NHL ROUNDUP
Jets 4, Predators 1
Connor Hellebuyck made 47 saves and Winnipeg beat Nashville on Friday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal between the NHL’s top teams in the regular season.
Not only did the teams top the standings, this series is the first between clubs with the most combined points ever before a conference finals after Nashville (117) edged Winnipeg (114) for the Presidents’ Trophy.
Both the Jets and Predators brought a Vezina Trophy finalist into this series, and the 24-year-old Hellebuyck outdueled veteran Pekka Rinne, who was pulled after the second period after giving up three goals on 16 shots. Hellebuyck, who made his NHL postseason debut in the first round where he finished off Minnesota with back-to-back shutouts, picked up in Nashville where he left off a week ago. Hellebuyck stretched his shutout streak to 163 minutes before Nashville finally scored. Mark Scheifele scored two goals, including an empty-netter as the Jets were outshot 48-19. Brandon Tanev and Paul Stastny also scored to help the Jets — the NHL’s best home team — steal home-ice advantage. Kevin Fiala scored for Nashville, which had won 11 of its last 14 playoff games. The Predators had the sparkling pregame show with the retractable screen dropping from the ceiling and country star Dierks Bentley singing the U.S. anthem, and a couple catfish hit the ice before the puck drop to boot. Then they pelted Hellebuyck with 15 of the first 19 shots. Then the Jets scored the game’s first goal for a sixth straight playoff game. Tanev’s wrister beat Rinne’s outstretched right skate at 14:51 of the first. Nashville finished the period with 20 shots, a franchise postseason record for a period, with Hellebuyck continuing his shutout streak started with consecutive shutouts to finish off Minnesota in the first round. The Predators kept shooting away with Hellebuyck making every save, and the Jets proved very opportunistic. Stastny scored off a rebound of Patrik Laine’s shot at 9:01 of the second on Winnipeg’s ninth shot for a 2-0 lead. Filip Forsberg, Nashville’s postseason scoring leader, hit the post on the power play with 3:31 left. The Jets killed off the penalty, and Scheifele beat Rinne with a long shot with 2:09 left in the second for a 3-0 lead that silenced the sold-out crowd. Fiala at least helped Nashville avoid being shutout with his wrister 1:23 into the third . Even pulling backup goalie Juuse Saros with more than 2 minutes left helped.
Late Thursday Golden Knights 7, Sharks 0
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots for his third shutout of the playoffs, and Vegas went on to beat San Jose in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Cody Eakin, Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault scored 1:31 apart early in the first period to get Vegas going. Alex Tuch, Shea Theodore, Colin Miller and James Neal also scored, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson each had three assists, and Marchessault and David Perron added two each.
Fleury, who improved to 5-0 in the playoffs, got his 13th career shutout in the playoffs — and second straight. He also blanked Los Angeles 1-0 in Game 4 of the first round.
The Golden Knights, the first team from the opening round to advance, showed no sign of rust after having nine days off since their first-round sweep over the Kings. It has now outscored its opposition 14-3 in five games.
San Jose, which swept Anaheim in the first round, looked out of sorts by the time Vegas put its first three in the net just 6:02 into the game, and the Sharks lost their cool early in the third period, when Evander Kane was ejected for cross-checking Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the face after a whistle.
Martin Jones, who stopped 128 of 132 shots in the first round against the Ducks, was pulled a little more than three minutes into the second period after allowing five goals on 13 shots.