2020 EASTERN CONFERENCE QUARTER FINAL #1

                                    

#1 Jagr Mullets  (60-20-2) vs. #4 Thunder Bay Nor’Westers (47-31-4)
GAME #1 at Jagr Not even Nostradamus could have predicted this outcome. Two high scoring but defensive-minded teams meet – and it turns into a barn burner. In all, thirteen goals are scored… but the last one at 18:46 is the one that matters. Landeskog beats Kuemper to win the game 7-6, but also collects the hat trick as the cherry on top! Bergeron (2G, 2A) does all he can for the home team but when there’s a combined FORTY ONE scoring chances in the game all bets are off.

The difference is special teams. Thunder Bay goes 2-5, while the Mullets go 0-5 (including a 4 minute double minor).

Scoring Summary
Per Time Str Team
1 5:48 EV TBN Landeskog (1), unassisted
1 6:21 EV JAG Bergeron (1), assisted by Radulov (1) and Pulock (1)
1 9:40 PP TBN Couturier (1), assisted by Smith (1) and Johnsson (1)
2 :31 EV JAG Bergeron (2), assisted by Ovechkin (1) and Matthews (1)
2 4:14 EV TBN Couturier (2), assisted by Hanifin (1) and Nyquist (1)
2 8:30 SH JAG Rielly (1), assisted by Bergeron (1)
2 18:16 EV JAG Ovechkin (1), assisted by Bergeron (2) and Radulov (2)
3 :39 EV TBN Landeskog (2), assisted by Barkov (1)
3 2:35 EV TBN Connor (1), assisted by Smith (2) and O’Reilly (1)
3 11:47 PP TBN Johnsson (1), assisted by Couturier (1) and Jensen (1)
3 13:43 EV JAG Svechnikov (1), assisted by Sundqvist (1) and Ekholm (1)
3 14:25 EV JAG Matthews (1), assisted by Tkachuk (1) and McDonagh (1)
3 18:46 EV TBN Landeskog (3), assisted by Barkov (2) and Athanasiou (1)

Star 1: TBN Landeskog 3 G
Star 2: TBN Couturier 2 G, 3 Pts
Star 3: JAG Bergeron 2 G, 4 Pts

GWG: Gabriel Landeskog

Notables: TBN Slavin 5 blocks, Jones 7 blocks, Landeskog hat trick, Rinne 34 saves, Jensen 5 blocks
JAG Kuemper 30 saves

——————————————————————————————————

GAME #2 at Jagr Things get back to normal, and we have a 3-1 Jagr lead late in the 3rd… when Parayko scores on the PP to make it 3-2 with three and a half minutes left. Fortunately the Mullets clamp down and hold on to knot the series at 1 game each.

Scoring Summary
Per Time Str Team
1 3:51 EV JAG Matthews (2), assisted by Letang (1) and Tkachuk (2)
1 10:21 PP TBN Couturier (3), assisted by Smith (3) and Petry (1)
3 1:56 EV TBN Landeskog (4), unassisted
3 9:03 EV JAG Parise (1), assisted by Matthews (2)
3 16:28 PP JAG Ovechkin (2), assisted by Rielly (1) and Matthews (3)

Star 1: JAG Matthews 1 G, 3 Pts
Star 2: JAG Kuemper 39 saves
Star 3: JAG Ovechkin 1 G

GWG: Alex Ovechkin

Notables: TBN Rinne 34 saves
JAG Letang 7 blocks, Kuemper 39 saves, Bergeron 21 faceoffs won

————————————————————————————–

SUMMARY: We easily could have been down 0-2 to start this series, so we’re more than happy to go into Thunder Bay tied up at 1-1.

