Crunching numbers: Five quick playoff facts

The first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs have taken some of the team numbers and statistics compiled during the regular season and turned them on their head.

Only one team made it through the entire 2010-11 season winning every single game in which it led after two periods: the New York Rangers. So when they held a commanding 3-0 lead over the Washington Capitals in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal-round series, fans of the Blueshirts had every reason to believe the series was soon to be deadlocked at 2-2 heading back to the Verizon Center. Instead, the Caps stormed back with three third-period goals en route to stunning the Madison Square Garden faithful with a 4-3 double-overtime victory.

In the next round, those same Capitals continued a recent trend over the past few seasons of underwhelming playoff performances. Despite their 107 points, the most in the Eastern Conference for the second consecutive regular season, they followed up their ouster of the Rangers by getting swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With the conference finals almost ready to start -- Tampa Bay, Boston and Vancouver have punched their tickets, while San Jose and Detroit are still battling it out to complete the Final Four -- it's a good time to check out some of the numbers and stats from the first two rounds and ponder what they really mean.

1. Special teams not so special -- There's plenty of evidence to refute anyone who suggests that you need a power play clicking on all cylinders to win in the playoffs. The top power-play percentages in the 2011 playoffs belong to Anaheim (36.4 percent) and Phoenix (33.3), which went a combined 2-8 in getting eliminated in the first round. Meanwhile, Boston's 5.4-percent success rate is third from the bottom, yet the Bruins are alive and well. The team they faced in the opening round, Montreal, was perfect on the penalty-kill for the seven-game series and were still sent packing.

2. Good goalies cure all -- Keeping the shots against down might seem like a formula for success, but if you have a reliable goaltender between the pipes, maybe giving him a heavier workload isn't such a bad idea. The Lightning have given up an average of 35.5 shots per game to the Penguins and Capitals, the third-most of the 16 teams that started the playoffs, but 41-year-old Dwayne Roloson is thriving, leading everyone in goals-against average (2.01) and save percentage (.941). The Bruins have given up the sixth-most shots at 34.4, but veteran Tim Thomas, once again a Vezina Trophy finalist, is right behind Roloson with a 2.03 GAA and .937 save percentage.

3. Play from ahead -- The importance of scoring the opening goal can't be understated. Only two teams have below a .667 winning percentage when getting on the board first -- the Rangers won only one of three such games against the Capitals, while the Coyotes lost the only game in which they scored first against the Red Wings. Three teams are undefeated -- the Bruins and Lightning, which should make for a fun storyline in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the Caps, who never managed to strike first in their series against the Lightning and paid for it.

4. Lightning strikes -- In order to win a Stanley Cup, not only do stars need to perform up to their capabilities but you usually need a few role players who step up to a level beyond what they gave during the regular season. Tampa Bay is getting that from guys like Sean Bergenheim (his 7 goals tie for the postseason lead and are half of what he scored 80 regular-season games), Steve Downie (10 assists and 12 points; he had 22 assists and 32 points in 57 regular-season games) and Teddy Purcell (10 assists and 11 points; he had 34 assists and 51 points in 81 regular-season games).

5. Nashville's re-Ward -- The Predators went to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and put a scare in the Presidents' Trophy-winning Canucks before going down in six games. Pekka Rinne deserves a lot of the credit for Nashville's achievements, but an unheralded star in the Music City was forward Joel Ward. He's currently tied with Bergenheim as well as Danny Briere and James van Riemsdyk of the Flyers with a postseason-high 7 goals, and his 13 points are tied for second. Ward helped the Predators stave off elimination with a pair of third-period goals during Game 5 in Vancouver.