Beauvillier, Islanders beat Panthers to advance in playoff preliminaries
Anthony Beauvillier scored twice, and the New York Islanders beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 to clinch an NHL bestof-five preliminary round playoff series in four games on Friday.
Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal had a goal and assist each in a game the Islanders never trailed. Defenseman Ryan Pulock made a diving stick save to prevent Florida’s Aleksander Barkov from scoring into an open side to maintain New York’s 3-1 lead midway through the second period.
Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots, JeanGabriel Pageau scored an empty-netter, and the Eastern Conference’s seventh-seeded Islanders bounced back from a 3-2 loss in Game 3 on Wednesday. New York will open the best-ofseven first-round series against a yet to be determined opponent next week.
Mike Hoffman scored his Florida-leading third goal and fifth point of the series, while Sergei Bobrovsky proved inconsistent in stopping 33 shots. The 10th-seeded Panthers wound up one-and-done for their fifth consecutive postseason appearance. COYOTES 4, PREDATORS 3 >> Brad Richardson scored on a rebound in overtime, Darcy Kuemper stopped 49 shots and Arizona advanced in the postseason for the first time in eight years.
The Coyotes, the Western Conference’s No. 11 seed, took a 2-0 lead early in the second period. But they allowed Nashville to tie it before going ahead 3-2 on Jordan Oesterle’s goal early in the third. Nashville pulled goalie Juuse Saros late in the period and Filip Forsberg tied it with 32 seconds left.
Richardson won it after he redirected Vinnie Hinostroz’s shot and punched in the rebound past Saros to help the Coyotes win the Stanley Cup qualifier series 3-1.
Michael Grabner and Phil Kessel also scored for Arizona, which faces Colorado or Vegas in the next round after advancing in the postseason for the first time since reaching the 2012 Western Conference finals.
Viktor Arvidsson scored for the third straight game before taking a shot to the ribs and leaving late in the second period. Matt Duchene also scored and Saros
stopped 30 shots for the Predators, who bowed out of the postseason as the West’s No. 6 seed. CANADIENS 2, PENGUINS 0 >> Artturi Lehkonen flipped a shot past Tristan Jarry with 4:11 remaining to lift Montreal to a stunning victory and clinching the Canadiens’ first playoff berth in three years.
Shea Weber added an empty-net goal in the final seconds as the 12thseeded Canadiens captured the best-of-five qualifying round over fifth-seeded Pittsburgh in four games. Carey Price stopped 22 shots to collect his sixth career playoff shutout. Montreal will advance to the first round of the playoffs against either Tampa Bay or Philadelphia.
Tristan Jarry made 20 saves in his first career playoff start, including a stellar glove save to thwart a breakaway by
Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher early in the third period. Pittsburgh’s starladen lineup, including captain Sidney Crosby, provided little support. BLACKHAWKS 3, OILERS 1 >> Brandon Saad, Matthew Highmore and Dominik Kubalik scored and Chicago beat Edmonton, knocking the Oilers out of the postseason tournament.
The Blackhawks won the best-of-five qualifying series 3-1. Chicago advances to the round of 16.
Josh Archibald and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton.
The Oilers had been expected to beat Chicago, given they were the fifthseeded team in the Western Conference tournament and the Hawks were the bottom seed at 12.
Corey Crawford made 41 saves for the win. Mikko Koskinen stopped 25 in the loss.