——————————————————————————————-

GAME #3 at Thunder Bay 1st Period:
Jagr draws first blood as Couture scores at 4:25 his 1 of the series to give Jagr a 1-0 lead. AT 8:29 Bertuzzi’s 4th line LW ties the game on his 1st goal of the season.
SOG J:9 TH:92nd Period:
1:44 Tkachuk gives the lead back to Jagr – his first of the season.
At this point Thunder Bay took over the game.
Thunder Bay scored 4 unanswered goal to take a commanding lead 5.2
Goals By:
Connor (2), Landeskog (5), Jones (1), Athanasiou (1)
Then the Nor’Westers lost focus for minute and Jagr showed why they are the league Jagernaught.
16:45 Tkachuk scores his 2nd of the game then at 16:59 Rielly scores his 2nd of the series and all of a sudden we have a game again.
Jagr (4) Thunder Bay (5)
SOG J:20 TB:163rd Period:
At 2:54 the veteran Shea Weber ties the game at 5-5
at 4:35 Kyle Connor pushes Thunder Bay back into the lead 6-5 on his 3rd goal of the series.
At 5:23 Andreas Johnsson gives Thunder Bay an insurance goal 7-5
But the game is not over yet.
7:14 Alexander Radulov closes the gap to one with 12 minutes still to play.
But things settle into a smothering blueline to blueline battle. One 1 real good scoring chance after that as the game ends.
Thunder Bay (7) Jagr (6)
Thunder Bay takes a 2-1 lead in the series.————————————————————————————————–
GAME #4 at Thunder Bay It does not take long for Jagr to establish it’s powerful offense in game 4.
1:49 Mathews (3)
6:12 Svechnikov (2) and Jagr is out front 2-0
Thunder Bay finally scores at 17:09
Connor (4) closes the gap to 2-1 as the period ends.2nd Period
1:04 and Thunder Bay’s Andreas Athanasiou (wanted to prove I could spell his whole name) scores to tie the game at 2-2.
Morgan Reilly scores at 11:31 followed by a Lindholm goal at 15:17
and the 2nd period ends with Jagr ahead 4-2.3rd Period
Tkachuk (starting to hate this guy) scores giving Jagr a commanding 5-2 lead.
Like a heavyweight slugfest
Thunder Bay battle back
6:20 Riley Smith scores and then late at 19:02 gives hope as the lead is down to 5-4 Jagr.Lightning Strikes !!!!!!!!!
19:07 just 5 seconds after the center ice face of we have a goal

Radulov rips a shot from the wing thats finds it’s way into the twine. Jagr 6-4.

It’s Back to Center Ice

SHIT !!!!
19:12 Bergeron scores Jagr 7-4

2 Goals in 10 seconds both in the last minute of play

The Jagrnaught ties the series 2-2 and crushes the Thunder Dome into stunned silence.

——————————————————————————————-

SUMMARY: Jagr is a powerhouse and even as well as Thunder Bay has played it feels like we are a mouse the cat is toying with. The let us score and run for awhile but then when they want to make a point —————- WHAM _ BAM they can score fast and at will.

Coach Jiri Fisher will have his hand full trying to get the boys ready for game 5 in Jagrville.

————————————————————————————————-

GAME #5 at Jagr The Mullets flow early on, controlling the pace and shots on goal until finally Zach Parise (2) beats Rinne at 9:09 of the first. A little over 4 minutes later, Parise (3) scores again on the Power Play to give Jagr an early 2-0 lead.

But then the ice starts to tilt Thunder Bay’s way and they start to put some pressure on Kuemper. Eventually Ryan McDonagh takes a tripping penalty at 18:45 of the 1st and you can feel the momentum start to shift… but then Patrice Bergeron (4) scores a SHORTIE at the 19:14 mark of the 1st to stun the visitors and give the Mullets a 3-0 lead heading into the locker room!

In the 2nd, Thunder Bay finally gets on the board when Couturier (4) continues his hot hand with a power play marker at 8:19. But the feel goods don’t last long, as Logan Couture (2) beats Rinne at 12:39 to return Jagr to a 3 goal lead.

At 13:40 of the 3rd, O’Reilly (1) scores to make it 4-2 and the Mullet nether regions start to pucker…

But a slumping Jordan Staal (1) puts the biscuit into an empty basket at 18:53 to make it a 5-2 final in favor of the home team.

Thunder Bay did a great job of shutting down the top 2 powerhouse lines of the Mullets at even strength, but our 3rd line of Parise-Staal-Couture carried the day in this one. Kuemper also stopped 39 of 41 shots (31 of those in the final 2 periods) to prevent the game from breaking open like the others.

Scoring Summary
Per Time Str Team
1 9:09 EV JAG Parise (2), assisted by Weber (2) and Letang (3)
1 13:21 PP JAG Parise (3), assisted by Svechnikov (1) and Couture (1)
1 19:14 SH JAG Bergeron (4), assisted by Letang (4) and Schwartz (2)
2 8:19 PP TBN Couturier (4), assisted by Jones (3) and Smith (7)
2 12:39 EV JAG Couture (2), assisted by Ekholm (4) and Tkachuk (4)
3 13:40 EV TBN O’Reilly (1), assisted by Smith (8) and Connor (2)
3 18:53 EN JAG Staal (1), assisted by Couture (2) and Pulock (3)

Star 1: JAG Parise 2 G
Star 2: JAG Couture 1 G, 3 Pts
Star 3: JAG Kuemper 39 saves

GWG: Patrice Bergeron

Notables: TBN Rinne 40 saves
JAG Letang 5 blocks, Kuemper 39 saves, Bergeron 21 faceoffs won

————————————————————————————–

SUMMARY: Jagr heads to Thunder Bay up 3 games to 2.

—————————————————————————————–

GAME #6 at Thunder Bay Holy Crap the whole first period is defensive wrestling match and the refs are ignoring most of it. No scoring and few scoring chance. Jagr manages only 7 shots on goal and Thunder Bay a little better with 11.

