The Toronto Maple Leafs stayed alive and the Edmonton Oilers avoided a Leafs-like deficit with a win on Wednesday.
Here are five things to know as we head into Thursday’s post-season action:
LEAFS SURVIVE
The Leafs live to see another game.
Toronto held on to defeat the Florida Panthers 2-1 on Wednesday night and avoid getting swept in their second-round series.
Mitch Marner and William Nylander both snapped seven-game goal droughts, while rookie netminder Joseph Woll stopped 24-of-25 shots for Toronto.
The Leafs haven’t been swept in a best-of-seven series since 1979. However, they will have to become the fifth team in NHL history to climb out of a 3-0 series deficit if they want to keep their post-season run alive.
ALL EVENED UP
The Oilers avoided a 3-1 series deficit by way of an impressive 4-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his first post-season goal as Edmonton went up 4-0 with 5:15 left in the second period.
With the best-of-seven series heading back to Vegas on Friday, the Oilers need another effort such as Wednesday’s to put themselves in the driver’s seat for once in this second round.
HURRICANE SEASON?
The Carolina Hurricanes have been dominant across their three wins over the New Jersey Devils, with their smallest margin of victory being four goals.
Carolina now has the chance to book its ticket into the Eastern Conference finals on home ice Thursday.
A Game 5 win wouldn’t give them a series sweep, with New Jersey having taken Game 3 on Sunday, but another dominant Hurricanes victory will sure make it feel as close to one as could be.
TRADING BLOWS
The Seattle Kraken and Dallas Stars have been exchanging wins through the four games of their best-of-seven series.
Seattle had taken a 2-1 edge in the second-round series by way of a dominant 7-2 win on Sunday but failed to capitalize on home ice with Dallas earning a 6-3 win on Tuesday to even things up.
With the series back in Dallas for Thursday’s Game 5, the question for the Kraken will be whether or not they could steal another road game to push the Stars to the brink of elimination.
MORE HISTORY IN PLAY
Connor McDavid is the lone Ted Lindsay Award finalist still in action in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Oilers star is in line to potentially claim the award — which is given to the most outstanding player as voted on by members of the NHL Players’ Association — for the fourth time in seven seasons.
The 26-year-old could become the third player ever to win it at least four times, with Wayne Gretzky (five) and Mario Lemieux (four) being the others.
McDavid led the NHL in goals (64), assists (89) and points (153) in claiming his fifth Art Ross Trophy this year as the league’s leading scorer. He is currently first in assists (12) and second in points (17) in the post-season entering Thursday.
The other finalists were Boston forward David Pastrnak and San Jose defenceman Erik Karlsson.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2023.
The Canadian Press
