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Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 12: Hurricanes, Stars advance to second round while Panthers, Avalanche force Game 7s

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell(scotmaxw)
Apr 29, 2023, 01:20 EDTUpdated: Apr 29, 2023, 10:56 EDT
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 12: Hurricanes, Stars advance to second round while Panthers, Avalanche force Game 7s
Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

The only thing that beats a night of Game 6 hockey is a night of Game 7 hockey, but it’s still an entertaining night. One team has a chance to move on to the next round and get a bit of rest, while the other team is fighting for their playoff lives and looking to force a Game 7.

Tonight’s action didn’t disappoint. We had some series winners, some series tyers, an overtime win, and a high-scoring affair among others, so let’s not waste another minute and dive into the action.

Paul Stastny’s overtime winner sends Canes to the second round

Despite the fact that this series was a division winner against a wild card team, many expected the New York Islanders to upset the Carolina Hurricanes due to the injuries of the Canes and the Isles strong defense and goaltending. But, it looks like we’ll have to watch another round before those injuries come back to bite the Canes.

It looked like it was going to be all Isles in this game, as they got a first period goal from Cal Clutterbuck and outshot the Canes 28-19 after two periods, with Frederik Andersen being the lone reason there wasn’t more than a 1-0 lead for the Isles going into the third. The Canes wouldn’t let his performance go to waste, as Sebastian Aho scored to tie the game midway through the third, and while this game would need overtime, it only needed six minutes before Paul Stastny scored the overtime winner with a goal that Ilya Sorokin would definitely like to have back.

With that, the Canes take the series in six with the 2-1 overtime win and stave off the 3-1 series comeback from the Islanders to move on to second round for the third year in a row, and will face the winner of the series between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers. Both goalies were the stars of the show, with Andersen stopping 33 of 34 shots and Sorokin stopping 39 of 41, but Andersen was the winning tendy, and wins his first elimination game since Game 5 of the Anaheim Ducks’ second round series against the Calgary Flames in 2015.

Panthers force Game 7 in 12-goal back-and-forth affair with Bruins

Before this series started, nobody gave the Florida Panthers a chance. Before Game 2, nobody expected the Panthers to get any games in Boston. When they were down 3-1, everybody thought they were as good as gone. But, the Florida Panthers are here to let you know that they aren’t going without a fight.

It wasn’t easy though, as it took an absolutely chaotic game to get this series tied. The first two periods were quite tame by the standards of the third period, with the Panthers and Bruins exchanging five goals to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead into the third, including a highlight reel goal from David Pastrnak, and a failed attempt for the Bruins to get the 3-2 lead due to a goal being called back.

But it got even wilder in the third. Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak both scored their second goals of the game just two minutes apart to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead, Zac Dalpe would tie it a few minutes later, Jake DeBrusk scored a shorthanded goal a few minutes after that, only for Matthew Tkachuk to tie it 27 seconds later on that same power play. With under six minutes left in the third, Eetu Luostarinen would notch the eventual game winner, and Sam Reinhart finished the job with an empty netter to give the Panthers the 7-5 win.

The win means the Panthers force Game 7 in this series against this record-setting Bruins team in Boston, where the Panthers have won two of the three games there in this series. It was also a night to put up points, as the Bruins got a four-assist night from Brad Marchand, a two-goal, three-point night from Bertuzzi, and a two-goal night from Pastrnak, while the Panthers got two goals and three points from Tkachuk and two points from Luostarinen, Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour, and Anton Lundell.

Stars cruise to 4-1 win in Game 6 and advance to second round

The Minnesota Wild may have given the Dallas Stars a scare early on by getting 1-0 and 2-1 series leads, but after that, it was all Stars, and that continued into Game 6. It really wasn’t all that close, as they gave the Wild almost nothing to work with through two periods, with just 13 shots and 5 high-danger scoring chances against, and the few that they did, Jake Oettinger was there to make quick work of it. Roope Hintz retook the playoff lead in scoring with a first period goal, Wyatt Johnson got one partway through the second period, and once Mason Marchment scored a buzzer beater to make it 3-0, it seemed all but over.

The Wild tried to change things up by switching goalies, and Frederick Gaudreau made it interesting by ending Jake Oettinger’s shutout streak at 114:33, but it still wasn’t enough to complete a comeback and save their season, as the Stars won 4-1 after a Max Domi empty-netter. The win advances the Stars to the second round for the first time since their 2020 run to the Stanley Cup Final in the bubble, and they will face the winner of the Colorado Avalanche and Seattle Kraken series.

Speaking of which, they may find out their opponent tonight…

Avs send series to Game 7 with 4-1 win in Seattle

Ok, looks like we won’t know who the Stars will play until Sunday.

The Kraken may be the biggest upset story outside of the Panthers in these playoffs, and they had a chance that nobody thought they would to win this series on home ice in Game 6. But, the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup last year for a reason, and while it’s not the exact same team, they showed their poise in this one.

The Kraken gave their fans a little bit of hope to start the game with a goal from Vince Dunn, but that’s all they would get on the night as the Avs went into Cup contender mode and shut them right down. Mikko Rantanen scored late in the first to tie it, and Erik Johnson scored midway through the second to not only give the Avs the lead, but also give them their first goal from a player not in their top six forward group or on their top pair, really illustrating their depth issues in this series.

Artturi Lehkonen would give Colorado some more insurance with a goal late in the second, as well as the empty netter in the third, and the Avs would beat the Kraken 4-1 and force a Game 7. Along with Lehkonen’s two goals, Rantanen, Cale Makar, and Devon Toews had two goals each, while Alexandar Georgiev would stop 22 of the 23 shots he faced to help the Avalanche tie the series.

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