Avalanche bury the Golden Knights in Game 1

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Two series started on Sunday as the second round began its second night of action after Boston and the New York Islanders got things started. The fourth series, in the North Division, will not get underway until Wednesday as Toronto and Montreal will faceoff Monday in Game 7.

The Tampa Bay Lightning got off to a 1-0 series lead over Carolina with a 2-1 win while Colorado flexed its muscles and totally dominated the Vegas Golden Knights to the tune of 7-1.

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TAMPA BAY 2 CAROLINA 1 (Tampa Bay leads the best-of-seven series 1-0)

It was an amazing effort by Andrei Vasilevskiy as he turned aside 37 shots to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win over the Hurricanes in Carolina in Game 1 of the Central Division final.

Vasilevskiy showed why he is considered the best goaltender in the NHL with Sunday’s performance making great save after great save.

The first period was scoreless, the first time in the playoffs that Carolina failed to score in the opening stanza with both Vasilevskiy and Alex Nedeljkovic perfect as Carolina outshot Tampa Bay 15-12.

Brayden Point opened the scoring with a power play goal at the 8:15 mark of the second period, redirecting a Victor Hedman point shot past Nedeljkovic as the puck trickled over the goal line.

There was no more scoring in the second but the Hurricanes tied it up early in the third as Jake Bean scored on the power play at the 1:41 mark of the third and his point shot eluded Vasilevskiy.

The winner was scored by Barclay Goodrow, his first of the playoffs, on a really bad play by Nedeljkovic. Goodrow’s shot from a tough angle managed to get past the Carolina goaltender who could not manage to hug the post and looked awkward as the puck went into the net.

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The Hurricanes went all out trying to tie the game, with Victor Hedman blocking a shot with less than five seconds to go. Hedman ended the contest with eight blocked shots.

Vasilevskiy is 5-2 in the playoffs with a 2.41 GAA and a .936 save percentage.

Nedeljkovic is 4-3 thus far with a 2.19 GAA and a .923 save percentage.

Vincent Trocheck had seven shots on goal.

Goodrow had seven hits.

Erik Cernak was injured in the second period when hit by Svechnikov and did not return but coach Jon Cooper said that Cernak should be okay.

Nino Niederreiter is “very very doubtful” to return to action this series, according to coach Rod Brind’Amour, because of an upper-body injury.

COLORADO 7 VEGAS 1 (Colorado leads the best-of-seven series 1-0)

In a series that was touted as the two best teams in the NHL meeting in Game 1, Colorado showed why they are widely-regarded as the best team in the NHL, shellacking the Vegas Golden Knights 7-1. It was quite a display by Avalanche, as they managed to score only 17 times in eight regular-season games against Vegas this season.

The Golden Knights were led by their top line as Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog each had two goals and an assist, while Mikko Rantanen had one goal and one assist.

Defenseman Cale Makar had a goal and three helpers to lead all players in points.

Brandon Saad also scored for Colorado, while William Karlsson had the only Vegas goal, scoring with the score already 5-0 for the Avs.

The Avs just dominated the Golden Knights all night and play got chippy in the third at the 8:04 mark when five misconducts and a match penalty were called. Look for Ryan Reaves, who had 19 PIMs and the match penalty, to face some supplemental discipline from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for attacking Ryan Graves.

Valeri Nichushkin, Alex Pietrangelo, Brandon Saad and Zach Whitecloud all had misconducts.

Philipp Grubauer stopped 24-of-25 shots for the win. He is a perfect 5-0 in the playoffs with a 1.60 GAA and a .941 save percentage.

Robin Lehner saw his first playoff action and gave up all seven goals on 37 shots. Look for Marc-Andre Fleury to get the call in Game 2.

MacKinnon had eight shots on goal.

Makar was a plus-four.

Max Pacioretty was the only Golden Knight in the plus column, going plus-one.

NIGHTLY LEADERS

Goals

Nathan MacKinnon – 2

Gabriel Landeskog – 2

Assists

Cale Makar – 3

Shots on Goal

Nathan MacKinnon – 8

Vincent Trocheck – 7

Martin Necas – 6

Andrei Svechnikov – 5

Hits

Barclay Goodrow – 7

Blake Coleman – 5

Jani Hakanpaa – 5

Penalty Minutes

Ryan Reaves – 19

Brandon Saad – 12

Valeri Nichushkin – 10

Zach Whitecloud – 10

Alex Pietrangelo – 10