Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 4: Verhaeghe scores another OT winner, Canucks struggle without Demko and more

The Caps weren’t done though. Tom Wilson scored on – you guessed it – the power play, and it cut the Rangers lead in half. Suddenly the pressure was on, and the Caps were trying for the tying goal. But New York held strong, especially Igor Shesterkin in net, and would take Game 2 by a score of 4-3.

The Rangers got several multi-point performances from Trocheck, Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere and Erik Gustafsson, while Wilson was the lone Cap with two points. The Caps had the edge at even strength by beating the Rangers 1.46-0.99 in 5v5 score-adjusted expected goals, but with each team only scoring a goal each at 5v5, that didn’t matter in this one.

Verhaeghe comes up clutch again as Panthers take 2-0 lead with 3-2 OT thriller

Carter Verhaeghe has emerged as quite the clutch playoff performer. Going into Tuesday’s game, he has four overtime winning goals and seven game-winning goals in only five trips to the postseason, and that doesn’t even include his go-ahead goal in Game 1, since Steven Stamkos late goal credited Matthew Tkachuk’s empty netter as the winner in that one. But that wasn’t enough for the Toronto, Ontario product, as he wanted to add to his resume in Game 2.

The Panthers picked up right where they left off in the third period of Game 1, as it took all of 6:16 before Sam Bennett opened the scoring in Florida. Jon Cooper wanted to see if it could be turned back because of goaltender interference from Matthew Tkachuk, but it was deemed that he was pushed into Andrei Vasilevskiy by Brandon Hagel. Vladimir Tarasenko added to the lead with a power play maker later in the period, and the Panthers were going into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

But that lead did not last very long in the second period. Just 48 seconds in, Braydon Point cut the lead in half, and then Stamkos tied the game on the power play almost five minutes later. It seemed like we were in store for a high-scoring game based on this start.

The goalies said otherwise. From that point on, both Vasilevskiy and Sergei Bobrovsky put on a goaltending clinic to keep the game tied for the rest of regulation. Vasilevskiy’s performance was more due to the quantity of saves he had to make, stopping 32 shots through the three periods. Meanwhile, Bobrovsky was more focused on the quality, only saving 21 shots but looking excellent doing so, including this bid for save of the year.

That gave us our first overtime game of the season, but the Panthers didn’t seem to want to give us too much. They needed just three shots to end the game, with Verhaeghe coming up clutch again and scoring the overtime winner not even three minutes into extra time. The Panthers win the game 3-2, and they head to Tampa with a 2-0 series lead.

Victor Hedman finished the night with assists on both goals for the Bolts, while Bennett and Verhaeghe were the Panthers multi-point performers, with the former player doing so despite missing the third period and overtime with an upper-body injury. Bobrovsky stopped 21 of 23 shots for the win, while Vasilevskiy had to walk away with the loss despite stopping 34 of 37. It was a deserved win for Florida though, as they also led 3.12-1.73 in 5v5 SA xGs.

Georgiev bounces back with 28-save performance as Avs tie series with 5-2 win

Game 1 was one to forget for Alexandar Georgiev. Despite the fact that the Colorado Avalanche lit up the likely Vezina winner in Connor Hellebuyck for six goals, they didn’t come away with the win because Georgiev allowed 7 goals to the Winnipeg Jets on half the shots that Hellebuyck faced. If the Avs wanted to win this series, they at least needed Georgiev to be good enough to allow fewer goals than their offence scored, if not better. Well, they got that.

It wasn’t the best start for Georgiev, as David Gustafsson needed only three minutes to get the game’s first goal, carrying on the momentum from Game 1. But, we weren’t in for the same high-scoring first period that the first game gave us, because that was the only goal scored in the frame.

However, the Avs acted quick to respond in the second. Miles Wood wired a shot right off of the faceoff and it beat Hellebuyck cleanly to tie the game only two minutes into the period. But, the Jets wanted to keep the lead, and Mark Scheifele’s tally midway through the second gave the Jets a 2-1 advantage.

Just when it looked like the Jets were going to put on another strong performance against the Avs, Colorado responded in bunches. With less than six minutes left in the period, Artturi Lehkonen’s deflection tied the game and began a rally for the Avalanche. Zach Parise, in his final playoff run, made it a 3-2 lead, and then before the second could end, the Avs got another goal courtesy of a Josh Manson breakaway out of the penalty box, and it was 4-2 going into the second intermission. The Jets pressed for a comeback, but they couldn’t muster anything past Georgiev, and Valeri Nichushkin iced the win for Colorado with an empty net goal.

Georgiev finished the game with 28 saves in the win, while Lehkonen and Cale Makar had two points on the night, and the Avs finished the night with a 3.64-1.86 edge in 5v5 SA xGs.

DeSmith struggles as Preds surprise Vancouver crowd with 4-1 win to tie series

It appears that Thatcher Demko wasn’t completely healthy, as after missing over a month late in the season due to a knee injury, he played two regular seasons and Game 1 before it was announced that he would be missing Game 2, and possibly more.

Enter Casey DeSmith, the Canucks backup goalie who’d performed quite well to start the season but struggled in the second half. Vancouver certainly wanted the former kind of performance, especially with Juuse Saros at the other end of the ice.

The crowd appeared to want the same, as the Rogers Arena echoed with chants of “Let’s Go Casey” to start the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like DeSmith heard them, as just 74 seconds in, Filip Forsberg’s desperate attempt to throw it on net to keep the play onside deflected off of Anthony Beauvillier and in to give the Preds an early 1-0 lead.

That would be the only goal of the period, so it was far from over. After all, the Canucks were down a goal late in Game 1 and came back as well. Easy peasy, right? Not this time, as six minutes in, Forsberg’s tight angle shot found a way past DeSmith to make it 2-0, and then 1:35 later Colton Sisson’s buried Beauvillier’s rebound to make it 3-0.

The Canucks really needed the next one, and that came to them thanks to a Nikita Zadorov point shot with five minutes left in the second. They put on the pressure after that for the remaining time, but the Predators were blocking shots like crazy. The third period saw the Canucks put 37 shot attempts on net, and yet only six managed to hit the net thanks to some misses and 16 blocked shots by the Preds in the period. Kiefer Sherwood put the game away with the empty net goal, and the Nashville would go home with a tied series after the 4-1 win.

Beauvillier and Forsberg both had multi-point nights for Nashville while Saros only needed to make 17 saves to secure the win for the Preds. As for DeSmith, he stopped just 12 of 15 shots and finished the night with an .800 save percentage, leaving many Canucks fans wondering what would have happened if Demko was healthy. Despite the shot totals only being 18-16 for Vancouver, the 5v5 SA xGs were a lot more telling of what the game was like, with the Canucks ahead 2.57-1.25 in that regard.