The Leafs and Jets can take a stranglehold on their series with a win tonight, Minnesota looks to build off a big Game 2 win and Tampa tries to avoid going down 2-0 to the Panthers.
LAST NIGHT'S ACTION
AHL PACIFIC DIVISION ROUND ONE
ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS 4 TUCSON ROADRUNNERS 3 (CANUCKS LEAD SERIES 1-0)
The AHL Calder Cup playoffs got underway last night for the Canucks AHL affiliate, as they hosted Utah's farm team from Tucson in Game One at the Abbotsford Centre. Sammy Blais scored twice on the power play in the second, part of a three goal out burst in the middle frame as the Canucks hung on to take Game One by a score of 4-3. This included Arturs Silovs stopping Tucson's Max Szuber on a penalty shot with 0:35 left in the game! Tristan Nielsen and Linus Karlsson also scored for the Canucks. Game 2 goes tonight at 7:00 pm at the Abbotsford Centre, and you can watch that on FloHockey.tv
WASHINGTON CAPITALS 3 MONTREAL CANADIENS 1 (Washington leads series 2-0)
Despite a frantic effort in the third period, the Canadiens find themselves down two games to none as the series prepares to shift back to Montreal for Game 3. The Habs had opened the scoring early in the second on a goal from Christian Dvorak, but goals a minute apart from Connor McMichael and Dylan Strome would be too much to overcome. McMichael would add an empty netter for the 3-1 final. The Habs are playing well and getting good goaltending, but they need to find ways to generate offence or this series is gonna be a short one.
DALLAS STARS 2 COLORADO AVALANCHE 1 (OT) (Dallas leads series 2-1)
After a convincing Game One win by the Avs, the Dallas Stars have clawed their way back into this series, and now lead the series following a second straight overtime win. This one was even more impressive given the emotional lift Colorado got from the return of Gabe Landeskog, who hasn't played an NHL game since Game Six of the 2022 Cup Finals. Apart from a power play goal from Valeri Nichushkin, they weren't able to solve Jake Oettinger. Tyler Seguin scored the OT winner for Dallas, who can make it a 3-1 lead with a win Saturday night in Denver.
LOS ANGELES KINGS 6 EDMONTON OILERS 2 (LA leads series 2-0)
After losing to the Oilers in the first round three straight years, the Kings were looking to flip the script, and boy, have they. Fears about the Oilers potential weak spots on defense and in goal appear to be reality, as the Kings rang up 6 on Edmonton for a second straight game. Three power play goals, and four point nights from Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar led the way for LA, who also got a goal and an assist from former Canuck Andrei Kuzmenko. They also held Connor McDavid off the scoresheet, limiting him to just two shots and four attempts as well as 20% on faceoffs. What a dud, eh? Stuart Skinner was pulled after giving up the fifth goal in the third period, but the Kings would score on the first shot they put on Calvin Pickard. This series shifts to Edmonton for Game Three Friday night. The Oilers have a pretty bad record of coming back after dropping the first two games of a series, so expect them to come out hard.
TONIGHT'S ACTION
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (0-1) vs FLORIDA PANTHERS (1-0)
AMALIE ARENA, TAMPA, FL
3:30 PM PST/ 6:30 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET 360
The Panthers looked very much ready to defend their crown in a convincing Game One win over Tampa on Tuesday night. Matthew Tkachuk had a 2G 1A performance to lead the way, and also got two goals from former Canucks dman Nate Schmidt. Yeah, we were as shocked as anyone. Expect some pushback from the Bolts tonight, this one is gonna be worth the watch.
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 2
6:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, TVAS2, SN360
Florida leads best-of-7 series 1-0
Panthers projected lineup
Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand
Evan Rodrigues -- Nico Sturm -- Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling -- Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis -- Nate Schmidt
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna
Injured: None
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Lightning projected lineup
Gage Goncalves -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel -- Nick Paul -- Brandon Hagel
Conor Geekie -- Yanni Gourde -- Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons -- Luke Glendening
Victor Hedman -- JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg -- Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Scratched: Cam Atkinson
Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower-body injury), Anthony Cirelli (undisclosed)
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (2-0) vs OTTAWA SENATORS (0-2)
CANADIAN TIRE CENTRE, OTTAWA, ON
4:00 PM PST/ 7:00 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET, CBC
The Sens looked better in Game Two, managing to force overtime after (are you sensing a theme here?) former Canuck Adam Gaudette scored to tie the game 2-2 and send it to OT. Unfortunately for the Sens, they had to suffer the humiliation of giving up an OT winner to Max Domi of all people, and will need to come up big tonight to keep from going down 3-0 against a confident looking Leafs squad. Remember though, this is the Leafs, and this is the playoffs. Expect chaos.
One thing to watch for, is Max Pacioretty replacing Nick Robertson tonight for the Leafs.