The bruising defensive battle continues to the 10 minute mark, then 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. For these two teams to be held scoreless is crazy. The checking is so tight that neither team can muster any momentum.

Finally at 15:58 Thunder Bay’s 3rd line gets lucky — and I mean lucky. The dumped and chased (doing that all game). The puck then changed hands three time and squirted out front where Gus Nyquist slipped it into the net. An ugly but beautiful goal.

In the last minute of the period, Seth Jones wrestled the puck away from Bergeron, found Landeskog with a quick breakout pass who hit Athanasiou coming full speed and he got behind the Jagr defense and scored on a breakaway. 2-0 Thunder Bay.

Just 17 seconds later (19:57) Tyler Bertuzzi defects a shot by Jasper Bratt and gives the Norwesters a commanding lead 3-0 as the 2nd period ends.

A replay of the goal shows that Bertuzzi missed the defelection with his stick but the puck hit him in the hip and rebounded into the Jagr goal.

Just 20 to go. 6:48 Zac Parise steps up and attempts to rally the Mullets. 3-1 Thunder Bay but that silenced the crowd, because they have already witnessed the ability Jagr as to score in lightning fast progression.

7:32 Thunder Bay’s 1st line gets good control in the O-zone and a Petry to Landeskog pass then quickly goes laterally across the slot to Andreas Athanasiou who scores his 2nd of the game and 4th of the series to give Thunder Bay a 4-1 lead with 12:28 remaining.

Jagr never gives up they are out in force but Pekka Rinne is stong in net and time is Pekka teammate. 10 left, the 8, then 6. Ovi from his office rockets one of the post. 5 to go, 4 , 3……..

Thunder Bay’s top 2 lines are exhausted and out comes the 3rd line (weakest defensively). Coach Fisher is screaming “Get it DEEEEEEEPPPPPP!”

Sean Couturier finds Gus Nyquist —–“GET IT DEEP” but Gus is not listening. He pulls up short and puts the puck back to Jeff Petry. “GET IT DEEP” Perty winds up and cranks a slapped — It went deep all the way deep into the net.

Pandimonium ——— Perty scores 5-1 with less than 2 minutes left.

We are going to a GAME 7

You would think we won the CUP.

————————————————————————————————–

SUMMARY: Great play-off style game. Gritty – in you face hockey. No quarter given by either team. This hopefully is a watershed game not just heading into game 7, but for the future. The players and the fans now know we can play with the best. Win or Lose this series Thunder Bay is a threat to anybody.

——————————————————————————————————-

GAME 7

———————————————————————————————————————

GAME #7 at Jagr Jagr totally commands the first period, holding Thunder Bay to only 1 shot on goal… until Kuemper (?!?!) takes a penalty and swings the momentum. Thunder Bay throws SIX shots on goal in the following PP barrage… but at least Kuemper stood on his head and atoned for his sin.

I’ve never seen a team consistently fire more pucks on net than Thunder Bay on a Power Play. It’s unreal. Any time they’ve had the man advantage in this series I’ve had to hold my breath.

On to the 2nd, still scoreless… until Kris Letang (1) beats Rinne on the PP (thanks to a Johnsson cross-checking penalty) to give the Mullets a 1-0 lead.

That score holds up until late in the period, when Athanasiou (5) beats Kuemper; I’m really getting tired of this guy in the series!

We head into the 3rd knotted up at 1… then Kris Letang (2) jumps up into the play and rifles a wrister past Rinne for his 2nd goal of the game and 2-1 Mullet lead.

Can we hold on?

Thunder Bay starts taking chances, but Kuemper is finally having the kind of game we needed him to have in the playoffs.

At 13:28 of the 3rd, Andrei Svechnikov (3) puts one in to make it 3-1 Mullets. Can we do it?!

We hold serve until the final 90 seconds, when Rinne comes off and the Thunder Bay sticks start firing at will. We miss two empty nets in the barrage, but the most important thing is that Kuemper stands tall and holds on to a 3-1 Mullet victory and a VERY tough series win against Thunder Bay!

——————————————————————————————————–

 SUMMARY: What a fun (but stressful) series! With two elite goalies both teams expected tighter affairs – but it was wide open most of the series.

As in real life, we only advanced thanks to unlikely heroes donning capes – in this one, we get a pair of goals from Kris Letang… but Svechnikov, relegated to a 4th line role all series, scores 3 huge goals (including the insurance goal in this one – in only 3:58 of ice time). Oskar Sundqvist picks up a pair of assists while only seeing 3:30 on the ice.

Thunder Bay did a great job shutting down the big guns, but the pop guns still fired true.

HUGE PROPS to Thunder Bay – they’re fast and pounce like a hungry cat. They’re going to be a force to reckon with for a long time (did you see their 3 man rookie crop this year – holy crap!!).