Colorado clinches promotion in Winnipeg, Toronto averts elimination in Boston

Colorado succeeded again on Winnipeg ice, this time the Avalanche won 3:6 to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Boston missed the first power play and fell in overtime 1:2 to Toronto.

Hellebuyck would like to forget this year’s playoffs

One of the hot candidates to win the Vezina Trophy , Connor Hellebuyck, scored a lot of goals in the fifth game of the series against Colorado. This time he had 5 of them in his net and he would like to forget about this year’s playoffs. He leaves with a 1-4 record and an average of 5.30 goals scored per game.

Before this series, Winnipeg was certainly thinking of a better result than going 1-4 in the playoffs. However, Colorado met their standard of at least 5 goals scored in the last game. In addition, the already great Avalanche offense was confirmed by the sleeping goal scorer Mikko Rantanen, who broke the drought and scored 2 goals.

Nathan MacKinnon had 2 assists in this game and is the most productive player with 9 points. Nikuscin, Trentin and Lehkonen also scored for the Avalanche, and with 28 goals scored, they are the best in this stat so far in the playoffs.

Winnipeg led in the game only at the beginning of the opening period after Connor’s goal, but Colorado always answered in a flash. In the next round this strong team will face one of the Vegas – Dallas pair.

Toronto held on in overtime

The Boston Bruins missed their first power play in front of their own fans. Jeremy Swayman was again in goal for the home team, but his winning spell faded in today’s game. After a lackluster performance by Ilya Samsonov, the Maple Leafs preferred Joseph Woll in goal this time.

Swayman cashed in in the 6th minute of the first period off the stick of veteran defenseman Jake McCabe. The Bruins responded 9 minutes later with a goal by Trent Frederic. However, Swayman and Woll did not allow a shot in the next two periods. While the Bruins goalie turned away all 18 shot attempts, the competitor in the second goal had 4 more.

For the first time in this series, the game went to overtime. This time it was careful hockey played on both sides with careful defense, neither team wanted to make a mistake.

The Maple Leafs were more fortunate in the end as the overtime was decided by forward Matthew Knies, who at 21 years and 196 days became the sixth youngest player in Toronto history to score a goal in a playoff overtime. The visiting team survived its own demise and dropped the series to 2-3. Moreover, the team had to do without its elite scorer Auston Matthews in this game.

“That’s the way it is sometimes, the hardest thing is to win the last game. The opponent gave it his all today. We have to be better in the next game, that’s what it’s all about,” said Bruins captain Brad Marchand laconically after the game.

Source: NHL, Youtube