Throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs we’ll be keeping track of all the action around the league, and bringing you all of the results in one place.
No. 1 Philadelphia Flyers vs. No. 6 New York Islanders
We had two potential elimination games on deck last night, and first up we had our Flyers looking to stave off elimination at the hands of the Islanders. They came out with some jump and had a solid first period, but we didn’t see any scoring until the second period, when Mathew Barzal picked up a power play goal to get the Islanders on the board. And Flyers fans were getting a little nervous, but the Flyers themselves were cool and collected, just waiting for their chances. They would pick up two goals late in the period, with Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk picking up their first goals of the playoffs.
Matt Niskanen extended their lead to two in the third period, and it looked like the Flyers might be able to coast into the win, but the Islanders had other ideas. With goals from Brock Nelson and Derick Brassard inside the final five minutes, it was a tied game again, and to overtime we went.
It was a pretty thrilling period, with both sides trading close chances, and in a lot of ways this felt like some of the most wide open hockey we’d seen all series. In the end, it was the Flyers who broke through, with Scott Laughton deflecting a point shot from Ivan Provorov, and so they live to fight another day.
Final: Philadelphia 4, New York 3 (OT)
Series: 3-2 New York
SB Nation team perspective: NYI | PHI
Highlights: NHL
No. 1 Vegas Golden Knights vs. No. 5 Vancouver Canucks
Out West with the Canucks looking to avoid elimination themselves, they didn’t get off to as strong of a start in this one. They weathered the storm Vegas was putting up, with Thatcher Demko making some big saves for them, but their offense wasn’t really clicking and they managed only five shots in the first period. The second period saw the scoring finally open up, and Shea Theodore got the Golden Knights on the board with a pretty stellar goal, deking through traffic to beat Demko with a shot late in the period. The Canucks, though, got right back in it, and 24 seconds later, J.T. Miller on the rush found Brock Boeser crashing the net, and he tapped a shot home to pick up his first goal of the series.
The Canucks still had some more in them, and Elias Pettersson pulled them into the lead just over three minutes into the third period, deflecting a shot from Boeser for the goal. Vegas surged after that, and had a couple of really close chances at the end of the third period with Robin Lehner pulled, but again it was Demko coming up big. The Canucks got a little help to close things out, as Mark Stone took a penalty in the waning seconds of the third, and the Golden Knights couldn’t get it done at 5-on-5 with the goalie still pulled. And the Canucks were able to force a Game 6 themselves.
Final: Vancouver 2, Vegas 1
Series: 3-2 Vegas
SB Nation team perspective: VGK | VAN
Highlights: NHL
