Last night in the Stanley Cup playoffs: Penguins win triple-OT thriller, Avalanche humiliate Predators

Four new Stanley Cup playoff first-round series opened up on Tuesday night, and they brought no shortage of memorable moments.

Missed anything? Here’s a recap of the night’s action.

Shesterkin’s historic performance can’t save Rangers from triple-overtime loss to Penguins

Game 1 between the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins offered an entire series worth of storylines. In the first period, blueliner Ryan Lindgren knocked Penguins right winger Rickard Rakell out of the game with a devastating hit. More on that in this story.

The third period brought a controversial call. When it appeared the Rangers had taken a 4-3 lead on a Filip Chytil goal, a coach’s challenge from the Penguins bench led to a reversal for goalie interference on Kaapo Kakko. You make the call: was Kakko pushed by Brian Dumoulin or did Kakko not make enough of an effort to avoid contact with goaltender Igor Shesterkin?

Midway through the second overtime period, Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith, who was starting in place of injured Tristan Jarry, exited with a lower-body injury, forcing third-stringer Louis Domingue to enter the game cold. No pressure. He stopped 17 of 17 shots, holding it down until the Penguins ended the game on this tip by Evgeni Malkin in triple overtime:

Shesterkin made 79 saves, setting a Rangers single-game playoff record, in the loss. That total was also the second highest in NHL playoff history behind Joonas Korpisalo’s record 85, set during a five-overtime game in the 2020 playoffs.

Domingue, meanwhile, made a legendary reveal in his postgame interview.

Capitals stun Presidents’ Trophy winning Panthers

If there wasn’t any pressure on the first-overall Panthers entering Game 1 at home to the bottom-seeded Washington Capitals, there certainly is now. Evgeny Kuznetsov tied the game 2-2 at 8:14 of the third period before T.J. Oshie notched the game winner a couple minutes later:

The Caps added an empty-netter for a 4-2 road win. Power forward Tom Wilson was being evaluated for a lower-body injury after the game, however.

Avalanche embarras Predators with five-goal first period

Darryl Sutter is a wise man. The Calgary Flames coach surmised earlier this season that facing the powerful Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs would be “a waste of eight days.” Game 1 between the top-seeded Avs and the Nashville Predators certainly supported that theory. Within 15 minutes of play, Colorado led 5-0. David Rittich, who was filling in for injured Juuse Saros, got the hook after allowing the five-spot on just 13 shots. The Avs’ first two goals, coming from Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews, came in 2:42, setting a franchise record for the fastest pair to start a playoff game.

Superstar defenseman Cale Makar had three points in the first period alone, including this beautiful goal:

Colorado cruised to a 7-2 win. Without Vezina Trophy candidate Saros, who is expected to miss at least one more game, the Preds are in danger of getting bullied out of the playoffs quickly.

Flames stymy Stars 1-0 in physical battle

The Flames are built for playoff hockey under Sutter’s system and proved it at home in Game 1 against the Stars. They held Dallas to a piddly 16 shots, making for a relatively light workload for goaltender Jacob Markstrom en route to his second career playoff shutout.

Neither team shied away from the rough stuff. After Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk and Dallas’ Michael Raffl threw down in the first period, defensemen Rasmus Andersson and John Klingberg fought at the buzzer, earning game misconducts in the process: