First off, props to the 700 Level for the killer Mad Men inspired graphic of the Pens and Flyers coaches dueling with their words in their season series game.

The Keystone State War has begun and the first victory goes to Philly as the Flyers flew into Pittsburgh and found a way to steal yet another win on the Penguins home ice with a 4-3 OT win in Game One of the NHL Playoffs.

In our predictions for the Eastern Conference Playoffs, I noted that just toss out what you know on this series.  It’ll be simply ‘Last Man Standing‘, as in I imagine the brutal and physical match up will take its toll and the game will come down to the last seconds of Game 7.  More luck than anything. Or at least, who has the best physical trainers to rehab the players in between rounds.

The Flyers were owned by the Pens for the first period as Pittsburgh went up early and blown calls by the refs, a theme for the night, helped put a few goals on the board.  First, the missed offsides by Daniel Briere that led to a goal in the second period.  Pretty easy call if you ask me.

But the Pens scored their third goal on what looks like a blown offsides call so there you go. Either way it led to OT where this stunner happened. Jakub Voracek scored 2:23 into overtime after the Flyers rallied to score 4 straight goals to win the game. Some kudos to Philly head coach Peter Laviolette who didn’t hit the panic button and pull goalie Ilya Bryzgalov after 3 goals were let in rather early. Bryz held up and kept his team in the game, stopping 15 more stops.

The Chicago Blackhawks got the win but it wasn’t enough to dethrone Detroit from the 5th place spot in the playoffs. Detroit ended up one point ahead on the season, with Nashville #2 and St. Louis silently surprising everyone with the #1 spot.

A regulation win would have done it as the Red Wings and Blackhawks fought it out Saturday night to a Chicago 3-2 in OT.

The Red Wings Jimmy Howard held off the ‘Hawks for awhile but couldn’t get the total win as Chicago did get that small win in OT. During the shootout check out Patrick Kane trying to get as much stick work in as possible as he goes in for a shootout goal.

I didn’t really know how much the scoring in the NHL took a hit until the stat was revealed that Tampa’s Steven Stamkos is just the 2nd player to score 60 or more goals in a season in almost 20 years. The other player is Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, who netted 65 in 2007-08.

I guess I was spoiled by growing up in the Gretzky era as scoring 50 goals was more common. Just between 1988-90, Mario Lemieux, Bernie Nicholls, Steve Yzerman (twice), and Brett Hull all hit the 60 mark. It’s hard to believe that only 2 players have done it just this century!

On the last game of the season, Stamkos got his chance as he netted the elusive 60th goal against the Winnipeg Jets. It’s a shame, though, as the Lightning are way out of the playoff race and will have to enjoy the scoring achievement on the golf course now.

Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos joined the NHL’s 60-goal club when he scored 3:29 into the third period of the Lightning’s season-ending game at Winnipeg on Saturday night.

Stamkos became the first player to reach 60 goals in a season since Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals did it four years ago when he flashed through the slot, took a pass from the right corner by Martin St. Louis and whipped a shot past Ondrej Pavelec.

Stamkos is the 20th player in NHL history to score 60 or more goals in a season. He and Ovechkin, who had 65 in 2007-08, are the only players to hit the 60-goal mark since Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr both did it in 1995-96. [via NHL.com]

The Habs actually won this game against the Lightning 5-2 but they are so far down in the rankings that it doesn’t matter. There’s a reason the Montreal Canadiens are going to be spending the NHL Postseason booking tee times at local golf courses and drowning their sorrows in Molson and Poutine.

It’s ‘cuz of play like this.

Peter Budaj plays the puck, right onto the tape of Vinny Lecavalier, who easily taps it into the net.

Pass me a Molson… and a plate of Poutine. Seriously. I want to try that stuff. I hear it’s to die for!

With the NHL season winding down both the Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche have their sites set on the postseason. But there’s a lot of work to be done and every game, every second counts.

Just ask Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. With a blistering attack in the Buffalo zone with only seconds left in the game, the Avs are down by one goal and somehow find a way to take the game into OT. Jamie McGinn of the Avs forced overtime by scoring with less then 2 seconds left in regulation. The beautiful goal was destined to go in as you can see by the replay. The puck bounces off everyone it seems to sneak past Miller and right next to the goalline where McGinn is smiling like a kid in the candy store.

With a quick flick the puck is in and the game goes to OT.

Colorado’s Peter Mueller netted the lone shootout goal to add insult to injury for the Sabres as the Colorado Avalanche’s 5-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.

Typical Montreal.

There is a belief among some hockey fans (and even some within the NHL, like, say, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, as we saw during HBO’s 24/7) that the Montreal Canadiens tend to get some favorable calls from referees on their home ice because, well … they’re the Montreal Canadiens.

That’s why it was kind of comical to watch forward Erik Cole score his 27th goal of the season on Wednesday night against the Ottawa Senators, and then celebrate by casually skating past the referee and giving him a quick high-five [via]

Erik Cole, the ex-Carolina Hurricane and now Canadien, slaps some skin with the ref, who is signaling the goal, and I hope it becomes a trend. I’ve seen a few videos over the years of overexcited players doing this but maybe we can take it up a notch and allow the players to start full-out celebrations involving the refs. Could be cool.

St. Louis Blues vs Columbus Blue Jackets when deep into the game we get this crazy non-goal. With the Blues up 2-1 it looks like the Jackets net a goal. But look closer. No, really close. It’s not.

Somehow the puck just can’t muster up enough to find its way past the red line. A helpful stick taps it enough to cease the momentum enough for the Blues goalie to get on it and save the goal. So close. I’m really not sure how the puck didn’t score here but it looks like Alexander Pietrangelo gets the lucky tip of the stick on the puck just in time. Very lucky.

Don’t look now but the Winnipeg Jets are in 2nd place in the Southeast Division. On Monday they had the chance to

Thorburn blazes past the Sabres defense to make a fool out of goalie Ryan Miller and give the Jets a commanding 3-1 lead midway through the third period. Thorburn only has 10 points total on the season, including this sweet goal, but he makes up for it with 81 PIMs.

Thorburn is usually seen doing the punching, like in the above picture. While I don’t expect Thorburn to be a topic of scoring very often I have to admit this is a sweet goal that deserves some credit.

It’s a must-score situation and the Minnesota Wild’s Devin Setoguchi is on the line. If the Wild can notch a score they could go on to win in an OT shootout against the Montreal Canadiens.

Unfortunately, no one told Setoguchi’s stick that it had to keep up. He’s 1-for-3 on the year in shootouts but then this happens. Devin loses the puck and falls on to the ice while trying to turn around for an epic fail moment.

Steven Stamkos builds his resume as the NHL’s leading goal scorer this year as he nets his 45th goal of the season to put the Lightning ahead against the New York Rangers. That 45 goal mark matches his output for all of last year and with less than 20 games left he should easily beat his career high of 51 goals.

Not only is the goal a sweet one by Stamkos, that’s expected, but just watch the replay and you’ll see that this just isn’t luck. This is an art form at the moment. Stamkos threads the needle as he shoots the puck just behind the Ranger defender as is soars toward the very tippy top of the goal for a point.