Boston fought off elimination while Detroit began to play the dominant hockey that cruised them to a Stanley Cup last year.
Detroit Red Wings vs Anaheim Ducks: Detroit wins 4-1 (Detroit leads series 3-2)
The Red Wings outshot Anaheim 38-17, and despite Jonas Hiller's best efforts, Anaheim could not get any offense going save the second period, where they scored on the power play and put up their highest single period shot total of 9. Zetterberg got a goal and 2 assists, and Chris Osgood made 16 saves, and the Red Wings had a rather easy game 5 despite going 0-4 on the power play. Although it looks like the Ducks are at the end of the road, the Red Wings probably want to fix their special teams heading forward.
Boston Bruins vs Carolina Hurricanes: Boston wins 4-0 (Carolina leads series 3-2)
After going down 1-3 in the series, the Bruins took full advantage of home ice to get themselves back into it, at least for now. Tim Thomas posted a shutout, but he rarely had to do anything as the Bruins outshot Carolina in every period, including doubling up the Hurricanes in shots in both the first and second period. Boston went 1 for 11 on the power play, but that number is very misleading as Carolina imploded in the second half of the third period, taking penalty after penalty and causing several altercations, epitomized by Scott Walker's one-sided fighting, game misconduct, and instigator penalties all at 17:13. But as long as Carolina doesn't allow those end-game emotions to cloud their play in Carolina for game 6, they'll probably shrug off this loss as a stumble in their dominating strides toward the conference finals.
It's hard to judge who should be in a bigger panic, Boston or Anaheim. Detroit came out and played championship hockey, while Boston, with a commanding win, still has to go back to Carolina for game 6, where they lost in both previous visits this series. I'll have to give the nod to the Ducks in terms of who is in more trouble; when Detroit plays the puck-possession game, as they did so effectively in game 5, there really is not a lot one can do to counter it, except hope they take stupid offensive zone penalties (which Detroit is the least likely team to do so).
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