Warren Foegele scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and goalie James Reimer made 38 saves in his series debut as the Carolina Hurricanes swept their best-of-five qualifying set against the New York Rangers by winning 4-1 in Game 3 on Tuesday night in Toronto.
The Hurricanes advance to the Eastern Conference’s first round against an undetermined opponent, beginning that best-of-seven series next week.
The Rangers had won at least one game in their past 21 playoff series. New York managed a total of four goals in the just-concluded series.
Teuvo Teravainen provided Carolina’s first goal, and Sebastian Aho’s two goals — the latter into an empty net — padded the lead across the final 10 minutes. Chris Kreider scored for the Rangers, who swept four regular-season games from the Hurricanes.
Predators 4, Coyotes 2
Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist, and the Nashville evened its best-of-five Western Conference qualifying series with a win against Arizona in Game 2 at Edmonton.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves in his second NHL playoff start, and Nick Bonino, Calle Jarnkrok and Viktor Arvidsson also scored for the Predators.
Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse scored 10 seconds apart in the final minute to prevent the shutout, and Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for the Coyotes.
Islanders 4, Panthers 2
Jordan Eberle scored two goals, including the tiebreaking tally late in the second period, as New York beat Florida in Toronto to grab a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five Eastern Conference qualifying round series.
Matt Martin and Ryan Pulock also scored for the seventh-seeded Islanders, who will look to advance to the main bracket Wednesday, when the two teams are scheduled to play Game 3. New York goalie Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves.
Mike Hoffman and Aleksander Barkov scored for the 10th-seeded Panthers, who are facing long odds as they try to snap the NHL’s longest postseason series victory drought. Florida hasn’t advanced beyond the first round since reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996.
Maple Leafs 3, Blue Jackets 0
Auston Matthews scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, and host Toronto went on to defeat Columbus and tie the best-of-five Eastern Conference playoff qualifying series at one game each.
Frederik Andersen stopped 21 shots to earn his third career playoff shutout. John Tavares added a third-period goal for the Maple Leafs, who dominated play for much of the game. Morgan Rielly scored into an empty net at 19:17 of the third with an assist from Matthews.
Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin was taken off the ice on a stretcher with 1:52 to play in the game after taking an awkward fall in the Maple Leafs’ zone. His head appeared to hit the knee of Columbus’s Oliver Bjorkstrand as he fell. Columbus goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 36 saves.
Flames 6, Jets 2
Sean Monahan collected one goal and two assists, and Calgary used a dominating second period to claim a convincing win over Winnipeg and move to the verge of advancing in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Mikael Backlund, Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm each netted one goal and one assist for the Flames, who lead the best-of-five Western Conference qualifying round series 2-1. Calgary goalie Cam Talbot stopped 34 shots.
The Flames, who also got goals from Matthew Tkachuk and Milan Lucic plus two assists from Andrew Mangiapane, will look to eliminate the Jets on Thursday. Andrew Copp and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves.
Canucks 4, Wild 3
Vancouver spread goals among four scorers and held on in the final seconds to defeat Minnesota in Edmonton, tying their best-of-five Western Conference qualifying series at 1-1.
Jacob Markstrom made 32 saves for the Canucks, who got goals from Tanner Pearson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat. Miller and Horvat each had an assist, and Alexander Edler chipped in two helpers.
Kevin Fiala scored twice in the last 2 1/2 minutes to bring the Wild close. Luke Kunin added a single goal for the Wild, and Alex Stalock turned aside 24 shots.
–Field Level Media
