Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 21: Lightning sweep Panthers, Kadri gets revenge with hat trick
One team was looking to survive one game longer, while another was looking to not face elimination.
Missed anything? Here’s a recap of the night’s action.
Vasilevskiy gets another series-clinching shutout as Lightning sweep Panthers
Apparently not even the Florida Panthers’ best game is good enough to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. They dominated Game 4, but they couldn’t beat Andrei Vasilevskiy, and the back-to-back defending champs won 2-0 to keep their three-peat mission going. For more on the game, we have you covered here.
Kadri scores hat trick in Avs win to take 3-1 series lead
Game 4 between the Colorado Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues certainly had plenty of intrigue heading into the game. Between Jordan Binnington’s Game 3 injury, Binnington allegedly throwing a water bottle at Nazem Kadri, and Kadri receiving racist threats to the point of requiring a police investigation, this series has had a lot of storylines, although most of them don’t exactly paint the NHL in a good light.
The Blues responded to Game 3 early with a goal from David Perron, his eighth of the postseason. Despite the Blues having the 1-0 lead after the first period, the Avs dominated the period, outshooting the Blues 15-3.
Things certainly went the Avs’ way in the second though, as the floodgates opened wide early on. They scored four unanswered goals, all within less than five minutes, with two of them coming from Kadri, and the Avs had a 4-1 lead in the second.
The momentum quickly changed in the second half of the second, as the Blues were pressuring to get back into the game. They did just that with a couple of power play goals, as Perron and Buchnevich scored on the man advantage in the final three minutes to make it a one goal game.
But they couldn’t get that final goal, as Kadri completed the hat trick midway through the third to give the Avs some breathing room. Rantanen sealed the deal with an empty net goal – assisted by Kadri, of course – giving the Avs a 6-3 win, and they now head back to Colorado with a 3-1 series lead and a chance to finally advance past the second round.
Nazem Kadri (@43_Kadri) was feeling it tonight as he notched his first #StanleyCup playoff @Enterprise hat trick! 🎩 pic.twitter.com/aGKWE7cV9F
— NHL (@NHL) May 24, 2022