Canucks win, avoid elimination
Daniel Sedin scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and the Canucks avoided elimination Thursday night in Vancouver with a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames in Game 5 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.
Nick Bonino had the other goal for Vancouver, and Ryan Miller had 19 saves in his first start in the series after replacing Eddie Lack in Game 4.
David Jones scored for the Flames, and Jonas Hiller stopped 41 shots.
After the Flames were whistled for icing in the opening minutes of the third period, the Canucks put out their top line for the offensive-zone faceoff. Daniel Sedin took advantage, shoveling Dan Hamhuis’ rebound through Hiller’s pads at 1:47 for his second goal of the series.
Tampa Bay 3, at Detroit 2 (OT): Tyler Johnson led a stirring rally late in regulation, then scored 2:25 into overtime to lift the Lightning to victory over the Red Wings, evening their playoff series at 2-2. The Red Wings led 2-0 in the third period before Johnson scored with 5:26 remaining. He then assisted on Ondrej Palat’s tying goal 77 seconds later.
Early in the extra session, defenseman Victor Hedman led an odd-man rush from the right side and slid the puck across the goal mouth. It deflected ever so slightly off goalie Petr Mrazek, but Johnson was able to shoot into an open net from a tough angle for his fourth goal of the series.
at Washington 5, N.Y. Islanders 1: Rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov scored twice, Karl Alzner added a goal and an assist, and the Capitals took a 3-2 lead in their firstround series over the Islanders. Buoyed by a raucous crowd chanting, “We are louder!” in reference to some back-and-forth among players about which team’s fans produce more noise, the Capitals controlled the action most of the evening after falling behind 1-0. Dominating despite zero points from stars Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, Washington got goals from Kuznetsov, Brooks Laich and Jason Chimera in the third period, which it began leading only 2-1.
at Nashville 5, Chicago 2: Rookie Filip Forsberg had his first career hat trick, and the Predators forced a sixth game in their first-round Western Conference series against the Blackhawks.
A triple-overtime loss in Chicago pushed the Predators to the brink of elimination, and the teams appeared headed for the third overtime game of the series tied at 1-1 after two. James Neal then got the go-ahead goal in the opening minute of the third to start a flurry of three goals in a span of less than 21⁄2 minutes, and the Predators pulled to 3-2 in the series.