There is nothing better in hockey than overtime during the playoffs. It can go on for five minutes, or it can go on for five hours. Either way you're going to be on the edge of your seat the entire time and it only takes one bounce to completely change a series.

We're only two days into the 2012 postseason and we've already had the pleasure of seeing four overtime games, including three on Thursday night. According to NBC Sports host Liam McChugh, via his Twitter feed, this was the first time the NHL had three overtime playoff games since April 18, 2001.

The only game on Thursday that didn't go to overtime involved the No. 1 seed Rangers" data-canon="New York Islanders" data-type="SPORTS_OBJECT_TEAM" id="shortcode0"> knocking off the Ottawa Senators, 4-2, at Madison Square Garden. The Senators put up a solid fight but couldn't beat Henrik Lundqvist until late in the third period when the game was already well out of reach.

That game also produced our goal of the night as Marian Gaborik scored his first of the playoffs. Senators goalie Craig Anderson didn't have much of a chance on this one.



Overlooked performance of the night: Antoine Vermette, Phoenix Coyotes. Mike Smith made all of the saves and Martin Hanzal scored the game-winning goal in overtime, but let's not forget about the game Vermette played during the Coyotes 3-2 win. He scored a big goal midway through the second period on a rocket of a shot from between the circles, and also helped Phoenix gain possession and keep the puck moving up the ice. He also won over 62 percent of his faceoffs.

Tweet of the night: Continuing with the Coyotes, we'll give this one to Coyotes blog Five For Howling.


So many great things here. Not only a play on the Los Angeles Kings jab on Twitter at the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, but also a reference to the intense rivalry that's developed between the Canucks and Blackhawks over the past couple of years.

And we close up Thursday's coverage with the collision of the night between Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Boston's Dennis Seidenberg.



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