Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 27: Hurricanes advance to East Final, Jets force Game 6
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop exciting action in the NHL as we witness history in another team looking to win a championship. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop of everything that happened in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.
Svechnikov’s late winner sends Canes to conference finals
It was do-or-die for the Washington Capitals in Game 5, facing a 3-1 series deficit and needing a big win on home ice to keep the series alive. That looked like it may have been in their favour to start, as even after Jordan Staal opened the scoring for the Carolina Hurricanes midway through the first period, Anthony Beauvillier responded just four minutes later to tie the game. The Caps even took the lead early in the second… or so they thought. Matt Roy seemingly gave them a 2-1 lead, but the play ended up being offside.
After that, Frederik Andersen and Logan Thompson kept the puck out of both nets, continuing to play at a high level to keep the game tied, and the game was creeping closer and closer to overtime. But with just 1:59 left in the game, Andrei Svechnikov found a hole through Thompson from a crazy angle, and the Canes had a very late lead. Washington tried to tie it with the extra attacker, but Seth Jarvis put the game away with an empty net goal to give Carolina the 3-1 win.
SVECHNIKOV FROM THE IMPOSSIBLE ANGLE
🎥TNT pic.twitter.com/UVoIFTmBoz
With that win, the Canes advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three years, and for the third time during their current seven-year playoff streak. They will face either the Florida Panthers or the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round. Meanwhile, after winning their first playoff series since their 2018 Stanley Cup win, the Capitals find themselves going home early again.
Jets keep season alive with 4-0 win
Much like the Capitals, the Winnipeg Jets also had their season on the line on Thursday night, facing a 3-1 series deficit to the Dallas Stars. But unlike the Capitals, the Jets managed to pull off the win on home ice to do so, and it came from a variety of sources. But most importantly, Connor Hellebuyck had another strong showing on home ice, getting his second shutout of the series in the 4-0 win.
The game was scoreless in the first period, and it wasn’t until Mark Scheifele scored in the second period that we finally saw the first goal of the game. Even then, the action really didn’t pick up until the third period. Nikolaj Ehlers scored on the power play early in the frame, Vladislav Namestnikov put the game away midway through the second with another power play goal, and then Ehlers finished it off with an empty net goal to make it 4-0. The Jets cut the series lead to 3-2, and now they look to tie the series in Dallas on Saturday.