vadim sharifijanov
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2007
- 29,139
- 16,913
2020, defending champion Blues are down 2-0 to the young upstart Canucks. The Blues have been the better team but the Canucks have ridden some luck and opportunistic scoring to take the first two games. Game 3 goes to overtime; do the Blues go down meekly or fight back? It's the latter, and then they win game 4 in convincing fashion. This series is not over but it's a whole new series now, and it hinged on that game 3 overtime.
insofar as this thread is about momentum, that series turned again. in game five, with the canucks being absolutely dominated and trailing 3-1, j.t. miller scores a lunch pail goal totally against the grain of the play. the blues are having their way with the canucks, basically eating them for lunch, ryan o'reilly is personally outscoring the canucks 6 to 4 over the previous seven periods, and miller carries the puck from behind the net to the crease and just jams and jams until it's in. seven bodies in the slot and he manages to keep the puck alive and poke it past allen.
here's the goal, cued to start:
vancouver scores two more before the period is up, including a beauty breakaway by motte, and hang on in the third for the win. then they steamroll st louis in game six and that's the series.
another example of this, albeit by a team that wasn't the underdog, is nj vs anaheim in 2003. new jersey wins the first two games, as expected, with brodeur pitching back to back shutouts. then giguere takes games three in OT and becomes giguere again in game four, pitching a 1-0 OT shutout. midway through game five it's tied 3-3, with the teams basically trading goals. then pandolfo kicks one in and they review it but it counts.
langenbrunner scores two more in the third to take the game 6-3. anaheim wins game six in the famous kariya concussion game but game seven is never competitive and nj gets its third 3-0 win of the series. cue crying giguere.
idk, i guess maybe you could kind of call nj the underdog insofar as anaheim going into the finals had only lost two games and giguere was sporting a 1.22 GAA/.960 SV%...?