ice hockey
Maple Leafs shut out Blue Jackets to even playoff series
TORONTO, Aug 5, (AP): Sebastian Aho scored twice in the third period while James Reimer was strong in net to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 4-1 on Tuesday night and sweep the Stanley Cup qualifier series.
Warren Foegele scored the goahead goal early in the third period for the Hurricanes, redirecting a shot from the point by Brady Skjei to beat rookie Igor Shesterkin at 5:07 in the third. Then Aho followed with a highlight-reel goal about 5½ minutes later, taking the puck from Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba along the boards and skating in on Tony DeAngelo to backhand the puck past Shesterkin as he went to his knees.
Aho added a short-handed emptynetter late to seal it, with the Hurricanes sweeping the best-of-5 series after losing all four regular-season meetings against the Rangers.
Aho’s big night, which included an assist, came after he had three assists in Monday’s Game 2 win as well as a goal and an assist in the series opener.
Reimer had a huge part of the win too, finishing with 37 saves that included a couple of big stops during a wild second-period sequence.
That included Reimer – who got the start after Petr Mrazek won the first two games of the series – stopping Brendan Lemieux as he skated in toward the crease. He was unable to control the puck as Carolina defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Sami Vatanen dove into the crease to clog the net, with Vatanen managing to make his own diving stop of Lemieux’s follow-up shot with his left shoulder.
That bought time for Reimer to get to his feet, then make another in-close stop on Filip Chytil near the crease by extending out his right arm to deflect the puck.
Teuvo Teravainen also scored for Carolina early in the second period, a quick answer to a goal by New York’s Chris Kreider for a 1-0 lead that was the Rangers’ first of the postseason.
Shesterkin, a 24-year-old rookie who went 10-2 after making his NHL debut in January, finished with 27 saves in his postseason debut after being unavailable in the series’ first two games. But an offense that came into the series ranked fifth in the NHL (3.33 goals per game) managed four goals in three games.
With the loss, the Rangers are the first team eliminated from the NHL’s expanded playoff rounds but are also in the running to claim the No. 1 overall draft pick in Monday’s second draft lottery. One of the eight eliminated playoff teams will claim the chance to select Quebec junior Alexis Lafreniere, the projected top pick.
Canucks 4, Wild 3 J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 to even their qualifying series at a win each.
Tanner Pearson scored 24 seconds into the game, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat also scored for the Canucks, and Jacob Markstrom made 32 saves. Minnesota won the series opener 3-0.
Kevin Fiala had two goals and Luke Kunin scored for Minnesota. Alex Stalock made 24 stops.
Game 3 is Thursday, when lowerseeded Minnesota will be the home team for the first time in the series.
Vancouver moved the puck with more authority than they did in a 3-0 loss to open the series Sunday.
Minnesota was scoreless on six power-play chances, while Vancouver went 1 for 7.
“We were a step behind tonight,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We didn’t have that at the same emotional charge that we seemed to have. They did from the get-go.”
Canucks forward Antoine Roussel took a deflection in the head that drew blood five minutes into the third period. Maple Leafs 3, Blue Jackets 0 Auston Matthews and John Tavares scored and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 to even their best-of-five qualifying series at one game.
Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin was taken off the ice on a stretcher with 1:52 left in the game after his head made violent contact with Columbus’ Oliver Bjorkstrand behind the Blue Jackets net. Muzzin was attended to by a trainer before more medical personnel arrived on the ice. He was taken to a hospital, but there was no immediate word on his condition.
After he went down Scotiabank Arena fell silent, which seemed even more eerie with no fans in the stands.
Andersen made 20 saves for his third career playoff shutout, and Morgan Rielly added an empty-net goal with 43 seconds left.
The Blue Jackets, after shutting out Toronto 2-0 in Game 1, could muster little offense in this one while the Leafs finally solved goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who finished with 36 saves.
Toronto came out more aggressively than in Game 1, with much of the game being played in the Columbus defensive zone as Korpisalo was forced to make stop after stop. Five Leafs power plays helped keep the Blue Jackets on their heels.
The Leafs eventually beat the Columbus netminder – who hadn’t allowed a goal in the first 76 minutes of the series – when Matthews tipped in Zach Hyman’s pass from the bottom of the right circle with 4 minutes left in the second period.
Predators 4 , Coyotes 2
The Nashville Predators stumbled in their postseason opener by falling into an early hole, putting themselves in a must-win situation for Game 2.
Behind steady goaltending and a dedication to clogging shooting lanes, the Predators snatched the momentum back less than 24 hours before Game 3.
Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist, Juuse Saros stopped 24 shots and the Predators jumped on the Arizona Coyotes early in a 4-2 win to even their Stanley Cup qualifier series.
Nashville had the early jump after falling into a three-goal hole to lose Game 1, scoring on goals by Bonino and Johansen in a span of three minutes of the first period.
Calle Jarnkrok scored in the second period and Viktor Arvidsson put it away with a goal in the third.
Game 3 is Wednesday.
The Coyotes gave up two goals in the first period despite controlling much of the action and couldn’t beat Saros until the two goals in the game’s final minute. Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots for the Coyotes after turning away 40 in the series opener.
ICE HOCKEY
Arizona, the Western Conference’s No. 11 seed, won the opener 4-3 after scoring three goals in the first period and holding off Nashville’s late charge.
The Coyotes seized momentum early in that game when captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored on a shot that caromed off two Nashville players.
Nashville got the early jump in Game 2, scoring midway through the first period when Bonino beat Kuemper glove side from the right faceoff dot on a power play. Johnansen made it 2-0 less than three minutes later, squeezing a sharpangle shot past Kuemper after Arizona’s goalie was caught out of position trying to clear a puck.
Saros was sharp in the first period, turning away all 14 shots, and Jarnkrok made it 3-0 midway through the second, beating Kuemper after his initial shot was blocked by Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
Arvidsson capped it in the third period, beating Kuemper glove side with a slap shot from the right circle.
Islanders 4, Panthers 2 Jordan Eberle scored twice, including the go-ahead goal, and the New York Islanders rallied to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers and take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five NHL preliminary round playoff series .
Ryan Pulock and Matt Martin also scored, and Semyon Varlamov stopped 26 shots in a game New York overcame a pair of one-goal deficits. The Islanders particularly took advantage of the Panthers’ undisciplined play by scoring twice on seven powerplay chances.
“Even when we didn’t score, we were able to get some momentum and try to take some control over,” said Pulock, who tied the game at 2 with Florida’s Mike Hoffman serving a holding penalty.
Hoffman had a goal and assist and captain Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida, which is one loss from going one-and-done in the playoffs for a fifth consecutive time.