Hurricanes burst Rangers’ bubble

TORONTO — Sebastian Aho scored twice in the third period, and James Reimer had 37 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 4-1 on Tuesday and sweep the playoff qualifying round series.

The Rangers are the first team eliminated from the NHL’S expanded postseason.

Warren Foegele scored the go-ahead 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 an empty-netter late to seal it, with the Hurricanes sweeping the best-of-5 series after losing all four regular-season meetings against the Rangers.

Flames6,jets2:

At Edmonton, Alberta, Elias Lindholm,

Mikael Backlund, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, Milan Lucic and Johnny Gaudreau scored as Calgary routed Winnipeg to take a 2-1 lead in the qualifying round series.

Nikolaj Ehlers and Andrew Copp scored for the Jets.

Islanders 4, Panthers 2:

At Toronto, Jordan Eberle scored twice, including the go-ahead goal, and New York rallied to take a 2-0 lead in the qualifying round series.

Ryan Pulock and Matt Martin also scored, and Semyon Varlamov stopped 26 shots as New York overcame a pair of one-goal deficits. The Islanders particularly took advantage of the Panthers’ undisciplined play by scoring twice on seven power-play chances.

Hoffman had a goal and assist and captain Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida, which is one loss from going one-anddone in the playoffs for a fifth consecutive time.

Canucks 4, Wild 3:

At Edmonton, Alberta, Tanner Pearson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat scored, and Vancouver tied the qualifying round series at 1. Kevin Fiala scored twice in the last three minutes for Minnesota.

Predators 4, Coyotes 2:

At Edmonton, Alberta, Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist, Juuse Saros stopped 24 shots, and Nashville jumped on Arizona early to even the qualifying round series at 1.

Nashville had the early jump after falling into a three-goal hole to lose Game 1, scoring on goals by Nick Bonino and Johansen in a span of three minutes of the first period.

Maple Leafs 3, Blue Jackets 0:

At Toronto, Auston Matthews and John Tavares scored, and Toronto evened the qualifying round series at 1.

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 taken to a hospital, but there was no word on his condition.

Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen made 20 saves for his third career playoff shutout, and Morgan Rielly added an empty-net goal with 43 seconds left.