Duncan Keith scored at 16 minutes 12 seconds of the third, and the host Chicago Blackhawks beat the Nashville Predators, 4-3, on Saturday night to win their first-round playoff series, 4-2.
Keith
beat Pekka Rinne, who was screened, with a shot from the left point.
Keith, a defenseman who had the winning goal in a 4-3 double-overtime
victory in the series opener, also had two assists in the deciding game.
Jonathan
Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp also scored for Chicago, and
Corey Crawford stopped 13 shots after replacing the rookie Scott
Darling, who had given up three goals on 12 shots, in the first period.
The
Blackhawks will face St. Louis or Minnesota in the Western Conference
semifinals as they try to finish an up-and-down season with their third
Stanley Cup title since 2010.
James Neal had two goals for Nashville, and Matt Cullen also scored.
Rinne stopped 28 shots, but the Predators bowed out in the first round for the sixth time in eight playoff appearances.
Keith
retrieved the puck just inside the blue line and waited for an opening
before sending a drive past Rinne’s right shoulder with 3:48 left. He
had two goals and five assists in the series.
Kane capped a wild first period by firing a shot from the left circle through a screen with six seconds left, tying it at 3.
Chicago rallied after Neal scored twice in the game’s first 8:09 to give Nashville a 2-0 lead.
FLAMES 7, CANUCKS 4
Matt Stajan broke a tie with 4:17 left, and host Calgary rallied to
defeat Vancouver and win their Western Conference series, 4-2.
The Flames will face the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.
Michael
Ferland and Jiri Hudler each scored twice, and Sean Monahan and Johnny
Gaudreau added goals for Calgary. Hudler tied the score at 4-4 with a
power-play goal at 6:14 of the third period.
Luca
Sbisa, Brandon McMillan, Jannik Hansen and Radim Vrbata scored for
Vancouver. The Canucks had a 3-0 lead midway through the first period.
RED WINGS 4, LIGHTNING 0 Petr
Mrazek stopped 28 shots, and visiting Detroit rebounded from a
disappointing loss to shut down Tampa Bay and take a 3-2 lead in their
series.
Riley
Sheahan, Drew Miller, Pavel Datsyuk and Danny DeKeyser scored for the
Red Wings. They can close out the Eastern Conference matchup by winning
Game 6 at home Monday night.
The
shutout was the second of the series for Mrazek, who had no previous
playoff experience before being named Detroit’s starter over the veteran
Jimmy Howard.
Mrazek,
23, blanked the Lightning, 3-0, in Game 3 at home and also had the only
shutout against Tampa Bay, the league’s highest-scoring team, during
the regular season.
It
was a frustrating evening for the Lightning, who rallied to win Game 4
on the road, evening the series after falling in Game 3 and being
outplayed for 54 minutes before being rescued by Tyler Johnson on
Thursday night.
Sheahan
and Datsyuk scored on the power play. Miller’s first goal of the series
made it 2-0 through the second period, and DeKeyser added an empty-net
goal with 1:38 remaining.
source:nytimes.com
source:nytimes.com
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