Bowness out as coach in Dallas

Rick Bowness will not return as head coach of the Dallas Stars after nearly three seasons in which he led them to the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals and the playoffs again this year.

While Bowness, 67, was not under contract past this season, he said in a statement released by the team Friday that he was stepping away to “allow the organization the opportunity to pursue a different direction at the head coaching position.” The move doesn’t necessarily mean Bowness is done coaching.

General manager Jim Nill said assistant coaches John Stevens, Derek Laxdal and Todd Nelson also would not return.

Bowness has been on an NHL bench for a record 2,562 regular-season games as a head coach or an assistant over nearly four decades. He was 89-6225 as head coach in Dallas, where he was a second-year assistant before being named interim head coach in December 2019 after Jim Montgomery was fired for off-ice issues.

After the Stars made the Stanley Cup Finals in that pandemic-altered 2019-20 season, the interim tag was removed and Bowness got a two-year contract.

Bowness said after the season ended with an OT loss in Game 7 of the first-round series at Calgary that he still has the passion to keep coaching.

Hurricanes 2, Rangers 0:

Brendan Smith scored a goal in the second period and Sebastian Aho added another with seconds remaining as host Carolina took a 2-0 lead in the second-round series.

Briefly: Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who had seasonending hip surgery in April, signed a one-year, $1.3 million deal with the team rather than test free agency . ... The San Jose Sharks signed right wing Mitchell Russell, who scored 41 goals in the 2021-22 Ontario Hockey League season, to a three-year, entry-level contract.