Oilers push Flames to brink
EDMONTON: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins notched his second goal of the night late in regulation to break a tie and send the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
The Oilers lead the Western Conference second-round series 3-1 and are one win away from advancing to the next round in the Stanley Cup play-offs.
With the score 3-3 after the Flames erased a three-goal deficit, NugentHopkins was on the spot for a rebound to net his fourth of the play-offs with 3:27 minutes remaining in regulation.
Evander Kane scored twice, including an empty-netter, to give him 12 goals in the play-offs, and Zach Hyman added a goal for Edmonton.
Mike Smith made 29 saves for the Oilers, who will look to close out the series tomorrow, Thai time, in Calgary.
Oilers captain Connor McDavid netted two assists, giving him 10 multipoint games in 11 play-off outings.
Leon Draisaitl also collected a pair of assists, his fourth consecutive game with multiple assists.
Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund and Rasmus Andersson scored for the Flames, who got 21 saves from Jacob Markstrom.
At New York, Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves and Andrew Copp collected a goal and two assists as the New York Rangers evened their Eastern Conference second-round series with a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game Four.
The Rangers won their fifth straight home game since losing the post-season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins in triple overtime.
The Hurricanes fell to 0-5 on the road
in this year’s post-season.
New York’s Frank Vatrano and Adam Fox scored goals 2:11 minutes apart in the first period and Mika Zibanejad scored for the second straight game, late in the second.
Copp set up New York’s first two goals and scored after Shesterkin lost his shut-out bid in the third period.
Teuvo Teravainen scored with 13:27 minutes remaining for Carolina who have been outscored 21-8 in their playoff road games so far. Carolina’s Antti
Raanta finished with 24 saves.
The Hurricanes joined the 1992 Montreal Canadiens and 1976 Toronto Maple Leafs as the third team to lose the first five post-season road games.