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First round ends tonight with two Game 7 battles in the Eastern Conference

Maxime Talbot, Ted Purcell

It doesn’t get any better than a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs and tonight we’ve got two of them. This is just proof that the hockey gods love us and want us to be happy. They also want us to have perpetual heart attacks all night long watching two games filled with enough intrigue to make the modern day soap opera get canceled.

Wait a minute. Oops.

Anyhow, here’s how things set up tonight. All times are Eastern.

Montreal @ Boston - 7 p.m. (Versus) - Series tied 3-3

It’s been an angry and emotional series and it’s only fitting that these two ancient rivals face off in a Game 7 for the eighth time in playoff history. Boston has lost the last four Game 7s they’ve played in dating back to 2004. In 1994 though they did beat Montreal in a Game 7 to advance out of the first round. Montreal holds the historical edge on Boston in Game 7s at 5-2.

Of course, history means nothing for the present day and right now the Bruins are going to have to find a way to both shut down Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri as well as crack Carey Price. Montreal will hope that Milan Lucic stays quiet both physically and scoring-wise while finding ways to pepper Tim Thomas and get him running around out of position. The X-factors in this game: Nathan Horton for Boston and Andrei Kostitsyn for Montreal. If those guys get on the score sheet, things could swing in their team’s favor.

Tampa Bay @ Pittsburgh - 8 p.m. (NHL Network) - Series tied 3-3

Speaking of snarling nasty series, the Lightning and Penguins have been bringing plenty of that through their first six games. For every bit of annoyance the Chris Kunitz and Brooks Orpik have provided to Tampa Bay, Ryan Malone and Steve Downie have done the same to Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay is heading into Game 7 with a bit of a jump in their step after winning two straight games and finding ways to crack through Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins defense.

If Pittsburgh wants to catch Tampa Bay off guard, scoring on the power play would be a good way to do it. With the Pens scoring on just 3.3% of their man advantages in this series it’s a change that would make a major difference in their fate.