Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 8: ‘Canes complete sweep, Pens stay alive

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.

Saturday saw two Eastern Conference teams facing elimination, and a critical Game 4 between Western Conference powers.

Power play futility sinks Senators

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-2 on Saturday, completing the four-game sweep and advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

Sebastian Aho’s two late-game empty-netters were enough to withstand Ottawa’s desperate surge, which included a Dylan Cozens goal at 6-on-5.

The two teams traded goals in the second period, with Taylor Hall opening the scoring for Carolina on an odd-man rush following a blocked shot by Mark Jankowski. Drake Batherson answered for the Senators, finally breaking through on the power play by deflecting a Tim Stutzle shot past goaltender Freddie Andersen.

Logan Stankoven’s goal midway through the third period put Carolina up 2-1, as he took a K’Andre Miller shot off the end boards on the power play and caught Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark out of position.

The Senators have nobody to blame but themselves, as they went just one for nine on the power play in this game, including going scoreless on three seperate 5-on-3 opportunities.

It was an especially chippy, violent affair, featuring Ottawa defenseman Tyler Kleven delivering one of the most bone-crunching hits in recent playoff memory to Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin, and Ottawa forward Ridley Greig sucker punching Carolina defenseman Sean Walker during a post-whistle scrum, along with plenty of other rough stuff.

The story of the sweep was Carolina’s defensive mastery combined with Ottawa’s offensive woes, as the Senators scored just five goals over the series’ four games.

Boldy brings Wild back to even

After having two goals waived off earlier in the game, Matt Boldy deflected home a Jared Spurgeon point shot in overtime to give the Minnesota Wild a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 4, squaring up their series at 2-2.

The first period scoring included Jason Robertson scoring on the power play for the Stars off a rebound, and Brock Faber evening things up for the Wild with a point shot that deflected off of Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen. A potential Matt Boldy power play goal late in the frame was immediately waived off due to goaltender interference.

The second period was scoreless until a controversial high-sticking penalty against Faber, on a play in which Dallas’ Jamie Benn appeared to actually high-stick himself, led to a Heiskanen power play goal to give the Stars a 2-1 lead.

With just over five minutes to go in the third, Marcus Foligno tucked home a rebound after an extended shift in the offensive zone to even the game at 2-2.

In the first overime period, Boldy had yet another goal waived off, this time due to using a distinct kicking motion to put the puck in the net, before his game-winner sent fans in Saint Paul home happy.

Minnesota was full money for the victory, earning the slight edge over Dallas in expected goals according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Stars, who played with five defenseman for much of this game after Nils Lundkvist caught Michalel McCarron’s skate in the face, will head back to Dallas for Tuesday’s Game 5 looking retake the series lead.

Vladar falters in Philly

On a night to forget for Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar, the Pittsburgh Penguins won Game 4 by a score of 4-2 to keep their season alive.

Sidney Crosby’s first period power play goal, after an undisciplined high-sticking penalty against Flyers forward Denver Barkey, glanced in off Vladar’s glove and gave the Penguins an early 1-0 lead. The goal gave the Penguins’ captain the most playoff goals against the Flyers of all time.

Early in the second, Vladar misplayed the puck behind his own net, giving it away to Pittsburgh forward Rickard Rakell and allowing him to score on a wrap around for 2-0 Penguins lead. Late in the second, Barkey redeemed himself by tapping home Trevor Zegras’ net-front feed to put Philadelphia on the board.

Pittsburgh extended their lead to two goals in the third period when defenseman Kris Letang took a kicked pass from Crosby in a 4-on-4 situation and walked into a bomb from the high slot, beating Vladar cleanly. Philadelphia answer back less than three minutes later, with forward Travis Koneckny picking the top corner on a one-timer from the right faceoff dot.

Connor Dewar’s empty-netter salted away the Penguins victory, making the series 3-1 in favor of the Flyers as it goes back to Pittsburgh for Monday’s Game 5.

Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs, meanwhile, played as well as could be hoped as he started in place of the struggling Stuart Skinner, stopping 25 of Philadelphia’s 27 shots on goal.