On the ice, however, the ' Canes were now out of the doldrums ; led by the return of longtime Whalers captain Ron Francis, Keith Primeau's 30 goals, and Gary Roberts ' 178 penalty minutes, they won the new Southeast Division by eight points and made the playoffs for the first time since 1992.

Francis was indispensable the following year, as Pittsburgh repeated as champions, in leading the team during the absence of Lemieux in the 1992 playoffs – and in scoring the Cup-clinching goal against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The team plays in the high school playoffs, learning their first opponent is St. Francis.

The following season Yzerman scored 62 goals, but the team missed the playoffs ( which as of 2012 is the most recent time they did so ).

Zetterberg scored the winning goal in the decisive Game 6, and was also named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs.

However, he performed very well in the playoffs, notably when he scored a hat trick in game seven of the Campbell Conference Finals against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He scored 37 points in 31 games for the team in the regular season and the playoffs, and the Blues came within one game of the Conference Finals.

Bossy, who had scored 17 goals in each of the past three playoffs only scored 8 in the first three rounds of the 1984 playoffs and was silenced during the final series.

Brad Richards, who had 26 points, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs ; the Lightning had won all 31 contests in which he had scored a goal since the opening of the season.

He had one of his career highlights that season when, on March 23, 1944, Richard scored all five goals for the Canadiens in a 5 – 1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs en route to the Stanley Cup Finals and was awarded all three stars for his efforts.

Henderson scored 33 goals and 63 points in the 1974 – 75 WHA season for the Toros, but played only 58 games and missed the playoffs after he suffered torn knee ligaments after accidentally colliding with an opposing player during a line change in a game against the Phoenix Roadrunners.

Yzerman scored perhaps the most memorable goal of his career in the 1996 playoffs, stealing the puck from Wayne Gretzky and beating St. Louis Blues goalie Jon Casey with a slap shot from the blue line to win the Western Conference Semifinals in double overtime of game seven.

During the 1986 playoffs, Gilmour broke out and scored 21 points in 19 games ( tied with Bernie Federko's 21 points in 19 games ), as the Blues lost in the Campbell Conference finals.

Their season ended with a 4 – 1 home win over Hartlepool United, in which Steve Bull scored his first Wolves hat-trick, and they finished fourth – one place short of automatic promotion, which placed in them in the promotion / relegation playoffs.

During the 1991 – 92 SM-liiga season, Jokerit won the SM-liiga championship and Selänne won the Aarne Honkavaara trophy ( top goalscorer ) and had the most points scored in the SM-liiga playoffs during that season.

He scored in overtime for Quebec in Game 5 of their 1982 opening round best-of-five series vs. the Montreal Canadiens, and in 1988 scoring against Ron Hextall on a breakaway in overtime for Washington in Game 7 of their opening round best-of-7 series vs. the Philadelphia Flyers, making Hunter the first player in NHL history to score two overtime series-clinching goals in the playoffs.

Mikan scored 31. 3 points per game in the playoffs.

It was only the second time in NHL history that a goaltender had scored in the playoffs, and the fifth time overall.

In November 2007 the Eagles defeated Abilene Christian University 76-73 in a triple overtime game in the second round of the NCAA D-II football playoffs, with both teams breaking the record for most points ever scored in an NCAA division II playoff game.

Despite this, things didn't get any better for the Royals in 2008: just three wins, just 20 goals scored, and fifth in the Mid Atlantic Division, out of the playoffs for the third consecutive season at this level.

When Mellanby scored a hat trick in a later game, some Florida fans threw plastic rats on the ice, a tradition that continued for all Panthers ' goals throughout the 1996 playoffs.

The Super Bowl would mark the third game ( out of four ) of the playoffs in which Carolina scored 29 points.

Although he had missed the playoffs in five of his first seven years in the NHL, and lacked any postseason experience, he scored 18 goals, including six game-winners, and 34 points.

Kovalchuk scored one goal and one assist in his NHL playoffs debut as the team lost in the opening round to the New York Rangers in four games.

In the playoffs, he scored three points in four games as the Blackhawks were swept by the St. Louis Blues.

in 2012, the playoffs were expanded again so that two wild card teams face off in a one game wild card round to determine which team advances to the division series, with the playoffs then continuing as it had before 2012 ( though with the possibilty of a fifth seed being in the playoffs and a fourth seed being out ) after the end of the wild card round.

According to Nate Silver, the advent of this playoff series, and especially of the wild card, has caused teams to focus more on " getting to the playoffs " rather than " winning the pennant " as the primary goal of the regular season.

This was done to accommodate the new one-game wild-card playoffs .< re > http :// espn. go. com / mlb / story / _ / id / 7942366 / owners-approve-wild-card-winners-hosting-games-1-2-division-series </ ref > Historically, however, MLB has used rarely the 2-3 format in a best-of-5 series ..

Dallas leads the series 8-3, with Carolina being 2-0 in the playoffs but only 1-8 in regular-season games against the Cowboys.

Carolina leads the series 11-8, with a 1-0 lead in the playoffs.

Seattle and Cleveland met in the first round of the playoffs, however the Mariners won the series 3-2.

The all-time series is currently tied 15 – 15 including the playoffs.

Between 1967 and 1983, Detroit only made the playoffs twice, winning one series.

They advanced to the third round of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs after defeating the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks both in six games, coming back three straight after the Sharks ' 2 – 1 series lead.

Osgood never left the net for the remainder of the playoffs, as the Red Wings came back in that series on their way to winning their 11th Stanley Cup.

In 1975 Baltimore and Miami tied with 10 – 4 records, yet the Colts advanced to the playoffs based on a head-to-head sweep of their series.

In 1977 Baltimore tied for first for the third straight year ( in 1976 they tied with the now-New England Patriots ) with Miami, and this time advanced to the playoffs on even slimmer pretenses, with a conference record of 9 – 3 compared to Miami's 8 – 4, as they had split the season series.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Wizards would lose the first game to defending champions San Jose Earthquakes, 2 – 0, putting in a seemingly impossible situation to score 3 goals and concede none in game 2 of aggregate goal series.

On the field the Otters have reached the playoffs in 7 of their 12 seasons, including five Frontier League Championship series, finally winning one in 2006 for their first league championship.

In the first round of the playoffs the team defeated the Windy City ThunderBolts, the first playoff series win since 1995 in Zanesville.

They won a hard fought series, nicknamed the " Battle of New York ", over the Rangers in the opening round of the playoffs.

Unlike the 1976 – 79 Montreal Canadiens, who needed to win three series in the 1976 and 1977 playoffs under the playoff format in place at that time, the Islanders had to win four series in each of their Stanley Cup seasons.

During the first round of the 1987 playoffs against the Capitals, the Isles had fallen behind in the series three games to one.

However, 1987 marked the first season that the opening round of the playoffs was a best-of-7 series instead of a best-of-5 series.