Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights begin showdown

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Two extra second-round sequence get underway within the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs Sunday — together with that epic Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights tilt — whereas the remaining divisional first-round sequence was prolonged to seven video games by the pesky Montreal Canadiens (and the collapsing Toronto Maple Leafs).

Try the ESPN NHL Playoffs Every day to catch up daily of the postseason till the Stanley Cup is handed out in July.

Extra: Playoff schedule | Playoff Central

Sunday’s video games

Sport 1: Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes | 5 p.m.

The Lightning have been 4-3-1 in opposition to the Hurricanes this season, with a negative-1 objective differential. “They’ve some excessive energy, so we’re going to should attempt to defend them and shut them down. That’s going to be the important thing,” stated Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour. Mentioned a type of “excessive energy” gamers, Brayden Level: “Carolina checks extraordinarily nicely, they don’t offer you a ton of house. They’ve a ton of expertise to attain. It’s important to be in your sport.” Full sequence preview.

Sport 1: Vegas Golden Knights at Colorado Avalanche | 8 p.m.

It’s the sequence for which we’ve all been ready. The Avalanche and Knights each completed with a .732 factors share. Vegas had the most effective objective differential within the league (plus-67) whereas Colorado had the second finest (plus-64). The Avs have been 4-3-1 in opposition to the Knights within the common season. “They’ve bettered us just a few instances, we’ve gotten the higher of them just a few instances,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar stated. “Within the eight-game sequence in opposition to them, we completed one level forward. That is two evenly matched groups, a little bit little bit of a special model, however each groups are deep and each groups play with a whole lot of pace, each groups have good goaltending.” This has the potential to be a traditional. Full sequence preview.


About final night time

Montreal Canadiens 3, Toronto Maple Leafs 2 (OT) (tied 3-3)

The Leafs are actually going to blow this, huh? Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s fluttering deflected shot beat goalie Jack Campbell at 15:15 of time beyond regulation, the second straight sport during which a Toronto turnover within the further session led to a Canadiens’ sport winner. (Final sport it was Alex Galchenyuk; this time it was Travis Dermott.) The Leafs rallied for 2 targets late within the third interval to drive time beyond regulation and outshot Montreal 13-2 after regulation. However their stars couldn’t convert their probabilities in opposition to Carey Worth — Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have mixed for one objective within the sequence — and one mistake ended it. “We had loads of probabilities. It’s a sport of inches on the market. And we couldn’t get it performed,” Matthews stated. The Maple Leafs have now misplaced seven straight potential series-clinchers, tied for the second-longest streak in NHL historical past. Full recap.

Boston Bruins 5, New York Islanders 2 (Bruins lead 1-0)

David Pastrnak tallied a hat trick and Tuukka Rask made 20 saves because the Bruins opened the East Division closing with a win at dwelling in opposition to the Islanders. Pasta scored the primary two targets for Boston, however it was a 2-2 sport within the third interval when Charlie McAvoy scored the important thing objective within the sport — assisted by David Krejci, who had three of them on the night time. Boston had 17,400 followers in the home for the win. “It positively sort of warms your coronary heart and sort of reminds you why you play this sport. It was superior to have them again,” stated Pastrnak. Full recap.


Three stars of the night time

1. David Pastrnak, F, Boston Bruins

Pastrnak now has 5 targets in his previous three video games, together with three in opposition to the Islanders in Sport 1. “He likes to get the gang going. It appears sort of becoming for him to have a type of nights with the followers again within the constructing,” stated Boston heart Patrice Bergeron.

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David Pastrnak scores a trio of targets to steer the Bruins previous the Islanders in Sport 1.

2. Carey Worth, G, Montreal Canadiens

Worth made 41 saves for his second straight time beyond regulation win in opposition to Toronto, giving him a .926 save share for the playoffs. “He’s the spine of their group. We knew that entering into,” stated Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe. “However I don’t really feel like our guys are intimidated by any means.”

3. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, F, Montreal Canadiens

Kotkaniemi scored at 15:15 of time beyond regulation to drive Sport 7. “It was an awesome feeling, particularly with the followers within the stands,” stated the 20-year-old ahead.


Problem of the day

The Maple Leafs challenged Corey Perry’s third-period objective that gave Montreal the lead, to no avail. Toronto was given a delay-of-game penalty; simply 19 seconds later, Mitch Marner despatched the puck over the glass for one more delay-of-game name and Tyler Toffoli scored on the 5-on-3 to offer the Canadiens a 2-0 lead.

“We felt it was worthy of a problem. There’s some precedent there, with [Tyler] Toffoli standing there within the crease and the goalie’s attempting to get again into his crease and he can’t. We thought there was some precedent there,” stated Keefe. “We thought given what was occurring within the sport, the importance of the objective, I believed within the second it was worthy of the problem and having the arrogance within the penalty kill that they may get it performed. However clearly, it ended up 5-on-3.”


Quote of the day

“The video games have gotten more durable, Montreal has performed higher, and we haven’t handled it nicely.”

— Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe after their Sport 6 loss.


Followers of the day

Two Maple Leafs followers bought tickets to Sport 6 for round $5,000, and marched in entrance of Bell Centre chanting “take pleasure in your final sport.” You’ll by no means imagine what occurred subsequent, except you’re a Leafs fan, during which case you understand precisely what occurred subsequent.


Music of the day

For the primary time since March 11, 2023, there have been followers inside the sector at a Canadian NHL sport. And it sounded stunning.

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