Sharks Score One For The Lower Seeds, Look For Second In A Row Friday Night

The San Jose Sharks upset the home ice advantage with a win over the Vancouver Canucks in game one of their Western Conference Quarterfinals series, becoming the first road winner in the 2013 NHL playoffs. Perhaps that will serve as inspiration in the other two online sports betting series’ that continue Friday night, or perhaps not.

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals
New York Islanders @ Pittsburgh Penguins
Friday, 7:00 PM ET – Game 2
Penguins lead 1-0

For all of the talk about John Tavares and the upstart Islanders and how tough they would play the Penguins, we didn’t really see much of that at all in game one. Pittsburgh dominated from the opening faceoff until the final whistle, and the result was a 5-0 win in which four different players produced multi-point games. While the result should ease the pressure to bring Captain Sidney Crosby back to early, the Penguins could also be without James Neal and Jussi Jokinen. Both players left Wednesday night’s opener because of injury, with Neal the more unlikely to play in game two. That might not matter unless New York finds a way to generate some offense, as Pittsburgh will have no problem losing a little offense if they can still win 3-0.

NHL Betting Pick: Pittsburgh Penguins - 200

Western Conference Quarterfinals
Minnesota Wild @ Chicago Blackhawks
Friday, 9:30 PM ET
Blackhawks lead 1-0

A number of sports betting fans figured that the Blackhawks would dominate Minnesota the way the Penguins did New York, but that wasn’t the case at all as Chicago needed overtime to escape with a win in the opener. Bryan Bickell was the unlikely hero in game one, but the Blackhawks will look for a much stronger start in game two as they look to push the tempo even more. Josh Harding was excellent for the Wild in a surprise start after Niklas Backstrom was injured in warm ups, and there has been no confirmation on who will start for Minnesota. The Wild did almost everything right in game one and still lost. It would be unreasonable to expect any more from them in game two.

NHL Betting Pick: Chicago Blackhawks - 180

Western Conference Quarterfinals
San Jose Sharks @ Vancouver Canucks
Friday, 10:00 PM ET
Sharks lead 1-0

The Sharks dominated Vancouver in nearly every area of the game in their opener, and were rewarded with three-straight goals and an important road win. Winning two in a row on the road would be a huge boost for San Jose, and while the online betting bookies don’t think they will do it, there is potential for another upset. Antti Niemi is good enough to steal a game, and if Roberto Luongo is back in goal for game two with Cory Schneider injured than the Sharks will have a tremendous mental edge with nothing to lose as they try and take a commanding series lead before heading back home.

NHL Betting Pick: San Jose Sharks + 140