by Larry Leavitt

Montreal vs. NY Rangers: On Tuesday night in game five to trail by just one game 3-2 the Montreal Canadiens played one of their best games at this point in this best of seven series with a 7-4 win over the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The Habs ended up giving up a three goal lead in the second period when it literally looked like a tennis match going back and forth, it’s amazing how quiet the Bell Centre got in the middle of the second period.

Then how loud it got in the third period when the Habs scored two goals to pull away, there were some really poor goaltending in the second period there were some lucky goals but that’s part of winning the Stanley Cup you have to have some luck with you and get some lucky bounces. Some of those goals deflecting off the skate and purely destroying the puck at the net.

Some of the goaltenders (there were three, two for NYR and one for the Habs) they really should have stopped some of those shots and some were some great shots. You had a little of everything and the Habs had to come back and they had a little of everything to make it happen. The physicality and the hitting folks in this series has helped Montreal make the difference this thing is not over.

The Canadiens Rene Bourque who scored a hat trick on Tuesday night was spectacular and if Montreal can get that out of a player whose scored nine goals all season and here he is in the playoffs and he’s got seven goals so far he’s really lifted his game.

That little spark is going to help people like, Max Pacioretty who hasn’t really had his game lifted and hasn’t been the All-Star that he should be, he scored his fifth goal of the Stanley Cup on Tuesday night. There is more potential in him and he’s going to have a good game and he should be looking forward to the next game and this will lift the team and it will show they have the attitude, they have the drive, they can do it they had some really good goaltending from Dustin Tokarski.

Los Angeles vs. Chicago: The Kings who are just one game away from putting this one away leading the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1, the Kings are actually showing that they can dominate a team. The Hawks just kind of folded after winning game one, they just disappeared but there’s no doubt about it the Hawks have the depth to make this a series and they have the talent.

It’s just the Kings absolutley controled them and showed them whose the boss in this series. The Kings just displayed all facets of the game which just took over. The Kings goalie Jonathan Quick did a fantastic job, tough, great passing, he played a great game and the Kings are playing a great game of hockey right now and their going to be very hard to beat.

What the Hawks have to do right now is pull themselves into a room and say “look guys we obviously didn’t play our best game we have much better games in us let’s go back to where we were and let’s go back to what won us Stanley Cups in the past, let’s go back to playing Blackhawks hockey, let’s play our game, let’s beat this goal but not to the point that it takes us out of our play, let’s get our passing down, let’s get our rushes together.”

The Hawks just didn’t look like they were on the same page as far as the game plan, their last game in which they lost by three goals in game four. If the Hawks head coach Joel Quenneville can settle them down and make a new list and remind these guys they have been there before, they just need to stop and reset their game plan. We’ll see how this all works out as the Hawks and Kings match up for game five at the United Center in Chicago Wednesday night.

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