By Chase Decker
Staff Writer

WESTERN CONFERENCE

In the Detroit Red Wings and the Calgary Flames’ first-round match-up, the Wings’ potent offense, led by Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom, faces off against the Flames’ all-star goalie. Datsyuk led the Red Wings with 87 points. Holstrom led the Red Wings in goals with 30. The Calgary Flames have one of the hottest goalies heading into the playoffs. Miikka Kiprusoff, the Flames’ goaltender, finished third in the league in shutouts with seven. Kiprusoff also helped lead the Flames to the best home record in the league with a 30-9-2 mark.

The series between the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild is going to come down to offense versus goaltending. The Ducks’ Finnish right-winger Teemu Selanne finished third in the league in goals with 48 in the regular season. The Ducks are full of young, talented players with little playoff experience. The Minnesota Wild counter with Niklas Backstrom, the league’s top goalie in goals-against-average (1.97), and save-percentage (.929). The Wild’s success in the playoffs is going depend on that momentum carrying over.

The Vancouver Canucks take on the Dallas Stars in a first-round tilt that will showcase two all-star goalies. Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo is second in the league with 47 wins, and Marty Turco from Dallas has 2.23 goals-against-average. Vancouver also will be relying on the twin brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin for their offense.

Another first-round matchup pits the Nashville Predators against the San Jose Sharks. It’s going to be an interesting battle of special teams. San Jose is coming into this series with the second-ranked power play unit in the NHL, thanks largely to Joe Thornton, who tallied 114 points. Nashville enters this first round match up with the third-ranked penalty kill in the league.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

The top-seeded Buffalo Sabres will face an interesting challenge when they face the New York Islanders. Buffalo had the best record in the NHL, with 53 wins, and the best road record, with 25 wins. The Islanders are still going to be riding high into the playoffs after their shoot-out win to make it in the last regular-season game.

In another match up, the New Jersey Devils and the Tampa Bay Lightning will be squaring off. The Lightning will be looking for offense this year from their leading scorer Vincent Lecavalier (108 points), while the Devils will be backstopped by goalie Martin Brodeur, who has plenty of playoff experience.

The Atlanta Thrashers and the New York Rangers will meet in the first round. Atlanta’s offense is led by Marian Hossa, who notched 43 goals in 2006-07. They will also need veteran leadership during the playoffs from players like Keith Tkachuk and Scott Mellanby. The Rangers have Jaromir Jagr bearing the weight of the offense, with 30 goals. Veterans Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka also have potential to shine in this year’s playoffs for the Rangers.

The Ottawa Senators take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the final first-round series. Ottawa is led by Dany Heatly’s 50 goals. Daniel Alfredsson will also look to fill the score sheet for Ottawa. Pittsburgh’s young superstar Sidney Crosby led the NHL with 120 points heading into his first playoffs. Time will tell if he can step up during the playoffs.