The New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4–3 in the opening game of the second round of the NHL playoffs. Sebastian Aho registered two assist points.
The Dallas Stars were the last to advance from the opening round of the NHL playoffs after defeating the reigning champion Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in a decisive tiebreaker.
Stars lost the first two games of the match series on their home field, but pushed forward with a 4–3 victory. Only the Colorado Avalanche in 1999 have been able to do something similar against the reigning champion.
– What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… except me. Thanks for all the memories Golden Knights, the official X account of the Stanley Cup wrote.
– Disappointment. That’s the only way to describe this, Vegas hitter Mark Stone said.
Stars head coach Pete DeBoer has yet to lose a shutout game in the NHL playoffs, which he now has eight of. The experienced coach emphasized that Dallas, who won the Western Conference, had an exceptionally tough opponent in the opening round.
– We are happy that we survived against such a great team, DeBoer said.
Dallas Wyatt Johnston started the scoring in the opening period when he stole the puck on the Vegas defense and wristed a wrist shot past the goalie Adin Hill’s.
Brett Howden tied the match in the second period when he got to control Michael Amadion cross pass into the goal.
Radek Fax sealed Dallas’ playoff spot in the third period when he nailed a knuckleball from the opening spot on the Vegas defensive end.
– Fortunately, the puck went in, it must have been a bit of a lucky bounce. It was a huge relief and a goal for us. I’m really happy that I could help the team, Faksa said.
The result means that Dallas’ Finnish stars will not be seen in the Lions’ World Cup team. In Dallas they play forward Roope Hintz and defenders Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Jani Hakanpää.
Lions GM Jere Lehtinen said on Sunday that the national team will still watch the match to be played the night before Monday, if Finnish players are released from the NHL.
Dallas will face Colorado in the second round of the playoffs.
Zibanejad wildly
The New York Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes started the second round of the playoffs with a mutual meeting, which the Rangers won at home with the goals of 4–3.
Rangers’ Swedish star Mika Zibanejad scored 2+1 in the opening set, when Rangers succeeded twice with superiority. We went to the first break with a score of 3–1.
After a scoreless second set Martin Necas brought the Hurricanes within a goal, but just over five minutes later Artemi Panarin scored the game-winning goal for Rangers.
Seth Jarvis narrowed down a couple more minutes before the final buzzer. Sebastian Aho collected two assists in the match.
– We did many good things in the match, especially at the end. We managed to get the game to their end and got to the end of the goal. The second goal was not far away. We just have to trust our way of playing, Aho said.
Rangers lead the match series 1–0. The next time the teams meet is the night before Wednesday, again in New York.