Home-ice advantage has vanished for the St. Louis Blues and the Anaheim Ducks in the conference semifinal round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.While either of those teams can put themselves in a position to get it back by winning on the road at some point in their respective series, neither team was able to win at home Wednesday night.The red-hot Nashville Predators, who swept the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round, earned a 4-3 victory over the Blues in the opener. The Preds built a 3-1 lead in the game as a result of a goal and two assists by defenseman P.K. Subban before the Blues came storming back to tie the game in the third period.However, Vernon Fiddler scored the go-ahead goal with 5:05 to go, and goaltender Pekka Rinne made that strike stand up. The Preds now have a five-game postseason winning streak and the early 1-0 advantage in this series.The Edmonton Oilers followed a similar pattern against the Ducks, as they had two quick goals in the third to take a 3-1 lead. However, the Ducks tied the score on a pair of goals 1:25 apart midway through the period.As overtime seemed a likely development, defenseman Adam Larsson scored the second of his two goals with less than five minutes remaining to restore the lead for the Oilers. Leon Draisaitl added an empty-net goal after taking an unselfish pass from Milan Lucic to clinch the victory for the visitors.Here's a look at the conference semifinal round of the playoffs.The two Eastern Conference semifinal series get underway Thursday night with the Ottawa Senators hosting the New York Rangers at 7 p.m. ET and the Washington Capitals facing the defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins 30 minutes later.The Caps and the Pens are the glamour matchup of the second round of the postseason, and this is the second year in a row that the two rivals have squared off in the playoffs.The Pens used their speed and opportunistic offense to defeat the Caps in six games last year, and those factors will undoubtedly factor into the game plan again this year.Sidney Crosby doesn't need much space to get his shots off, and he has shown the ability to score key goals against the Caps in the past. He gets plenty of support from Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel, and star power is clearly a big part of the Pittsburgh attack.The Pens got excellent production from Jake Guentzel (five goals) and Bryan Rust (four goals) in their opening-round victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. If they get that kind of supportive scoring from their non-superstars, it may be tough for the Caps to survive this series.Matt Murray was Pittsburgh's X-factor in goal last year, as the rookie goaltender was quite effective throughout the Penguins' postseason run. He suffered a lower-body injury prior to the first game of the playoffs against Columbus, and Marc-Andre Fleury was forced to take over.Fleury performed admirably with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage, and head coach Mike Sullivan will stick with him at the start of the series against the Caps.Fleury will have to contend with the heavy shot of Washington superstar Alex Ovechkin, as well as the other talented scorers in the lineup like Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Kevin Shattenkirk."Obviously, he's (Ovechkin) one of the better players in the league," Fleury said, as per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "He still has a very solid shot. But [the Capitals] are more than that. They're a good team. They have good depth. That's why they've had success over the past few years here."Fleury is anything but a sure thing in goal. He had a 3.02 GAA and .909 save percentage during the regular season and has struggled in the postseason in three of the past five years. If the Caps can slip a couple of early goals past him in the opener, it could plant a seed of doubt in the Penguins.The Rangers played uneven hockey in their opening-round series against the Montreal Canadiens. After winning the opener, they dropped the next two games and looked vulnerable. However, their Game 3 loss appeared to wake up the Blueshirts, and they reeled off wins in the next three games to take the series.Rick Nash scored the winner in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, and former Senator Mika Zibanejad scored the overtime winner in Game 5 at the Bell Center. Star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist came through in the series finale with a 3-1 win, and that propelled the Rangers past their Original 6 rival.The Senators also survived a six-game first-round series against the undermanned Boston Bruins. Defenseman Erik Karlsson was dynamic throughout the series with six assists after leading the team in scoring during the regular season with 71 points.He gets support from Mike Hoffman, Kyle Turris and ex-Ranger Derick Brassard, and the Senators appear capable of scoring clutch goals in this series.Craig Anderson played well against the Bruins as the Senators won three of their four games in overtime, but he may have a difficult time outperforming Lundqvist in the Rangers' net.
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