And then there were four. The second round of the NHL playoffs went much quicker than most expected, and now what we have left is the best of the rest.

In the East the Penguins and Flyers made short work of the Rangers and Canadiens, giving fans of Keystone State hockey something they have never had before in a Conference Finals series.

The West pits the red hot Red Wings against the hard hitting Stars. Dallas held on to win their series against a run-and-gun Sharks team, winning the series finale in quadruple overtime, while the Wings easily defeated rival Colorado behind the hot play of Johan Franzen. These two clubs look to get back into the Finals yet again.

The Penguins are steamrolling through the playoffs so far with a playoff best record of 8-1. They will surely face their toughest test yet with division and state foe Philly. The Flyers are hard hitting and R.J. Umberger has been a pleasant surprise, as the Pittsburgh native (Plum township) looks to terrorize his favorite boyhood team some more. Goalie Marty Biron proved his value by getting in the heads of Montreal snipers and now he has his team in the Conference Finals.

On the other side of the state a young Penguin team prepares for its first Conference Finals since 2001, the year of Mario Lemieux’s comeback. Led by MVP candidate Evgeni Malkin the Pens are winning every way possible, and have the confidence that is needed to challenge for the Cup. The line of Hossa, Crosby and Dupuis is paying dividends and is learning to play together at the right time. Hal Gill also proved he was a valuable pick-up as he once again made Jaromir Jagr's life a living hell on the ice.

The way I see this one going is brutal. These two teams hate each other, and there will be no love lost in this series. Hard hits and big fights are likely to be seen from the first minute to the last. Whichever team survives will be worse for wear in the finals that is for sure. I predict the skill level of the Penguins to overpower the Flyers as they win it in 6 games. The Penguins will get plenty of power plays, but must be careful as Philly is dangerous shorthanded, and the Pens roll with only one defenseman on the top PP unit -- that defenseman is more of a defensive liability in Sergei Gonchar. So that may be one adjustment the Penguins coaching staff could have to make, but so far they have pushed all the right buttons.

Briere and Umberger are going to be a tough duo to stop, throw in Richards and a hot goalie in Biron and you have a team that could land in the Finals. However, Pittsburgh can score in bunches and have some stellar net minding themselves in Marc-Andre Fleury. As I said I see the Pens in 6, but it will be ugly and home ice will prove a vital role in this series.

As for their series played out on NHL '08, the game has the series going just 5 games and the Penguins easily moving on with winning scores of 8-2, 6-1, 4-3, and 5-2. Malkin led the way with a whopping 8 goals in the series, setting up 5 as well. Line mate Sykora was also hot, getting a hat-trick in game one, and scoring on a penalty shot in Game 2. Crosby had 5 points on the power play and the Pittsburgh defense held Umberger to one goal. Briere ddid most of the Flyers' scoring, netting 4 goals and adding 3 helpers. Biron was torched, but his team also surrendered shot totals near 40 or above in 3 of the 5 games.

The Penguins make their first Finals appearance since 1992, and look to add their 3rd Stanley Cup to the trophy case.

Over in the West, looking for an opponent for the Pens we find ourselves breaking down the Stars and Wings.

Dallas has been a giant killer to this point in the postseason, but will that continue? One thing for certain is the Stars will have to put away the Wings if they happen to get up on them in the series. Detroit is not a team you want lingering around in a best of seven. They have had virtually no problems since switching to Chris Osgood in net back in round one. They were blessed with relatively lesser opponents in the first two rounds though, especially with the banged up Avs.

Brendan Morrow looks to Captain his team into the Finals and Marty Turco hopes to erase the notion that he is not the goalie the Stars need to take them to the promised land. While he is no Ed Belfour, he has played outstanding thus far, making key saves on one end and starting breakouts with his crisp passing on the other. Getting minutes eater Sergei Zubov back on the blue line has also been huge for the Stars.

Frankly it's good news for Dallas fans here, I am picking them to lose again. So far I had them losing in both of the prior rounds and they have definitely proved me along with the many experts. Once again I just don’t think they are a complete enough team to win a series of this caliber. That being said, the Red Wings usually crap out to a team just like this: a team that isn’t afraid to punch them in the mouth, keeps coming, and has a hot goalie.

Still I am picking the Wings in 6. They have relied heavily on "The Mule" Johan Franzen to this point, so I think this series some of the other talent picks up the slack and thus they win this series in the end.

The game says relatively the same thing: Wings in 5. More of the same out of Motown with the stars shining again as Lidstrom and Holmstrom lit 5 lamps each. Datsyuk had 7 points in the first 3 games, and ended up with 9 for the series. Turco played pretty well and Richards, Morrow and Modano lit up Hasek in game 3 helping their team win 7-2, but it was their only victory of the short series.

So a Stanley Cup Finals match up between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins awaits. That should at least be interesting from a talent standpoint. We will have to wait and see how these next two weeks play out though so everyone can see how wrong I am. In the meantime we should be treated to some great hockey, I hope everyone watches.