Pavel Francouz replaced the injured Darcy Kuemper in the NHL playoffs in the twentieth minute in the Colorado goal area and contributed to the 7: 3 team’s victory in Nashville in 18 goals. The winner of the Western Conference is already leading the series 3: 0.
Hockey striker Radek Faksa helped Dallas win 4-2 over Calgary and lead 2-2 in matches. Filip Chytil assisted at one goal of the New York Rangers, who lost 4: 7 in Pittsburgh and lost 1: 2 in matches. Florida suffered a 1: 6 debacle in Washington and loses in a 1: 2 series.
Kuempera was accidentally injured by Ryan Johansen, whose hockey stick passed through the helmet grid and hit Colorado’s goalkeeper in the eye:
“Until now, I didn’t know that something like this could happen. I had never seen anything like it before. Of course, it’s scary that a hockey stick can pass through the grid, but it’s a very small chance,” said the Frenchman. Colorado coach Jared Bednar clarified that Kuemper’s eye had swollen, but that he was otherwise fine. He didn’t even rule out a start in the next duel.
But he could not continue Saturday’s match. The Frenchman captured for the first time in this year’s playoffs and scored two goals.
“I didn’t notice right away what happened to him, but I saw that he was suffering. I knew I was going to go to the goal. It’s always annoying to see someone injured, but I needed to fix all my thoughts on the match, on I tried to do that and I also had a lot of support from my teammates, “added the Czech goalkeeper.
Colorado led Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon 2-0, with Nashville defeating Matt Duchene and Eeli Tolvanen, who beat the French from the left circle. In the middle of the match, the guest striker Gabriel Landeskog prevailed.
The Predators equalized with Roman Josi’s shot from the blue line, but found no answer to Landeskog’s next goal. Nazem Kadri, Devon Toews and Valery Nishushkin gradually increased the lead.
The match broke with a hit by Landeskoga, who was the hero of the match with four points, at 4: 3. Nashville took a coach challenge due to an illegal defense by the goalkeeper, but the goal was paid and the home team were expelled for delaying the game. Colorado did not despise the offer, using a total of four overpowering games in the match.
Faksa opened the scoring in the ninth minute, but Calgary turned the goals of Trevor Lewis and Elias Lindholm to 2: 1. The hero of the match was Joe Pavelski, who with two goals turned the lead back to Dallas. Roope Hintz sealed the victory a second before the end.
“Top players can boost performance with the growing importance of the match. That’s what Joe did again,” said Dallas coach Rick Bowness Pavelsky, who scored both goals. “He read it well. As always, he moved around the gate and was where he was supposed to be,” the coach added. Pavelski scored the winning goal in the last match.
Chytil assisted at Kaapa Kakka’s goal, who reacted quickly to Brock McGinn’s leading goal in the fifth minute. Still in the opening third, Pittsburgh bounced back to 4: 1, Jeff Carter and Evan Rodrigues hit twice.
The middle part belonged to the Rangers and after the goals of Frank Vatran, Artemis Panarin and Andrew Copp, the score was again indecisive. The match was decided in the 52nd minute by Danton Heinen and the win was secured in the end by Jake Guentzel and Jeff Carter goals in power play.
The biggest star of the match in Washington was declared the home goalkeeper Ilja Samsonov, who last time replaced Vítek Vaněček in a 1: 5 loss and caught for the first time in this year’s playoffs from the beginning. Although the Russian goalkeeper was the first to collect, Jonathan Huberdeau beat him in the third minute, but he stopped another 29 shots.
Before the first siren, TJ Oshie equalized, Marcus Johansson and Trevor van Riemsdyk scored in the middle period, and Alexandr Ovečkin, John Carlson and Garnet Hathaway highlighted the win in the last ten minutes.
The winner of the basic part thus loses again in the series. “They beat us basically in every battle for the puck, they were better in every area. We have to come up with something,” said Florida coach Andrew Brunette.
1. kolo play off NHL:
Eastern Conference – 3rd match:
Washington – Florida 6:1 (1:1, 2:0, 3:0)
Goals: 20. Oshie, 30. Johansson, 39. T. Van Riemsdyk, 51. Ovechkin, 56. Carlson, 60. Hathaway – 3. Huberdeau. Shots on goal: 31:30. Attendance: 18,573. Match Stars: 1. Samsonov, 2. Johansson, 3. T. Van Riemsdyk (all Washington). State of the series: 2: 1.
Pittsburgh – NY Rangers 7: 4 (4: 1, 0: 3, 3: 0)
Goals: 9th and 59th Carter, 11th and 16th Rodrigues, 2nd McGinn, 52nd Heinen, 58th Guentzel – 6th Kakko (Catched), 27. Vatrano, 28. Panarin, 36. Copp. Shots on goal: 37:36. Attendance: 18,385. Match Stars: 1. Heinen, 2. Rodrigues, 3. Carter (all Pittsburgh). State of the series: 2: 1.
Western Conference – Matches 3:
Nashville – Colorado 3: 7 (1: 2, 2: 3, 0: 2)
Goals: 18. Duchene, 26. Tolvanen, 33. Josi – 31. and 35. Landeskog, 11. Lehkonen, 17. MacKinnon, 35. Kadri, 50. D. Toews, 58. Ničushkin. Shots on goal: 30:42. Pavel Francouz caught in Colorado 40:57 minutes, collected two goals from 20 shots and had a success rate of 90 percent. Attendance: 17,430. Match stars: 1. Landeskog, 2. Makar, 3. Kadri (all Colorado). The score is now 0: 3.
Dallas – Calgary 4:2 (1:1, 1:1, 2:0)
Goals: 32nd and 51st Pavelski, 9th. Fax, 60. Hintz – 14. Lewis, 24. E. Lindholm. Shots on goal: 32:41. Attendance: 18,532. Match stars: 1. Pavelski, 2. Oettinger, 3. Heiskanen (all Dallas). State of the series: 2: 1.
