Final four finalized

Scheifele, Stastny each score twice as Winnipeg ousts Nashville

Paul Stastny had two goals and an assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Nashville Predators 5-1 in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series on Thursday night.

Mark Scheifele also scored twice, including one into an empty net, while Tyler Myers had the other goal for Winnipeg. Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler each had two assists.

P.K. Subban replied for the Predators.

Pekka Rinne allowed two goals on seven shots before getting the hook for Nashville midway through the first period. Juuse Saros made 14 saves the rest of the way.

The Jets don’t have much time to soak of up the victory.

Winnipeg hosts the expansion Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference final.

In a back-and-forth slugfest of a series where neither team was ever able to really impose its will on the other for more than a period or two, the Jets jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a bad-angle shot from Myers at 8:41 of the first.

The big defenceman pinched down the boards and fired a puck from the goal-line that somehow snuck between Rinne’s skate and the near post for his third of the playoffs.

The Jets further stunned the previously raucous crowd at Bridgestone Arena just 2:06 later on another stinker from Rinne when Stastny followed up his own rebound at the side of the Nashville net to chip home his fifth after the Predators netminder came off the near post.

That spelled the end of the night for Rinne – a Vezina Trophy finalist pulled for the third time in the series, and fourth time in these playoffs.

Hellebuyck, also in the running for the Vezina as the league’s top goalie in the regular season, made a couple of big stops early, but Nashville responded on its second power play at 15:54 when Subban took a nice behind-the-back pass from Ryan Johansen and wired a one-timer for his fourth of the series, and fourth of the playoffs.

Hellebuyck made two big stops of Kevin Fiala and Craig Smith before Scheifele made it 3-1 with 2:10 left in the second period.