The Stanley Cup Playoffs continued yesterday with four games. The Carolina Hurricanes had the chance to sweep the New York Islanders. The Florida Panthers had the chance to sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Toronto Maple Leafs had the chance to tie the series with the Boston Bruins. The Vegas Golden Knight looked to continue their road to sweeping the Dallas Stars. There are four games today. The Winnipeg Jets have a chance to tie their series with the Colorado Avalanche. The Nashville Predators have a chance to tie their series with the Vancouver Canucks. The New York Rangers have the chance to sweep the Washington Capitals. The Los Angeles Kings have the chance to tie their series with the Oilers.
The Carolina Hurricanes took on the New York Islanders in game four of their first round series. The Hurricanes were leading the series 3-0 going into the game. If the Hurricanes won, they would win the series. If the Islanders lost they would be eliminated. This game was in New York. The Hurricanes scored first with twelve minutes to go in the first period. #24 Seth Jarvis scored the goal. #59 Jake Guentzel got the assist. The score after the first period was 1-0 Hurricanes.
Halfway through the second period, #13 Mathew Barzal scored for the Islanders to tie the game. His goal was assisted by #3 Adam Pelech and #14 Bo Horvat. The score was tied at 1-1 going into the third period.
Less than two minutes into the third period, the Islanders took the lead with a goal from #44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau. His goal was assisted by #8 Noah Dobson and #27 Anders Lee. With just inder six minutes to go in the game, #23 Stefan Noesen scored for the Hurricanes to tie the game. His goal was assisted by #86 Teuvo Teravainen and #88 Martin Necas. The third period ended with the game still tied at 2-2. The Game went into overtime. Neither team scored in the first overtime period. Roughly a minute and thirty seconds into the second overtime, #13 Mathew Barzal scored his second goal of the game to give the Islanders the win. #42 Robert Bortuzzo and #14 Bo Horvat got the assists. The final score was 3-2 Islanders. The Hurricanes still lead the series 3-1.
This game was close. Carolina got the late tying goal but could not finish it in overtime. The Islanders get a game that played out the way they wanted. Both teams lost the lead in this game. The Hurricanes could not finish the sweep of the Islanders. The Islanders still face elimination. The Hurricanes still have three chances to win the series. The Islanders would have to win four in a row (including this game) with two games in Carolina. The series will head back to Carolina for game five. I don’t see the Islanders winning that game. The Islanders did not get swept but they have not played at the level that they need to in order to win this series.
Game five of this series will be on Tuesday, April 30th. Puck Drop is set for 4:30 PM. That game will be in Carolina.
The Florida Panthers took on the Tampa Bay Lightning in game four of their first round series. The Panthers were leading the series 3-0 going into the game. If the Panthers won this game they would sweep the series. If the Lightning lost they would be eliminated. The Lightning opened up the scoring halfway through the first period. #91 Steven Stamkos scored with #21 Brayden Point and #38 Brandon Hagel getting the assists. With just under eight minutes to go in the first period, #38 Brandon Hagel scored to give the Lightning a two goal lead. His goal was assisted by #77 Vitor Headman. #21 Brayden Point scored with just under five minutes to go int he first period to give the Lightning a three goal lead. His goal was assisted by #86 Nikita Kucherov and #77 Victor Hedman. The first period ended with the Lightning leading 3-0.
Five minutes into the second period, #23 Carter Verhhaeghe scored to get the Panthers on the board. His goal was assisted by #19 Matthew Tkachuk and #15 Anton Lundell. Halfway through the second period, the Lightning regained their three goal lead with a goal from #38 Brandon Hagel. It was his second goal of the game. It was assisted by Mikhail Sergachev and #71 Anthony Cirelli. Two minutes later the panthers scored. #13 Sam Reinehart got the goal. #62 Brandon Montour anf #19 Matthew Tkachuk got the assists. With just over five minutes left in the second period, #91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Panthers. His goal was assisted by #17 Evan Rodrigues and #27 Eetu Luostarinen. The score was 4-3 Lightning after the second period.
Halfway through the third period, #91 Steven Stamkos scored for the Lightning. His goal was assisted by #86 Nikita Kucherov and #21 Brayden Point. With over three minutes left in the game, #20 Nicholas Paul scored for the Lightning. #86 Nikita Kucherov and #77 Victor Hedman got the assists. The final score was 6-3 Lightning. The Florida Panthers still have the series lead at 3-1.
Three unanswered goals in the first period and two unanswered goals in the third period propelled the Lightning to win. The Panthers did not have answers for the Lightning goals. The Panthers only looked like they showed up in the second period. The Panthers are the second team in a row to not be able to finish the sweep. The Lightning are not out of the woods yet. They still are facing elimination. The Panthers only have to win one of three games including two home games to win the series.
