Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 24: Hurricanes, Oilers on the verge of advancing

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop exciting action in the NHL as we witness history in another team looking to win a championship. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop of everything that happened in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

Canes push Caps to brink with 5-2 win

The Carolina Hurricanes sure do love playing on home ice. After winning all three games at Lenovo Center in the first round, they’ve done it again in the second round against the Washington Capitals, taking both games at home by a combined score of 9-2. They’ve only been 2-2 on the road, but it’s all they’ve needed to do with such a strong performance on home ice.

While the Canes didn’t shut out the Caps like they did in Game 3, it still never really felt like the Caps were a threat. They kept the shutout going through the first two periods, along with goals from Shayne Gostisbehere and Seth Jarvis, and then even as Washington clawed back with goals to make it 2-1 and 3-2 from Jakob Chychrun and Alex Ovechkin, the three goals in the third period from Taylor Hall, Sean Walker and Andrei Svechnikov put the game out of reach. With a 5-2 win, Carolina takes a 3-1 series lead, and even though they won’t have home ice for Game 5, that’ll at least be a safety net for them in Game 6.

Skinner bounces back, stops 23 in 3-0 shutout win

Whether you blame Stuart Skinner for playing too aggressively on the buzzer beater goal in Game 3, or you think he was taking up as much of the net and successfully got the player to shoot wide before his own player deflected the puck in, that goal – and his performance in the game – only added fuel to the fire that was his performance so far in the playoffs. He lost the starting job after two games in the first round, and when Calvin Pickard got hurt in Game 2, he was forced back into the crease but wasn’t great in Game 3.

But if he can manage more performances like Game 4, the Edmonton Oilers‘ chances to move on should still be fine. The reason for that increase in confidence is that Skinner managed to pitch a shutout in Game 4. Some of that was thanks to the Oilers’ defense in front of him, as they held the Vegas Golden Knights to just 23 shots and 9 high-danger scoring chances, but he also didn’t give them any reason to panic.

Adam Henrique scored twice in the first period (including an interesting crease-crash from Evander Kane on the second goal that caused a scrum) and Evander Kane added to the lead in the second, and that was all that the Oilers needed in a 3-0 win. They now take a 3-1 series lead back to Vegas on Wednesday, where they’ll have a chance to move on to the third round.