Playing with ‘fire,’ Ducks knot series
The Anaheim Ducks keep traipsing to the penalty box over and over against the Nashville Predators.
Thanks to the NHL’s best penalty killers, it hasn’t hurt them yet, and now the Ducks head home having dug themselves out of an 0-2 series hole
Nate Thompson and Jamie McGinn scored nearly 2 minutes apart late in the second period, and the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Thursday night to even the firstround series 2-2.
“We’re playing with fire,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We’ve got to keep them to two or three minors a game, or it gets too hard on all your players that kill the penalties, like (Ryan) Getzlaf, (Jakob) Silfverberg, (Corey) Perry and (Andrew) Cogliano. They’re playing a lot more than you’d like them to play because they’re killing so many penalties.” Blackhawks 4, Blues 3: Patrick Kane scored on a backhander early in the second overtime and Chicago avoided first-round elimination with a victory over St. Louis early Friday.
The game winner was the first goal in the series by the defending Stanley Cup winners’ stars, Kane and Jonathan Toews. Both assisted on Artemi Panarin’s goal in the final second of the second period for a 3-1 lead. Chicago will host Game 6 on Saturday. Lightning 1, Red Wings 0: Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots, Alex Killorn scored with less than two minutes remaining and Tampa Bay advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 1-0 victory over Detroit.
Killorn’s second winning goal of the series was set up by Ryan Callahan, who retrieved goalie Petr Mrazek’s bad pass behind the Detroit net and centered the puck in the crease for Killorn’s backhander at 18:17 of the third period. Penguins 5, Rangers 0: Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and set up two others and Pittsburgh pushed New York to the brink of playoff elimination.
Malkin helped Pittsburgh dominate the Rangers for the second consecutive game and take a 3-1 lead in the first-round series. The red-hot Penguins can wrap up things in Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Saturday.