Paul scores twice, Lightning edge Maple Leafs in Game 7
Pagenaud gives Meyer Shank Racing best finish of season Herta makes all right moves to win wet, wild IndyCar GP Hurricanes, Oilers advance to 2nd round
TORONTO, May 15, (AP): Nick Paul scored twice, including an incredible individual effort on the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in Game 7 on Saturday night to win their firstround playoff series.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. The Lightning will next face the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers in the second round.
Morgan Rielly scored for Toronto, which hasn’t reached the second round since 2004 and is now 0-9 in elimination games over the last five
ICE HOCKEY
postseasons after also losing 4-3 in Game 6 at Tampa, Florida, two nights earlier. Jack Campbell had 23 saves.
The Maple Leafs were once again unable to push through and finally flip a long, ugly narrative of playoff failures for a franchise that has now lost its last seven series, including six straight dating back to 2017.
Hurricanes 3, Bruins 2
In Raleigh, Max Domi scored twice in the second period while Antti Raanta had 27 saves to help Carolina win the deciding Game 7 of the firstround playoff series.
Teuvo Teravainen also scored for the Hurricanes, who finally put away a Bruins team that had ousted them from the playoffs in two of the past three postseasons. That ended a series in which neither team could manage a road win, with the Hurricanes eventually getting the final word backed
by yet another rowdy and loud home crowd.
Carolina advanced to the second round to face the winner of Sunday’s Game 7 between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Jake DeBrusk scored a second-period goal for the Bruins, while David Pastrnak had one with 21.7 seconds left with Boston having pulled Jeremy Swayman for the extra attacker.
Swayman finished with 28 saves. Oilers 2, Kings 0
In Edmonton, Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist as Edmonton advanced through to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, beating Los Angeles in Game 7.
Cody Ceci also scored and Mike Smith made 28 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs for the Oilers,
who last won a Game 7 in 1998 and celebrated their first playoff series win since 2017.
Jonathan Quick made 39 saves for the Kings, who have not won a playoff series since they won their second Stanley Cup in 2014 - also the last year they won a series in a Game 7.
The Oilers will now advance to play either Calgary or Dallas, who are going to a Game 7 of their own on Sunday.
INDIANAPOLIS, May 15, (AP): As Colton Herta set up his winning pass Saturday, all he could see were red flashing lights.
He still charged forward.
The 22-year-old California driver quickly darted to the inside of Pato O’Ward on a late restart, took the lead for good with nine laps to go and beat Simon Pagenaud to the finish line by 3.0983 seconds to win a wild, wacky, wet IndyCar Grand
Prix.
Getting to victory lane certainly wasn’t easy for Herta, who earned his first Indy win in his 10th series start at the track.
He also became the first Honda driver to reach victory lane this season.
But on Saturday, he made all the right calls. After qualifying 14th on the 27-car grid, he made the gutsy choice to switch from rain tires to dry tires just three laps into the race. While he initially struggled to keep the cold tires on the track and nearly spun out on Lap 4 when he got sideways in the 10th turn on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course, Herta never flinched.
Somehow he hung on, quickly taking the lead and advantage of a move that allowed him to go from 15th to first. He stayed near the front of the pack the rest of the race, leading 50 of 75 laps in a two-hour race that had just 53 minutes, 22 seconds of green flag time.
It came on a day race strategists and drivers were constantly changing plans because of rain or the threat of rain. And even when it appeared Herta made the wrong choice - like running on dry tires after Alexander Rossi and made an early switch back to rain tires - things worked out.
Pagenaud and pole-winner Will Power struggled to navigate the spray coming off the other cars. Neither could see well enough for long enough in the first IndyCar rain race with the aeroscreens to catch Herta.
Still, the the two three-time race winners and former teammates felt as if they too had accomplished something. Pagenaud, the French driver, gave Meyer
Shank Racing its best finish of the season.
Power took the points lead away from defending series champ Alex Palou and posted Team Penske’s best finish.
Race organizers knew weather would be a factor.
They moved the start time up about 30 minutes with the hope of a wet track. Instead the start was delayed - first because of nearby lightning in the area and then because of a steady light rain.
The cooler, damper track changed everything. There were spins and crashes, even cars struggling to stay in line under caution. And nobody, not even the series’ top names, were immune.
Team Penske scrambled to get twotime series champ Josef Newgarden back on the course after his car was damaged in a Lap 17 crash.
Power lost three spots on the first lap and never completely recovered and Scott McLaughlin, Penske’s third driver, lost the lead when he spun under caution.