Maple Leafs shut out Blue Jackets 3-0 to even playoff series
TORONTO — Auston Matthews and John Tavares scored and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 on Tuesday to even their best-of-five qualifying series at one game.
Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin was taken off the ice on a stretcher with 1:52 left in the game after his head made violent contact with Columbus’ Oliver Bjorkstrand behind the Blue Jackets net. Muzzin was attended to by a trainer before more medical personnel arrived on the ice.
Frederik Andersen made 20 saves for his third career playoff shutout and Morgan Rielly added an empty-net goal with 43 seconds left.
The Blue Jackets, after shutting out Toronto 2-0 in Game 1, could muster little offense in this one while the Leafs finally solved goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who finished with 36 saves.
Toronto came out more aggressively than in Game 1, with much of the game being played in the Columbus defensive zone as Korpisalo was forced to make stop after stop. Five Leafs power plays helped keep the Blue Jackets on their heels.
The Leafs eventually beat the Columbus netminder — who hadn’t allowed a goal in the first 76 minutes of the series — when Matthews tipped in Zach Hyman’s pass from the bottom of the right circle with 4 minutes left in the second period.
After Andersen turned away a flurry from Columbus, the Blue Jackets got caught with all five skaters close to their own net as the puck bounced away. Tavares got a breakaway and poked a shot under Korpisalo’s arm to make it 2-0 at 4:56 of the third.
Islanders 4, Panthers 2
TORONTO — Jordan Eberle scored twice, including the go-ahead goal, and the New York Islanders rallied past Florida to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five NHL preliminary round playoff series.
Ryan Pulock and Matt Martin also scored, and Semyon Varlamov stopped 26 shots in a game New York overcame a pair of one-goal deficits.
Mike Hoffman had a goal and assist and captain Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida, which is one loss from going one-and-done in the playoffs for a fifth consecutive time.
The Panthers have advanced past the playoffs’ opening round just once in franchise history, in 1996, when Florida reached the Stanley Cup Final before being swept by Colorado.
Florida is making its first playoff appearance since 2016, when the Panthers were eliminated by the Islanders in six games.
Florida finished 10th in the East and qualified for the playoffs, which were expanded to include 12 teams from each conference after the coronavirus pandemic cut short the regular season in mid-March.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots, and had little chance on Eberle’s goahead goal with 3:33 left in the second period.
Predators 4, Coyotes 2
EDMONTON, Alberta — Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist, Jusse Saros stopped 24 shots and Nashville beat Arizona to even their Stanley Cup qualifier series.
Predators coach John Hynes stuck with Saros after the Finnish goalie gave up four goals on 37 shots in the opener. Saros responded with a strong Game 2 performance, turning 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.
Nashville had the early jump after falling into a three-goal hole to lose Game 1, scoring on goals by Nick Bonino
and Johansen in a span of three minutes of the first period.
Calle Jarnkrok scored in the second period and Viktor Arvidsson put it away with a goal in the third to tie up the best-of-five series heading into Game 3 on Wednesday.
Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots for the Coyotes after turning away 40 in the series opener.
Arizona, the Western Conference’s No. 11 seed, won the opener 4-3 after scoring three goals in the first period and holding off Nashville’s late charge.