Ducks sweep away Flames with 3-1 win
Wild avoid playoff sweep
CALGARY, Alberta, April 20, (AP): Patrick Eaves, Nate Thompson and Ryan Getzlaf scored, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 on Wednesday night for a sweep of their first-round playoff series.
Anaheim became the first team to advance to the conference semifinals. It was the Ducks’ first fourgame sweep since they eliminated Winnipeg in the first round in 2015 and just the fifth in franchise history.
John Gibson made 36 stops for Anaheim, which will face the Edmonton Oilers or San Jose Sharks in the second round.
Sean Monahan scored a power-play goal in the second for Calgary, which qualified for the postseason as the first wild card in the Western Conference.
It was a short night for Flames goaltender Brian Elliott, who was pulled for Chad Johnson after giving up a soft goal at 5:38 of the first period. Johnson allowed a goal on the second shot he faced, but finished with 20 saves.
Monahan’s redirection of a Kris Versteeg feed made it 2-1 at 16:07. Johnson was pulled for an extra attacker with almost two and a half minutes remaining, and Getzlaf converted an empty-netter in the final seconds.
A sharp-angled shot by Eaves slid under Elliott’s pads on Anaheim’s third shot of the game. The Ducks quickly scored on Johnson at 6:46, with Thompson banging in a rebound.
The Ducks opened the series with a pair of 3-2 wins at home before storming back from a three-goal deficit to win 5-4 in overtime at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Game 3.
The Ducks haven’t lost in regulation in 18 games dating to March 10.
Led by Getzlaf and Corey Perry, holdovers from Anaheim’s 2007 Stanley Cup win, the Ducks were a poised team that prevailed in the big moments of the series.
The Flames outplayed them the majority of Game 2, but a lucky deflection and a couple of undisciplined minors by Calgary late in the game allowed the Ducks to pull out the win at home.
Trailing 4-1 late in the second period in Game 3, Carlyle juggled his forward lines to generate an offensive spark.
The Ducks put the puck on net through traffic to score four unanswered goals on the way to their biggest comeback in franchise history.
Wild 2, Blues 0 In St Louis, Devan Dubnyk made 28 saves, Charlie Coyle scored in the first period and the Wild avoided a playoff sweep.
Dubnyk’s second playoff shutout came almost two years to the day of his first, also against the Blues on April 20, 2015. Martin Hanzal also scored for Minnesota in the second.
Blues goalie Jake Allen made 26 saves. He entered having stopping 114 of the Wild’s first 117 shots in the series.
St Louis still leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 heading into Game 5 at Minnesota on Saturday.
Capitals 5, Maple Leafs 4 In Toronto, Tom Wilson and TJ Oshie each scored two goals, and the Capitals beat the Maple Leafs to leave their first-round playoff series tied at two games apiece.
ICE HOCKEY
Alex Ovechkin added his third goal of the playoffs as the top-seeded Capitals regained momentum ahead of Game 5 in Washington on Friday night. Braden Holtby made 30 saves.
Zach Hyman, James van Riemsdyk, Auston Matthews and Tyler Bozak scored for Toronto, which was coming off a 4-3 overtime win on Monday night. Frederik Andersen stopped 22 shots.
The Maple Leafs rallied after the Capitals scored four times in the first for a 4-1 lead. Bozak, who had the winning goal in Game 3, got Toronto within one with 26 seconds left, but Washington held on from there.
Senators 1, Bruins 0 In Boston, Bobby Ryan scored early in the third period, Craig Anderson stopped 22 shots and Ottawa grabbed a 3-1 lead in its first-round playoff series.
It was Anderson’s fourth career playoff shutout.
Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for Boston, which had a goal disallowed in the second when Ottawa coach Guy Boucher challenged and the replay showed Noel Acciari was offsides.
The Bruins, who were winless in four games against the Senators in the regular season, will try to force the series back to Boston with a victory in Ottawa in Game 5 on Friday night.
Boston pulled Rask with almost 2 minutes left and managed a couple of scoring chances both from Brad Marchand but Anderson turned them away.