Avalanche's power play dominates Predators; Penguins blow 4-1 lead but hang on for win

T.J. Oshie would get a goal to tie it in the first period, but it was the second period that was a turning point for the Caps. The Panthers controlled most of the play in the period, but Samsonov stood strong and stopped all 13 shots he faced, while Marcus Johansson and Trevor van Riemsdyk scored to make it 3-1. Alex Ovechkin would get his first goal of the playoffs from his office (although, he usually isn’t left wide open like he was here) to make it 4-1, and the Caps would end up with a 6-1 victory to take a 2-1 series lead.

Avs’ power play unstoppable in 7-3 win without Kuemper

The Colorado Avalanche might be getting nightmares of their 2020 playoff run after Game 3. Starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper left late in the first period after Ryan Johanson’s stick went inside his mask and caught his eye. For more on the injury, we have you covered here.

Suddenly, the Avs find themselves in a similar situation to that 2020 run, where goaltenders Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz got hurt, and they found had to rely on Michael Hutchinson in net.

Thankfully, they still have Francouz, who was solid in relief and stopped 18 of 20 shots. But more importantly, the offense carried the weight for them. Captain Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and four points, Cale Makar had three assists and the Avalanche power play went 4-of-5, something that proved important early on in the game as the Nashville Predators kept tying the game. But, once Roman Josi made it 3-3, the Avs got four unanswered to get the 7-3 win and take a dominant 3-0 series lead. We’ve seen four teams come back from a 3-0 deficit before, but with the way the Avalanche are playing, and the skill gap between them and the Predators, it’s hard to see a comeback in this scenario.

Pens hang on to win 7-4 after blowing three-goal lead

While we’ve had plenty of games with a ton of scoring chances, a lot of it has just been one team getting a lot of chances and goals. In fact, so far in the postseason, the average margin of victory has actually been the highest since the NHL expanded from six to 12 teams in 1967-68.

However, Game 3 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers was one of the few instances we saw lots of chances from both teams. Sure, it wasn’t always back and forth, but the end result was a competitive and entertaining game.

The Penguins had the advantage in the first, exploding to a 4-1 lead in the period, with the biggest highlight being two goals from Evan Rodrigues. He also had a chance at a hat trick as Jeff Carter’s deflection goal in the period was looked back at to see if it didn’t touch him and was Rodrigues’ goal. Igor Shesterkin, the likely Vezina winner this season, even got pulled after allowing four goals on 15 shots.

In the second, it was all New York. The Rangers had the Pens on their heels for a lot of the period, desperate to get back in the game. And the pressure kept ramping up as they cut that 4-1 lead down to a tie game, with a couple of their goals coming after what seemed like several amazing chances preceding it.

The third saw a lot more back-and-forth action, as both teams wanted to get the lead, but it was Danton Heinen who proved to be the hero, scoring the go-ahead goal midway through the third. The goal would hold on as the game-winner in a 7-4 victory for the Pens.

Pavelski, Oettinger shine in Stars 4-2 win

Apparently John Klingberg likes getting into the rough stuff, as the Dallas Stars defenseman added to his league-leading 19 penalty minutes in the playoffs with a fight early in the game against Calgary Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk. He also took Tkachuk briefly out of the game with the fight too, as he went to the dressing room with a potential injury before returning later in the period.

Maybe it’s the secret to the Stars’ success in this series, because they found themselves upsetting the Flames once again with a 4-2 victory on home ice. Joe Pavelski continues to show up in the playoff, as he scored the game tying and game winning goals in a two goal performance. Jake Oettinger saw his shutout streak come to an end midway through the first, but he still looked tough for the Flames to beat, as he stopped 39 of 41 in the game.