Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 8: Avs sweep Preds; Pens dominate to take 3-1 lead; Panthers, Flames tie series

But, the Panthers got the nickname Comeback Cats for a reason. Ilya Samsonov seemed almost impossible for the Panthers to beat in Game 4, but with 2:04 left in the game, Sam Reinhart would net the game-tying goal, his first career playoff goal, and send the game to overtime.

And they wouldn’t waste too much time in overtime, either, as it took Carter Verhaeghe just under five minutes to score his second of the game to give the Panthers the 3-2 win and tie the series.

Flames finally get some offense to tie series

Jake Oettinger has been an impenetrable force for the Calgary Flames in the first three games of this series, allowing only three goals with a .969 save percentage. But that came to end in Game 4.

It took them half the game to beat him the first time, and they had to fire 53 shots on net to get the job done, but the Flames took it to Oettinger in a 4-1 win. Johnny Gaudreau would score his first goal of the playoffs on a penalty shot, while Jacob Markstrom would stop 34 of 35 shots to help them tie the series.

Preds’ best isn’t enough as Avs sweep

Sometimes a team has a 3-0 series lead, but every game could have gone either way. That hasn’t been the case with the Colorado Avalanche and the Nashville Predators, as Games 1 and 3 have been decidedly in the Avs favor, and while Game 2 was a close 2-1 OT win on the scoreboard, that was because of the play of Connor Ingram.

It’s a shame, too, especially when we have a matchup like this with two of the best defensemen in the game right now in Cale Makar and Roman Josi, who were both nominated for the Norris Trophy. For more on that, we have you covered here.

But, as we saw in Game 4, even when the Predators are on their game and can compete with the Avalanche, it’s still not enough. Yakov Trenin gave the Avalanche a scare early on, as he continued his sneaky good play this series with two goals to keep the Preds in it through two periods. But, when Andre Burakovsky and Cale Makar have a goal and two assists each, it’s hard to keep up, and the Avalanche would still come out with a 5-3 victory.

Now, the Avalanche find themselves further under the microscope. They advance to the second round for the fourth straight season (with a 16-2 record in the first round during that span), but in their previous three trips, they’ve lost in seven games. Will they finally overcome that hurdle? Or will the Minnesota Wild or St. Louis Blues give them their fourth straight second-round exit?