One victory down!

Well the Hawks have done something they haven't done yet in these playoffs, and that is win the first game of the series. The difference is, that this game was on the road, where we have been playing extremely well, and if you take into account the regular season games we played at the HP-Shark-Pavilion-Tank, there is really no reason to be surprised at all that we won there in this first game. The stats they showed before the game were interesting though, as the Hawks had been 5-1 thus far on the road and the Sharks had been 5-1 at home thus far. So winning the first game on the road and evening up the ice advantage should help, but in these playoffs where home games aren't exactly what they seem, the point is no matter where you are just go out there and win.
Both teams played awesome today, but the entire game I could see that at least as far as 5 on 5 hockey goes, we have a bit of an edge over this Sharks team. The Sharks do not want to play at our pace, but we are good enough to set the pace no matter what. It was nice to see an outstanding performance from Mr. Niemi, and some nice penalty killing as well, considering how many power play chances the Sharks actually ended up having. I really liked the energy we had coming out in this game even after being down 1-0 after the first period, and after watching awesome hockey from both teams, i'm really really excited for the rest of this series.
I also really liked Niemi's press conference, especially because I hardly ever hear him talk, and he was giving very short, very ambiguous answers because you can tell he doesn't want to think about it, he just wants to go do his Niemi no-no thing. I must praise him for that insane glove save too. Wow! ^_^
Meanwhile, i'm still keeping a close eye on the other series between the 7 and 8 seeds on the other side of things. Either team can really win, but I hope the Flyers win for HBJ Dubs. ^_^ I'm watching it as we speak and they are up 2-0 so we shall see!
Tuesday's game between us and the Sharks will be epic, and if the entire series is as insane as this first game was I might need to buy a few more bottles of jager...=P