11th-seeded Coyotes go up 2-1 on Preds
Avalanche routs Stars in round-robin game
EDMONTON, Alberta — The Arizona Coyotes knew they had a big opportunity once their challenge erased Nashville’s go-ahead goal early in the third period.
The Coyotes took advantage by scoring the next three goals.
Conor Garland and Taylor Hall each scored in the third period as the Coyotes beat the Predators 4-1 on Wednesday.
Now the Coyotes, seeded 11th in the West in the NHL’s restart, can eliminate the sixth-seeded Predators in Game 4 on Friday in this best-of-five qualifying series.
“We all understood the importance of it,” Hall said of the overturned goal. “To go up 2-1 in the series is the same as going up 3-2 in a best-of-seven. We wanted the last game just as much as today. Obviously, the next game is going to be huge.”
Christian Dvorak scored on Arizona’s first shot of the game, and the Coyotes scored three in the third for the victory capped by Carl Soderberg’s empty-netter.
The Predators thought they had a 2-1 lead 1:13 into the third period on a goal by Kyle Turris, but the Coyotes won their challenge of offside with Nashville center Matt Duchene found over the blue line on review. Turris later hit the post with 6:19 left.
Garland put the Coyotes ahead to stay with his wrister from the slot at 7:08 of the third for the first playoff goal of his career. Hall padded the lead with 4:22 left with his first goal of the series on a snap shot from the left circle. The Coyotes had been 1-of9 on the man advantage through the first two games.
Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves for the victory in his third start and second in as many days. Arizona coach Rick Tocchet called it a terrific performance.
“Kuemps has been like that for two years,” Tocchet said. “Nothing fazes him. Throughout the years I played, you always have those goalies everyone wants to play for because he’s such a great guy, never blames his teammates.”
AVALANCHE 4, STARS 0: Highscoring 21-year-old rookie defenseman Cale Makar connected on an early power-play goal and 30-year-old Pavel Francouz recorded a shutout in his postseason debut as Colorado cruised to a round-robin win over Dallas.
Joonas Donskoi, Vladislav Namestnikov and Andre Burakovsky also scored as the Avalanche improved to 2-0 in the three-game round that will determine playoff seeding for the top four teams in the Western Conference. The Stars have lost both of their games and are likely to finish where they started, as the fourth seed.
Colorado was 1 of 18 on the power play while losing all four regularseason games to Dallas before the pandemic-forced shutdown, but three of the four goals in the restart involved the man advantage.
CANADIENS 4, PENGUINS 3: In Toronto, Jeff Petry scored 5:33 into the third period as Montreal rallied from two goals down and beat Pittsburgh in Game 3, pushing the Penguins to the brink of elimination in the bestof-five series.
Shea Weber had a goal and two assists for Montreal, Paul Byron added a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Drouin also scored.
Carey Price stopped 30 shots for the Canadiens — the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference as part of the NHL’s 24-team restart to its pandemic-delayed season. Montreal can advance to the normal first round with 16 teams with win in Game 4 on Friday.
PANTHERS 3, ISLANDERS 2: Mike Hoffman and Brian Boyle scored 2:07 apart in the opening minutes of the third period as Florida avoided elimination with a win over New York in Game 3 of their series.
Erik Haula also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 20 shots. The 10th-seeded Panthers trail the bestof-five series 2-1 with Game 4 at the NHL’s Eastern Conference hub city of Toronto Friday.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Brock Nelson, with 1:27 left, scored for the Islanders, the East’s seventh seed.
LIGHTNING 3, BRUINS 2: In Toronto, Tyler Johnson scored the tiebreaking goal with 87 seconds left to lead Tampa Bay over Boston to send the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins to their second straight loss in the East’s round-robin format.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots for the Lightning, which improved to 2-0 in the three-game round-robin.