RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Brady Skjei scored on the power play with 3:11 left to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 4-3 on Saturday night, staving off a sweep by winning Game 4 of the second-round playoff series.
Skjei’s shot from the the point came off a feed from Tuevo Teravainen, with the puck zipping past Igor Shesterkin to catch the post and bang into the net. That was Carolina’s first goal with the man advantage in 17 tries in the series, and it finally pushed Carolina ahead for good on a night when the Hurricanes squandered a two-goal lead.
No matter, though. The Hurricanes survived to fight another day in the NHL playoffs.
The Rangers get another closeout chance Monday night with the 3-1 lead when the series returns to Madison Square Garden for Game 5.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stefan Noesen and Sebastian Aho each scored for Carolina, which led 2-0 and 3-1 in the first period during a strong start that built some early momentum. Frederik Andersen finished with 22 saves as Carolina tries to become the fifth team to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series and first since 2014.
Will Cuylle, Barclay Goodrow and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, while Shesterkin finished with 27 saves.
New York had won their first seven playoff games after sweeping Washington in Round 1 and taking the first three of this series, and had a chance to become the first team to reach 8-0 in a postseason since Edmonton won its first nine games on the way to claiming the Stanley Cup in 1985.
STARS 4, AVALANCHE 1
DENVER (AP) — Tyler Seguin scored the tiebreaking goal in the second period and added an empty-netter in the third, and Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger made it all hold up, powering them to a win over Colorado for a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference second-round series.
The Avs pulled goaltender Alexander Georgiev with just under 2 minutes remaining and Seguin scored an empty-netter with 1:37 to go to make it 3-1, and Logan Stankoven, who scored Dallas’ first goal, added a second empty-netter at with 28 seconds remaining.
With their second straight win, the Stars regained home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series by throttling Colorado’s high-powered offense that entered the night having averaging 5 goals a game in these playoffs, where they hadn’t scored fewer than three goals in a game.
Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin was held scoreless for the first time in these playoffs. He was looking to become the third player in NHL history to have an eight-game goal streak during the playoffs (Reggie Leach, Philadelphia Flyers, 10 games in 1976; Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning, nine games in 2021).
Game 4 is Monday night at Ball Arena, where the Avalanche are now 33-10-1, including 2-1 in the playoffs.
The Stars were an NHL-best 26-10-5 on the road during the season and have won three of four playoff games away from American Airlines Center.
Oettinger had 29 saves on 30 shots.
