Connor Ingram makes Avs work for 2-0 series lead; Rangers, Panthers, Stars bounce back

And of course, it’s not a true playoff game without some fisticuffs and theatrics. Late in the third, Shesterkin drew a goalie interference call when Jeff Carter ran into him, although it might have looked like Shesterkin didn’t try to get out of the way as quickly as he could have. Was it a cheeky drawn penalty from Shesterkin, or a dirty play from Carter?

Panthers scratch back in blow out win over Capitals

The Washington Capitals surprised just about everyone in Game 1, as they came flying out of the gate and upset the Florida Panthers with a 4-2 win, and just like that, the pressure was on for the Panthers. Would the pressure of their Presidents’ Trophy win and 24-season playoff drought get to them? How would they respond?

The answer was “with a bang.” They didn’t start off hot right away, but the Panthers got two quick ones in the final five minutes of the period. A blast from Aaron Ekblad that deflected off of Caps defenseman Martin Fehervary and in opened the scoring, but it wasn’t until Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov combined for this beauty of a goal to make it 2-0 that you knew the Panthers we’ve seen all year weren’t shaken by the Game 1 loss.

After that, it might as well had already been over. The Caps made it interesting with a power-play goal from Nicklas Backstrom in the second, but the Panthers responded with three more goals in the frame, and won the game 5-1 to tie the series.

More stingy defensive hockey as Stars tie series with Flames

For a man who preaches a well-structured system, Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter loves chaos. After Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson and Dallas Stars defenseman John Klingberg didn’t quite get along in Game 1 of the series, Sutter decided to poke the bear by starting Andersson in response to the Stars starting Klingberg.

That was about all we saw of that mini-rivalry in this series, as the two defenders kept their wits about them for the most part. There was still some rough stuff, as the game saw four instances of players on both teams getting penalties for exchanges, but nothing quite like what we saw in Game 1.

Other than that, it was a very similar game to Game 1, as both teams kept it to one goal (on a goalie). This time, it would be in favor of the Stars, as Joe Pavelski would notch the lone goal on Jacob Markstrom early in the game, and the lead would hold, with the help of a Michael Raffl empty-net goal. Jake Oettinger made 29 saves for the shutout, while Jacob Markstrom would stop 21 of 22 in the loss.

Connor Ingram steals show, but Avalanche are still too much for Predators

A lot of the talk going into this series about how the Nashville Predators could make this a competitive series usually had the same answer: goaltending. But, I think a lot of people were picturing Juuse Saros being the guy in net for the Preds to steal the series, not Connor Ingram.

Ingram came into Game 1 in relief of David Rittich after it was 5-0 before the end of the first period, and was solid enough to get the start in Game 2. Ingram didn’t start on the right foot, as he allowed in the first shot he faced from Nathan MacKinnon, but he learned his lesson and was almost flawless for the rest of the game, especially after Yakov Trenin tied the game later in the period.

The Avs got close to beating Ingram in the waning seconds of the second, as Valeri Nichuskin got one past him amidst chaos in front of the net. But said chaos caused the goal to be waived off, as Artturi Lehkonen was pushed by Dante Fabbro onto Ingram, and the goal was immediately called back. The Avs would challenge the play, but not only would they not get the goal back, they also had to go on the penalty kill for delay of game. Was the contact caused by Fabbro’s pushing, or did Lehkonen get too close to Ingram on his own?

The waived-off goal wouldn’t end up coming back to haunt the Avs, though, as after a third period and another half of an overtime period of Ingram looking impossible to beat a second time, Cale Makar finally got one past the Preds netminder for the win.

Despite the loss, it was a spectacular performance by Ingram, who would finish the night with 49 saves on 51 shots. To put it in to perspective, the Avalanche finished the night with 4.43 expected goals in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick, and Ingram only allowed two goals. It’s a shame he couldn’t come out with the win, but it probably makes the Predators feel a little bit better about Saros not being in the lineup quite yet.