Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 2: Sabres fans rejoice, Canadiens outlast Lightning in thriller

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop action as we witness 16 teams get whittled down to the one that will be crowned as the 2026 Stanley Cup champions. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop on everything that happens in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

The second day of the playoffs was filled with thrilling clashes between favorites and underdogs, along with rivals duking it out, laying the groundwork for potentially long series.

Avalanche stave off Kings in tight opener

The first game of Sunday’s slate saw the Presidents’ Trophy winners take on a pesky team that looks like they are going to be a tough out, as the Colorado Avalanche had to work a little harder than they would’ve liked to take down the Los Angeles Kings, winning 2-1 in Game 1.

Despite being the second Wild Card team coming out of the Western Conference, the Kings didn’t look out of place inside of a raucous Ball Arena. They kept up with the Avs, as both sides tried to establish the physical game early on. L.A. forced goaltender Scott Wedgewood, who was making his first NHL playoff start, to make a couple of tough saves. However, it was the home side that would go out in front.

The Avalanche looked to have struck first before the halfway mark of the second, when Logan O’Connor beat Kings netminder Anton Forsberg. However, the goal was immediately waived off due to goaltender interference. Yet, the puck doesn’t lie, and later in the middle frame, Artturi Lehkonen scored the first goal of the series, giving the Avs the lead.

O’Connor would get a little revenge early in the third period, as he took advantage of a Kings turnover, beating Forsberg to make it 2-0.

The Kings managed to cut into the deficit, as Artemi Panarin got the team on the board with just a couple of minutes remaining in regulation. However, the Avs locked things down defensively, hanging on for the win, grabbing the all-important victory to start the series.

The Avalanche ended up outshooting the Kings 30-25. Wedgewood was exceptional, making 24 saves in the win, while Forsberg, who played solid in his own right, ended up with 28 stops in the losing effort. L.A. went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Colorado failed to capitalize on its four chances on the man advantage.

Slafkovsky’s heroics send Montreal to victory

Probably one of the most anticipated series coming out of the Eastern Conference is the matchup between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, and the series opener didn’t disappoint. Canadiens youngster Juraj Slafkovsky stepped up in a huge way, scoring a hat trick to power his team to a 4-3 overtime win.

The way Tampa came out of the gate on home ice, it seemed that the Habs would be fighting an uphill battle. However, they would be the ones to draw first blood, as Josh Anderson gave the visitors the lead in the latter half of the first period.

For a brief moment, it seemed like Anderson made it a 2-0 game after tipping in a point shot from defenseman Mike Matheson. However, a video review determined that the puck was played with a high stick.

The Lightning took advantage of the overturned call. Later in the second period, a power-play goal from Darren Raddysh tied the game, with the Bolts taking the lead 29 seconds later with a goal from Brandon Hagel.

However, the Canadiens refused to go away. With under a minute to play in the second, Slafkovsky potted his first of the game to send the game into the second intermission level at two. The Slovakian star then gave Montreal its second lead of the game just before the six-minute mark of the third. A hair over three minutes later, it was Hagel again scoring, this time on the power play, to tie the game at three.

The remainder of regulation solved nothing, with overtime needed to decide a winner. In the final minute of the third, Lightning forward took a high-sticking penalty, giving the Habs a fifth power play in the game. Just past the opening minute of the extra frame, Slafkovsky rifled a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy to complete the hat trick, giving Montreal a statement win.

It was an important victory for the Habs to pick up the win in Game 1, as they not only took home-ice advantage away from the Lightning, but also gave them the confidence that they can win big games on the road.

All three of Slafkovsky’s goals came on the man advantage, as Montreal went 3-for-5 on the PP in the win. Tampa certainly didn’t do badly either on the man advantage, going 2-for-5 on the day. There were only 42 total shots in the game, with Jakub Dobes making 20 saves in his second playoff victory, while Vasilevskiy was credited with just 13 stops in the loss.

