The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
STANLEY CUP QUALIFIERS ROUNDUP
Hurricanes 4, Rangers 1
Andrei Svechnikov kept on the attack, both in skating with a physical edge and continuing to fire pucks at the net.
Now he has a franchise first and the Carolina Hurricanes are a win away from a sweep. The 20-year-old scored three times for the first postseason hat trick in franchise history and the Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 4-1 on Monday, securing a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup qualifier series.
Svechnikov beat Henrik Lundqvist for the game’s first goal less than 5 minutes into the game. He followed with a power-play one-timer early in the second off a feed from Sami Vatanen, then buried a third at 14:02 of the third off a feed from Sebastian Aho – who assisted all three Svechnikov goals. Jets 3, Flames 2 Nikolaj Ehlers scored a third-period power-play goal to give the Winnipeg Jets a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Monday and draw even in their qualifying-round series.
Adam Lowry led the Jets with a goal and an assist in Game 2 of the best-offive series. Rookie Jansen Harkins also scored for Winnipeg and Jack Roslovic contributed a pair of assists.
Vezina Trophy finalist Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the win.
Elias Lindholm and Sam Bennett scored for the Flames.
Calgary starter Cam Talbot stopped 23 shots in the loss. Lightning 3, Capitals 2 (SO) Nikita Kucherov scored the shootout winner to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory against the Washington Capitals on Monday in Eastern Conference round-robin play.
The teams played 5 minutes of 3on-3 overtime before going to a shootout because the games for seeding are following regular-season rules. Tampa Bay’s win puts it in a tie with Philadelphia at two points apiece in the Eastern Conference race, while Washington is third with one and Boston fourth with zero.
Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped two of the three Capitals players he faced in the shootout after making 31 saves in regulation and overtime.