Panthers win, avoid elimination
Mike Hoffman and Brian Boyle scored 2:07 apart in the opening minutes of the third period, and the Florida Panthers stayed alive with a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders in Game 3 of their preliminary round playoff series on Wednesday afternoon.
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 on Friday.
Jean-gabriel Pageau and Brock Nelson, with 1:27 remaining, scored for the Islanders, the East’s seventh seed. Semyon Varlamov stopped 19 shots and made a costly error leading to Hoffman’s go-ahead goal 41 seconds into the third period.
With Varlamov penalized for playing the puck inside the trapezoid 7 seconds into the period, Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle faked a shot in the high slot, before feeding Hoffman, who blasted the puck in from the right circle.
Boyle made it 3-1 when he corralled a loose puck inside the Islanders zone and snapped a 40-footer inside the left post.
HURRICANES 4, RANGERS 1: Sebastian Aho scored twice in the third period while James Reimer was strong in net to help Carolina beat New York on Tuesday night in Toronto and sweep the qualifying series.
Warren Foegele scored the goahead goal early in the third period for the Hurricanes, redirecting a shot from the point by Brady Skjei to beat rookie Igor Shesterkin at 5:07 in the third. Then Aho followed with a highlight-reel goal about 5 minutes later, taking the puck from Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba along the boards and skating in on Tony Deangelo to backhand the puck past Shesterkin as he went to his knees.
CANUCKS 4, WILD 3: J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist, and Vancouver beat Minnesota in Edmonton on Tuesday night to even their qualifying series at a win each.
Tanner Pearson, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat also scored for the Canucks, and Jacob Markstrom made 32 saves.
PREDATORS 4, COYOTES 2: Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist, Jusse Saros stopped 24 shots and the Predators beat the Coyotes on Tuesday night in Edmonton to even their qualifying series at a win each.
Saros turned away multiple flurries in the first two periods before giving up goals to Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse 9 seconds apart late in the third.
FLAMES 6, JETS 2: Sean Monahan had a goal and two assists while Cam Talbot finished with 33 saves to help Calgary win in Game 3 of their qualifying series Tuesday night in Edmonton.
Mikael Backlund, Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm each had a goal and an assist for the Flames, who took a 2-1 lead in the best-offive series. Milan Lucic and Matthew Tkachuk also scored goals for Calgary.