Let’s go, Buffalo

A jam-packed crowd at KeyBank Center waited 15 years (and two periods) to have something to cheer about in the postseason. The Buffalo Sabres rallied back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to grab a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins, marking the franchise’s first playoff win in 5.476 days.

At one point, things seemed bleak for the Sabres, as the Bruins managed to take the crowd out of the game thanks to Morgan Geekie’s seventh career playoff goal just past the halfway mark of the opening period.

The score remained that way into the third period, during which Buffalo really carried the play for most of the contest. However, Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman looked calm, cool and collected between the pipes. Geekie set up Elias Lindholm to give Boston a 2-0 lead just past the opening minute of the third period, leaving many to believe Buffalo was going to walk away down 0-1 in the series.

That was when Tage Thompson stepped up. The Sabres sniper snuck in a wrap-around with less than eight minutes to go in regulation to spark some life into the building. A few minutes later, Thompson snuck a shot under Swayman to tie the game, with the crowd reaching a fever pitch.

Bedlam was reached in and outside the arena less than a minute later, as a great play from Jack Quinn led to Mattias Samuelsson’s first postseason goal, giving the Sabres the lead.

Alex Tuch added an empty-net goal to give Buffalo some needed insurance, as David Pastrnak scored a flukey goal in the dying seconds of the game to put the Bruins back within one. However, it was too little, too late.

It was just the second time the Sabers had ever come back from a multi-goal deficit in the third period of a playoff game. The last time it happened was in Game 4 of the 1993 Adams Division Semifinals against the Bruins, capped by Brad May’s famous overtime winner.

The Sabres outshot the Bruins 38-20, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen making just 17 saves in the victory. Swayman certainly can’t hang his head after a 34-save effort on Saturday. Buffalo failed to score on four power plays, while Boston went 1-for-3 on the man advantage.

Third-period rally helps Golden Knights outlast Mammoth

In what was a chaotic finish to Sunday’s slate, the Vegas Golden Knights mounted a comeback in the final period of play to steal a 4-2 win over the Utah Mammoth.

Despite this being the team’s first playoff game since moving from Arizona, the Mammoth didn’t look like a bunch that was unfamiliar with the magnitude of the game. They took the play to the Golden Knights for the entire first period. Utah was rewarded late in the first, as a pretty pass by Nate Schmidt led to Logan Cooley hammering home the first postseason goal in Mammoth history.

The Golden Knights came out with a little more pep in their step in period two, with Colton Sissons scoring a greasy goal to tie the game minutes into the frame. However, just over a minute later, Utah received a lucky break to regain the lead. After a failed clearing attempt from Vegas goaltender Carter Hart, Mammoth forward Kevin Stenlund fired the puck back on goal. A sliding Hart deflected the puck off defenseman Kaedan Korczak and into the back of the net.

The Mammoth seemed to have all the momentum heading into the third, but the Golden Knights did what they do best, and that’s attack and score in bunches. Vegas cashed in on a power play early in the frame, with captain Mark Stone cleaning up a rebound to tie the game just over five minutes into the frame. Then, less than two minutes later, Nic Dowd redirected a Noah Hanifin pass for his fourth NHL playoff goal to give the Golden Knights the lead for the first time.

Utah pushed for the equalizer in the following minutes of the game, but Hart made a couple of key saves to keep his team out in front. Ivan Barbashev potted an empty-netter to seal the deal, as Vegas breathed a sigh of relief.

The Mammoth could feel a little bit of pride in how they played in their first playoff game, but there’s no question the loss feels like a missed opportunity for the upstart team. Utah ended up leading Vegas in shots, 34-31, with Hart turning away 32 shots to grab his first postseason win since 2020, when he was a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka was credited with four goals against, as he hadn’t quite left the ice before Barbashev’s shot crossed the line. The Czech netminder made 27 saves in his postseason debut.