarding Minnesota defenseman Keith Ballard at 2:47 in the second period of game four puts the Hawks a man short. The Hawks are very deep, they’ve been there and done that and this suspension will not hurt the team.

Montreal vs. Boston: The Boston Bruins have gone up 3-2 on Saturday night with a 4-2 win, the Canadiens said they have to come out next game on Monday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal and have to turn things around and even this series up again.

For game four the Bruins slipped a puck by the Habs goaltender Carey Price in the overtime to even the series at 2-2 but on Saturday night the Bruins won in convincing fashion with no dramatic comebacks by the Canadiens at the Fleet Center losing by two goals.

The Bruins in game five had Boston’s Reilly Smith score his fourth playoff goal in the second period on a power play at 1:04 and Jerome Iginla scored his fourth playoff goal at 1:36 and the Bruins at the end of the period took a 3-1 lead and they never looked back.

NY Rangers vs.Pittsburgh: The New York Rangers play at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night for game six with the Pittsburgh Penguins in front 3-2. The Rangers played a beautiful game in Pittsburgh for a 5-1 win in game five and the key to that game was the Rangers were up 2-0 and they picked up a goal and within 15 seconds they picked up another goal.

The Rangers put their foot on the peddle and and stayed on it, the Pens are a star studded team and their not going to be discounted here. This is one of those series that has been the most interesting, the Rangers if they can come back they come back as underdogs.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com