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 3
7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNP, ESPN2
Toronto leads best-of-7 series 2-0
Maple Leafs projected lineup
Matthew Knies -- Auston Matthews -- Mitch Marner
Pontus Holmberg -- John Tavares -- William Nylander
Max Pacioretty -- Max Domi -- Bobby McMann
Calle Jarnkrok -- Scott Laughton -- Steven Lorentz
Morgan Rielly -- Brandon Carlo
Jake McCabe -- Chris Tanev
Simon Benoit -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Anthony Stolarz
Joseph Woll
Scratched: Dakota Mermis, Philippe Myers, David Kampf, Artur Akhtyamov, Nicholas Robertson
Injured: Jani Hakanpaa (lower body)
Senators projected lineup
Brady Tkachuk -- Tim Stutzle -- Claude Giroux
Fabian Zetterlund -- Dylan Cozens -- Drake Batherson
Ridly Greig -- Shane Pinto -- Michael Amadio
David Perron -- Adam Gaudette -- Nick Cousins
Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot -- Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven -- Nikolas Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark
Anton Forsberg
Scratched: Dennis Gilbert, Travis Hamonic, Matthew Highmore
Injured: Hayden Hodgson (lower body)
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS (1-1) vs MINNESOTA WILD (1-1)
XCEL ENERGY CENTER, SAINT PAUL, MN
6:00 PM PST/ 9:00 PM EST
TV: SN 360
The Wild were full value for a 5-2 win on Tuesday night in Vegas to tie up this series, and hope they can continue to exploit some uncharacteristic Vegas defensive lapses to take the lead in the series at home this evening. Kirill Kaprizov has been the big story so far, leading all scorers in the series with 3G 2A, but Matt Boldy's 3G have been huge for the Wild.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS (1P) at WILD (WC1)
Western Conference First Round, Game 3
9 p.m. ET; FDSNNO, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, TVAS2, SN360
Best-of-7 series tied 1-1
Golden Knights projected lineup
Ivan Barbashev -- Jack Eichel -- Mark Stone
Brandon Saad --Tomas Hertl -- Pavel Dorofeyev
Victor Olofsson -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Brett Howden -- Nicolas Roy -- Keegan Kolesar
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin -- Alex Pietrangelo
Nicolas Hague -- Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched: Alexander Holtz, Ben Hutton, Kaedan Korczak, Tanner Pearson, Akira Schmid, Cole Schwindt
Injured: None
Wild projected lineup
Kirill Kaprizov -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno -- Ryan Hartman -- Gustav Nyquist
Yakov Trenin -- Marco Rossi -- Justin Brazeau
Jonas Brodin -- Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon
Zeev Buium -- Zach Bogosian
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched: Jon Merrill, Declan Chisholm, Vincent Hinostroz, Devon Shore, Jesper Wallstedt
Injured: None
WINNIPEG JETS (2-0) vs ST LOUIS BLUES (0-2)
ENTERPRISE CENTER, ST LOUIS, MO
6:30 PM PST/ 9:30 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET, CBC
The Jets are looking to prove they're the real deal, and after a bit of a bumpy start in Game One, battled hard to head to Missouri with a 2-0 lead over the St Louis Blues. With Connor Hellebuyck starting to show the form that will very likely see him win another Vezina this season, the Blues are going to need Jordan Binnington to steal one for them, or their hopes of another Cinderella Cup run are going to be snuffed out soon.
Western Conference First Round, Game 3
9:30 p.m. ET; FDSNMW, ESPN2, SN, TVAS, CBC
Winnipeg leads best-of-7 series 2-0
Jets projected lineup
Kyle Connor -- Mark Scheifele -- Alex Iafallo
Nino Niederreiter -- Vladislav Namestnikov -- Cole Perfetti
Brandon Tanev -- Adam Lowry -- Mason Appleton
David Gustafsson -- Morgan Barron -- Jaret Anderson-Dolan
Josh Morrissey -- Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg -- Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley -- Luke Schenn
Connor Hellebuyck
Eric Comrie
Scratched: Dominic Toninato, Haydn Fleury, Colin Miller, Ville Heinola
Injured: Nikolaj Ehlers (lower body), Gabriel Vilardi (upper body), Rasmus Kupari (concussion)
Blues projected lineup
Jimmy Snuggerud -- Robert Thomas -- Pavel Buchnevich
Jake Neighbours -- Brayden Schenn -- Jordan Kyrou
Alexandre Texier -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko -- Radek Faksa -- Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler -- Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg -- Justin Faulk
Nick Leddy -- Tyler Tucker
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
Scratched: Mathieu Joseph, Ryan Suter, Matthew Kessel
Injured: Dylan Holloway (lower body)
All lineups are subject to change and courtesy of nhl.com
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Going back to 1989 and an album that definitely had a massive impact on me, musically. 'Beneath The Remains', the third studio album from Belo Horizonte, Brazil's SEPULTURA was an absolute game changer, and one that helped them explode worldwide. The album is flawless from beginning to end, mixing thrash and death metal with some subtle nods to more traditional metal influences and before they began incorporating native Brazilian musical styles to their mix, BTR is insanely ferocious from beginning to end. I chose a track that has a deep personal meaning for me. 'Mass Hypnosis' was the song that inspired me when I was looking for a name for my show on 92.5 The X at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, back in the day. Another fun fact, I still have the cd that I won in a contest in Metal Maniacs magazine back when this album came out.
Enjoy the games, fuck fascists at home and abroad! Oh, and Go Abby Canucks Go!
