Price, Canadiens beat Jets again for 2-0 series lead
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA » Carey Price made 30 saves for his eighth career playoff shutout and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in the second-round playoff series.
Tyler Toffoli scored a short-handed goal 1:41 into the second period.
Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for Winnipeg. The Jets were without suspended scoring leader Mark Scheifele. He was suspended for four games for charging into Canadiens forward Jake Evans in the final minute of Montreal’s 5-3 victory Wednesday.
Pierre-Luc Dubois centered Winnipeg’s top line with Kyle Connor on the left and captain Blake Wheeler on the other side. Jets center Paul Stastny missed his second game of the series because an undisclosed injury.
Jets’ Scheifele says family has been abused for hit on Evans
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA » Winnipeg star Mark Schiefele is willing to accept his four-game suspension for his crushing blow that sent Montreal’s Jake Evans off the ice on a stretcher.
What’s not acceptable, he says, is the abuse directed at his family.
“The bullying that they’ve gotten, online, phone calls. It’s pretty gross to see,” Schiefele, his voice catching, said during a video call Friday. “My parents are the salt of the earth. For my parents to get hate like that, and my brother and sister, it’s awful.
“I can handle it, I’m a grown man. I’ve accepted that and I can be held accountable for that. But for my family to get that, it hurts me a lot.”
Evans was left sprawled on the ice in the final minute of Montreal’s 5-3 win Wednesday night in a second-round series opener. Scheifele called the sanction “excessive” but won’t appeal.
“I don’t want to be a distraction anymore. This has lingered on long enough,” he said before the Jets hosted the Canadiens in Game 2 on Friday.
“The stakes are so high at this point. I just want to be there cheering on my teammates. ... From this point on, it’s all about the Winnipeg Jets. It’s not about me, it’s not about anything like that. It’s about the Winnipeg Jets and the guys in that room who are going to be battling for our team.”
Jets coach Paul Maurice was expecting a two-game ban.
“I think four is excessive,” he said.
Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen (62) celebrates a goal by Tyler Toffoli against Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) during the second period of Game 2 on Friday in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Scheifele’s hit came as Evans wrapped a shot into an Winnipeg net with 57 seconds left. The 6-foot-3, 207-pound Scheifele leveled Evans at the goal line. The Canadiens forward flew through the air, striking his head on the ice. He lay still for several moments while trainers and medical staff tended to him.
Penguins’ Malkin has knee surgery
PITTSBURGH » Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin has had surgery on his right knee and will not be available when the team reports for training camp in September.
The team made the announcement Friday but did not provide specifics on when Malkin underwent the procedure or the nature of the surgery.
Malkin injured the knee in a collision against Boston on March 16. He missed seven weeks before returning to appear for the final four games of the regular season.
Shoulder surgery will sideline Domi for start of next season
COLUMBUS, OHIO » Columbus Blue Jackets center Max Domi is expected to miss the beginning of the 2021-22 season after surgery to repair a labral tear in his right shoulder.
Domi is expected to make a full recovery in five to six months, Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said Friday.
“Max had been experiencing some discomfort in his shoulder, which he brought to our attention last week and a subsequent examination revealed a labral tear,” Kekalainen said.