Two Swedish goalkeepers, Anton Forsberg and Filip Gustavsson, played a major role when Ottawa shut out Utah and Minnesota rolled over Florida, last season's championship team.
Forsberg kept a clean sheet for the sixth time in his career when Ottawa won 4–0. He made 31 saves in a match where his team managed to score all four goals within eight minutes in the first period.
In Minnesota's win over Florida, Filip Gustavsson stopped 24 shots and made a significant contribution to the final score of 5–1.
But he was not alone. Center Marcus Johansson scored the 2–0 goal for Minnesota, assisted by Jonas Brodin. And Joel Eriksson Ek set up the 3–0 goal and scored the 5–1 goal at the end of the match.