Avalanche hit five goals in third to rally past Jets
>> DENVER: Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin scored power-play goals 2:28 minutes apart early in a fivegoal third period, and the Colorado Avalanche rallied to beat the Winnipeg Jets 6-2 in Game Three of their first-round series in Denver on Friday night.
Colorado took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference series, with Game Four in Denver on this afternoon.
Devon Toews and MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist, Ross Colton, Zach Parise and Artturi Lehkonen also scored, Casey Mittelstadt had three assists, Mikko Rantanen registered two assists and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 22 shots for the Avalanche.
Josh Morrissey and Tyler Toffoli scored and Connor Hellebuyck had 34 saves for the Jets.
Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist as New York beat hosts Washington 3-1 to close in on a berth in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Chris Kreider and Barclay Goodrow added goals, Mika Zibanejad had two assists and Igor Shesterkin made 28 saves for the Rangers, who lead the bestof-seven first-round series 3-0.
John Carlson scored for the Capitals and Charlie Lindgren made 19 saves. Washington played with five defencemen for 2½ periods after Trevor van Riemsdyk was injured at 12:08 minutes of the first on a hit from New York forward Matt Rempe.
Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and
Connor McDavid scored in the first period and visiting Edmonton finished with the three power-play goals in a 6-1 victory over Los Angeles in Game Three of a first-round Western Conference play-off series.
Hyman and Draisaitl each finished with two goals, and Draisaitl also had an assist as the Oilers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series while rebounding from a 5-4 defeat at home in Game Two.
McDavid wound up with three points, Evander Kane contributed a goal and an assist, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins notched three assists and Stuart Skinner made 27 saves for Edmonton. Edmonton now have seven power-play goals in the series.
Drew Doughty scored a goal for the Kings, while Cam Talbot made 34 saves. The Kings get a chance to even the series in Game Four at home today.
Casey DeSmith made 29 saves for his first career play-off win as visiting Vancouver beat Nashville 2-1.
The Canucks grabbed a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference first-round play-off series.
Game Four of the best-of-seven series is scheduled to be played today in Nashville.
RESULTS (home team in CAPS, best-of-seven series)
NY Rangers 3 WASHINGTON 1 (Rangers lead series 3-0); Vancouver 2 NASHVILLE 1 (Canucks lead series 2-1); COLORADO 6 Winnipeg 2 (Avalanche lead series 2-1); Edmonton 6 LOS ANGELES 1 (Oilers lead serie 2-1)