Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 14: Suter scores late to eliminate Preds

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 14: Suter scores late to eliminate Preds
Credit: © Steve Roberts

Two Game 6s with a chance for the road team to end the series, two different results for Friday night’s Stanley Cup playoff action.

Late goal from Suter advance Canucks to second round

This series between the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators has been a very grinding and low-scoring series, especially helped by the fact that the Canucks have had to rotate through three goalies and are parking the bus without Thatcher Demko in the crease. But that’s also worked in Nashville’s favour, and with a Game 5 win, can they build on momentum and plant the seed of doubt in Vancouver’s heads?

Juuse Saros certainly did as much for a large portion of the game, as he kept the Canucks off the board for a good portion of the game and stopped their first 28 shots of the game. Luckily for Vancouver, Arturs Silovs was more than up to the task, as he also stopped the Predators first 28 shots on net to keep the game at 0-0 for most of the game.

Unfortunately for Nashville, the Canucks took one more shot. With 99 seconds left in the game, Brock Boeser fed Pius Suter up in front, and he finally got a shot past Saros to give the Canucks the 1-0 lead.

The Preds pushed to tie it, but it was no dice, and with the 1-0 final score, the Canucks won the game and eliminated Nashville in six games. Silovs completed the shutout in the game, with it being his first shutout of his NHL career.

The Canucks advance to second round for the first time since the 2020 bubble, and they’ll face off against a Canadian rival in the Edmonton Oilers. The Predators now see their postseason series win drought extend to six straight seasons, last doing so in 2018.

Golden Knights force Game 7 with 2-0 win

The Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights seemed to follow the exact same formula as Friday’s earlier game. Not only was this another Game 6 with the home team looking to keep their season alive, but these two teams also kept it very low-scoring.

This Game 6 was actually quite similar in terms of the action, but the speed of these two teams made it feel much faster and like there was a lot more going on. But it was a goalie showdown, with both Jake Oettinger and Adin Hill stopping 18 shots through the first two periods.

It took until the third period to get the game’s first goal, but unlike Vancouver-Nashville, it came a bit earlier in the frame. With the game about six seconds away from the halfway point, Noah Hanifin shot through a Keegan Kolesar screen to beat Oettinger, and the Golden Knights had the 1-0 lead.

Not only did Vegas take the lead, they didn’t give Dallas much of a chance to tie it. They outshot the Stars 12-5 and had a 1.48-0.32 edge in expected goals in the period, and after Mark Stone‘s empty net goal, the Golden Knights kept their season alive and sent this series to seven with a 2-0 win. Hill only needed to make 23 stops to get the shutout win, while Oettinger stopped 29 of 30 in a losing effort.

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