Flyers stay calm, even series with Penguins
Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier had a goal and two assists, Brian Elliott stopped 34 shots and the visiting Flyers cooled off the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 on Friday to even the Eastern Conference first-round series at 1-1.
The game marked quite a turnaround, as Pittsburgh won the series opener 7-0 on Wednesday night.
“It was pretty tough for us to walk out of the rink a couple nights ago,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. “That wasn’t us.”
Game 3 is Sunday in Philadelphia.
“Said it coming in, nobody is really giving us a serious chance in this series,” Hakstol said. “I don’t know if anybody still will. I do know this, we’ve got it down to a five-game series and we introduced ourselves into this series tonight.” Golden Knights 2, Kings 1: Erik Haula scored at 15:22 of the second overtime as host Vegas took a 2-0 lead over Los Angeles in the Western Conference first-round series.
Vegas took at 1-0 lead when Alex Tuch scored in the first period, but Los Angeles tied it when Paul La Due scored late in the second. From there, Kings goalie Jonathan Quick (54 saves) and Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29 saves) kept it tied under Haula struck.
Game 3 is Sunday in L.A. Jets 4, Wild 1: Paul Stastny, Andrew Copp and Patrik Laine scored in the third period and Winnipeg beat visiting Minnesota to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference firstround series.
Defenseman Tyler Myers had a goal in the second period and also had an assist. Rookie Jack Roslovic, replacing injured veteran Mathieu Perreault, had two assists in the game, which ended with a series of fights.
Zach Parise had his second goal of the series when he deflected Mikko Koivu’s shot past Connor Hellebuyck to end the goalie’s shutout bid with 45 seconds left. The goal came on the power play after Jets forward Brandon Tanev was called for hooking with 59 seconds left.
Game 3 is Sunday at Minnesota. Briefly: Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock announced his retirement. Hitchcock, 42-32-8 this season, has 823 career victories in stops with Dallas, Philadelphia, Columbus and St. Louis to rank third all-time behind Scotty Bowman and Joel Quenneville. Hitchcock won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999 during his first stint with the team . ... Toronto forward Nazem Kadri was suspended for three games for boarding Boston forward Tommy Wingels during Game 1 of the first-round playoff series Thursday.