Hot Makar the hero for Avalanche
Cale Makar scored 8:31 into overtime and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 in the on Thursday in Denver to take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference first-round play-off series.
The Avalanche held the Predators to 15 shots after the first period and dominated chances in the third period and overtime.
Colorado finally solved Connor Ingram in OT after Nico Sturm took a shot from near the left circle that Ingram saved.
The rebound came to Makar in the slot, and his wrister gave the Avalanche a two-game edge in the bestof-seven series.
It was Makar’s second goal of the post-season.
Nathan MacKinnon also scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped 25 shots for the Avalanche.
At Calgary, Joe Pavelski’s first-period goal held up as the game winner thanks to a shutout performance by goaltender Jake Oettinger, and the Stars beat the Flames 2-0 to even the Western Conference first-round series at 1-1.
Oettinger, in just his second NHL
play-off start, made 29 saves — 12 of them in the third period.
He has a shutout streak of 114 minutes and 59 seconds, and he has stopped 54 of 55 shots he has faced in the series.
Michael Raffl’s empty-net goal with 69 seconds remaining sealed the win.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 shots for the Pacific Division-champion Flames, who are in dire need of offensive production with just one goal through the first two contests of the series.
At Sunrise, Florida, Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each recorded a goal and an assist as the Panthers defeated Washington 5-1 in an Eastern Conference first-round playoff game.
The best-of-seven series is tied 1-1. Florida also got goals from Aaron Ekblad, Mason Marchment and Aaron Lundell, and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.
At New York, Artemi Panarin scored a key goal with 11:58 remaining and collected two assists for the Rangers, who never trailed in a 5-2 victory over Pittsburgh that evened their Eastern Conference first-round play-off series at 1-1.
New York’s Frank Vatrano also contributed a goal and two assists.