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Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 22: Skjei scores late to keep Canes season alive
Hurricanes for BetMGM bonus code 5.16 © James Guillory

Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 22: Skjei scores late to keep Canes season alive

Originally posted on Daily Faceoff  |  By Scott Maxwell  |  Last updated 5/12/24

The Carolina Hurricanes looked to survive another day against the New York Rangers, while the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche battled for the series lead during Saturday’s playoff action.

Skjei forces Game 5 with late power play goal

Going into Saturday’s game, both teams made a couple of changes to their lineups. The Carolina Hurricanes opted to start Frederik Andersen in net with their season on the line, while Filip Chytil was dealing with an illness so the New York Rangers replaced him with Jonny Brodzinski.

The Canes needed a strong start to get ahead and not get caught in another one-goal game like this series has seen so far, and they did just that in the first period. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Stefan Noesen scored back-to-back goals in the first seven minutes of the game, and then after Will Cuylle cut the lead in half, Sebastian Aho responded to regain Carolina’s two-goal lead.

But with two periods still to play, the Rangers had plenty of time to get back in the game. Barclay Goodrow scored mid-way through the second period to make it 3-2, and Alexis Lafreniere got his fourth goal in his last three games to tie it only a couple minutes into the third.

The game creeped towards overtime, and considering how this series has gone for both teams in overtime, the Canes likely wanted to finish the job as soon as they can. So when Carolina got a late power play, that felt like the best time to do it, even with their lack of success with the man advantage in this series. Thankfully, a point shot from Brady Skjei found its way into the back of the net, and not only did the Hurricanes have their first power play goal of the series, they had the go-ahead goal with only 3:11 left in the game.

The Rangers made a late push to tie the game again, but the Canes held on to win 4-3 and will live another day in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Teuvo Teravainen was the lone player between both teams that had two points, with primary assists on Carolina’s second and fourth goals in the game.

Stankoven, Seguin score twice for Stars in 4-1 win

Both the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche have struggled to play full games in this series. The Stars have had great starts but let the Avs come back in the game, while Colorado has let the game get away from them early but found the resilience to come back. While both teams got a win out of it, they likely wanted to clamp down in Game 3.

The Avs looked to be pretty close to nailing down a good start to the game by maintaining a scoreless tie with the Stars for most of the first period. But with 81 seconds left in the frame, Miro Heiskanen set up Logan Stankoven to give Dallas the first goal of the game yet again in this series with Stankoven’s first career playoff goal.

But Colorado did manage to change one thing this time around, as unlike the previous two games, they didn’t let the Stars run away with the score after getting the first goal. Midway through the second period, Nathan MacKinnon sprung through the offensive zone and looked to be close to scoring, and as it was trickling through the crease, Mikko Rantanen buried the trash to tie the game.

The Stars didn’t let it stay tied for too long though, as Tyler Seguin finished off a sweet passing play to give the Stars a 2-1 lead about five minutes later. That goal proved to be the game-winner, as Dallas limited the Avs chances in the third period and gave Jake Oettinger an easier workload to shut the door. Seguin and Stankoven both double-dipped in the goal department with empty net goals, and the Stars won 4-1 and now take a 2-1 series lead. Along with Seguin and Stankoven’s two-goal performances, Oettinger was also excellent by stopping 28 of 29 shots for the win.

This article first appeared on Daily Faceoff and was syndicated with permission.

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