Blues move on after Wild win, Bruins force Game 7
Jordan Binnington made 25 saves as the St Louis Blues defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Thursday to win their NHL’s first-round Western Conference play-off series 4-2.
The Blues advance to the second round to face the Colorado Avalanche, who swept them out of the play-offs last season in the first round.
Nick Leddy, Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak, Vladimir Tarasenko and Colton Parayko scored for the Blues. David Perron had two assists.
Matt Dumba scored for the Wild. Minnesota goaltender Cam Talbot, making his first start in place of MarcAndre Fleury, stopped 22 shots.
At Boston, the Bruins forced a deciding Game Seven in their Eastern Conference first-round series, scoring twice in the second period and three times in the third to defeat Carolina 5-2.
Game Seven is tomorrow in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle each had a goal and an assist, Derek Forbort, Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar also scored and Tomas Nosek dished out two assists for Boston. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman made 23 saves in his fourth consecutive start.
Andrei Svechnikov scored both Hurricanes goals, including one on the power play.
At Tampa, Brayden Point scored at 18:04 minutes of the overtime and the Lightning defeated Toronto 4-3 to force a seventh game in their first-round Eastern Conference play-off series.
Point, who also had an assist, scored his second goal of the best-of-seven series when he knocked in a rebound during a scrum around the goal.
At Los Angeles, Evander Kane scored twice in a three-point game as Edmonton forced a deciding Game Seven in their Western Conference first-round play-off series by beating the Kings 4-2.
With the score tied 2-2, Tyson Barrie scored the game-winning goal with 5:10 minutes remaining in regulation when he jumped into a rush, took a feed from Leon Draisaitl and buried a shot from the high slot for his first goal of the series.
Connor McDavid collected one goal and two assists for the Oilers, and goaltender Mike Smith made 30 saves.