Vegas beating odds, advances
Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves in his fourth shutout of the playoffs and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights are headed to the Western Conference finals in their inaugural season after beating the San Jose Sharks 3-0 in Game 6 of their second-round series Sunday.
Jonathan Marchessault opened the scoring, Nate Schmidt added an insurance goal that was only detectable by replay and Cody Eakin sealed it with an empty-netter to help Vegas become only the third team in NHL history to win multiple series in its first season.
The Toronto Arenas won the Stanley Cup in the first postseason in league history in 1918 and St. Louis won two rounds to win the all-expansion West Division in 1968.
The Golden Knights relied on a crew of castoffs, led by a goalie who was part of three Stanley Cup-winning teams in Pittsburgh before headlining a new team. Fleury posted shutouts in Games 1 and 6 against the Sharks and was also spectacular in an overtime win in Game 3.
Next up for Fleury and Vegas will be the Western Conference finals against either Winnipeg or Nashville. The Jets lead that series 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Monday night.
The Sharks had numerous opportunities all night but were thwarted by a couple of shots that hit the iron, some acrobatic saves from Fleury and other chances that trickled just wide. This marked the fourth straight postseason for the Sharks that ended with a loss on home ice.
at Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1: Brayden Point and J.T. Miller scored second-period goals, helping the Lightning advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the third time in four years.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots — 14 in the final period — for the Lightning, who rebounded from losing the series opener at home to eliminate the Bruins in five games.
David Krejci scored in the final minute of the first period to give Boston a 1-0 lead that Point erased with his unassisted goal at 10:43 of the second.
Miller’s power-play goal broke the tie less than four minutes later, and Anton Stralman added an emptynetter with 1:29 remaining to end any chance for a Boston comeback.
One day after he was put on notice by the NHL for licking Lightning forward Ryan Callahan during Friday night’s overtime loss in Game 4, there were no more such incidents involving Bruins winger Brad Marchand, who also made headlines after appearing to lick Toronto’s Leo Komarov in the first round.