Importance of Game Two

Game 2 just may be the most important game to a series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. All of the others are important in their own right, but Game 2 possesses momentum for the team who wins it. If a road team wins, they take the big 'mo' back home. If the top seed takes both games to start the series, they’ve put the underdog behind the eight ball. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers…

- Game 2 winners win a series 71.8 percent of the time (392-154)… whereas Game 1 victors have gone 374-172 (68.5 percent) in best-of-7 series.
- Teams that take a 2-0 series lead have won a series at an 87.2 percent rate (258-38).
- Teams that have lost Game 1, but rebound in Game 2, have gone 134-116 (53.6 percent).

As I mentioned, road teams who win Game 2 can carry a lot of momentum back home. Since the 2003 postseason, 67.5 percent (27-13) of road teams that win Game 2 went on to win the series.

Game 2 is a vital game in a series, as you can see. We have four of them tonight, and four more on Saturday. I think we’ll get a good sense of whether the underdogs that won Game 1 will ultimately be able to pull off the upset or not.