Game five of this series will be on Monday, April 29th. Puck drop is set for 4:00 PM. The game will be in Florida.
The Boston Bruins took on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fourth game of their first round series. Coming into this game the Bruins were leading the series 2-1. The Bruins won game one and game three. The Maple Leafs won game two. This game was in Toronto. with just under five minutes left in the first period, #21 James van Riemsdyk scored to give the Bruins the lead. His goal was assisted by #6 Mason Lohrei. The score was 1-0 Bruins after the first period.
Halfway through the second period, #63 Brad Marchand scored to give the Bruins a two goal lead. His goal was assisted by #73 Charlie McAvoy and #13 Charlie Coyle. With under a minute to go in the second period, #88 David Pastrnak scored to give the Bruins a three goal lead. His goal was assisted by #63 Brad Marchand and #18 Pavel Zacha. The score was 3-0 Bruins going into the third period.
Six minutes into the third period, #16 Mitch Marner scored for the Maple Leafs. His goal was assisted by #46 Ilya Lyubushkin and #59 Tyler Bertuzzi. The final score was 3-1 Bruins. The Boston Bruins now lead the series 3-1.
The Bruins got the lead and never looked back. The Maple Leafs were not in this game. Their goal in the third period was not a strong response to being down by three goals after two periods. Right now the Bruins want to win and the Maple Leafs don’t look they want to be in the playoffs. The Maple Leafs are not really keeping this series competitive. They just lost back to back games at home. Now the Bruins have a chance to win the series at home. After game three and game four the Maple Leafs will need a miracle to win game five.
Game five of this series will be on Tuesday, April 30th. Puck Drop is set for 4:00 PM. That game will be in Boston.
The Dallas Stars played the Vegas Golden Knights in game three of their first round series. The Golden Knights were leading the series 2-0 going into this game after winning the first two games in Dallas. This was the first game of the series in Las Vegas. The big news just before this game was that the Vegas Golden Knights had a dragon. Halfway through the first period, #53 Wyatt Johnston scored to give the Dallas Stars the lead. #21 Jason Robertson and #4 Miro Heiskanen got the assists. The score was 1-0 Stars after the first period.
Six minutes into the second period, #4 Miro Heiskanen scored to give the stars a two goal lead. Halfway through the second period, #3 Brayden McNabb scored for the Golden Knights to bring the lead back down to one goal. With six minutes left in the second period, #9 Jack Eichel scored for the Golden Knights to tie the game. His goal was assisted by #3 Brayden McNabb. The score was tied at 2-2 going into the third period.
Neither team scored in the third period. The game was still tied at 2-2 after regulation time. For the second game yesterday, there was overtime. With three minutes left in overtime, #53 Wyatt Johnston scored for the Stars to give them the win. His goal was assisted by #21 Jason Robertson and #20 Ryan Suter. The final score was 3-2 Stars. The Vegas Golden Knights still lead the series 2-1.
This was a huge response from the Stars. They did something really difficult. They came into Las Vegas and won after losing the first two games of the series. The Golden Knights came back down by two goals. That shows how strong they are. Losing two goal leads is also a huge problem for the Stars. The game looked like it could go either way as soon as the Golden Knights tied the game. It looked like it was going to go into double overtime. It was a beautiful goal from #53 Wyatt Johnston to win the game. Not what I wanted but the Golden Knights still lead the series and still look like the stronger team. The dragon did not help in this game. Will the dragon help in the next one?
Game four of this series will be on Monday, April 29th. Puck drop is set for 6:30 PM. The game will be in Las Vegas.
The Winnipeg Jets will take on the Colorado Avalanche in game four of their first round series. This game will be in Colorado. The Avalanche lead the series 2-1. Will the Jets bounce back after back to back losses? Will the Avalanche win three in a row?
The Vancouver Canucks take on the Nashville Predators in game four of their first round series. The Canucks lead the series 2-1. This game is in Nashville. Puck drop is scheduled for 2:00 PM. Will the Canucks make game five a must win for the Predators? Will the Predators tie the series?
The New York Rangers take on the Washington Capitals in game four of their first round series. The Rangers lead the series 3-0. This game will be in Washington. Puck drop is scheduled for 5:00 PM. Will the Rangers sweep the series? Will the Capitals force a game five?
The Edmonton Oilers take on the Los Angeles Kings in game four of their first round series. The Oilers lead the series 2-1 after they thrashed the Kings 6-1 in game three. This game will be in Los Angeles. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 PM. Will the Oiler offense continue to prove to be too much for the Kings? Will the Kings show up at all in this game?
Zac Electrifly 
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