Tampa Bay and Boston survived a pair of thrilling games to advance to the second round of the playoffs, meaning the conference semifinal matchups are all set.
Boston 4, Montreal 3 (OT): Nathan Horton beat a partially screened Carey Price 5:43 into overtime to help Boston advance to a second round date with Philadelphia. Boston led 3-2 late in the third period, but Patrice Bergeron was whistled for high sticking with 2:37 left to give the Canadiens a chance to tie. They capitalized on the opportunity when P.K. Subban ripped a laser past the outstretched arm of Michigan native Tim Thomas with 1:57 left to tie the game.
Tampa Bay 1, Pittsburgh 0: Pittsburgh could have used injured scoring stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Game 7. Ageless 41-year-old goaltender Dwayne Roloson looked more like he was 21, stopping all 36 shots in the Lightning's 1-0 win in Pittsburgh. Sean Bergenheim scored the lone goal 5:41 into the second period, taking a pass from Dominic Moore behind the net and beating a slightly confused Marc-Andre Fleury for the winner.
With that, everyone will finally know who they are playing in the second round of the playoffs. Here are the match ups for the semifinal round (with new seeds):
WEST
(1)Vancouver vs. (4)Nashville
(2)San Jose vs. (3)Detroit
EAST
(1)Washington vs. (4)Tampa Bay
(2)Philadelphia vs. (3)Boston