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NHL Three Stars: Goaltending, depth lead Ducks to WCF Game 1 win
No. 1 Star: Frederik Andersen, Anaheim Ducks
The 4-1 Ducks win wasn’t nearly as lopsided as the score indicates. The Blackhawks controlled a majority of the first half, as it took a while for the Ducks to wake up. Chicago out-shot the Ducks the entire game, and were quick to jump on Anaheim’s mistakes. Andersen stood tall allowing only 1 goal on 33 shots. Check out one of his best saves of the game on Patrick Sharp in the first period:
No. 2 Star: Nate Thompson, Anaheim Ducks
Anaheim came into this series knowing their depth players would have to come up huge against the powerful Blackhawks. Thompson, centering Kyle Palmieri and Andrew Cogliano, led with a goal and the primary assist on Palmieri’s beautiful top-shelf'er, scored while falling:
No. 3 Star: Hampus Lindholm, Anaheim Ducks
Paired with Francois Beauchemin, the young defenseman drew the arduous task of matching up against Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, and Brandon Saad a majority of the game. In 22:43 TOI, he was a plus-1 and scored the first goal of the Western Conference Finals:
Honorable Mention: Brad Richards netted the lone Chicago goal on an ugly Beauchemin turnover with 40-seconds left in the second:
Jakob Silfverberg completely iced the game at 4-1 with an empty net goal. Clayton Stoner and Bryan Bickell each registered 7 hits, the highest for their respective clubs. Andrew Cogliano had a game-high 5 shots on goal. Richards was the best of on face-off dot winning 10 of 17 draws.
Did You Know? The Ducks have outscored their opponents 18-3 in the third period this post season.
Dishonorable Mention: Duncan Keith was a minus-3 in game high 28:25 TOI. Veteran Chicago defenseman Kimmo Timonen played a game low 5:15. (Is dressing him really worth it?) David Rundblad saw his first action of the playoffs replacing Michal Roszival; he was minus-1. Patrick Kane, Francois Beauchemin, and Simon Despres each had 3 giveaways.
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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter!
