Both New York Islanders and Dallas Stars won their conference semifinal matches last night. Islanders routed Flyers, while on the other side, Stars were better than the Avalanche.
Islanders Beat Flyers, 4-0
While looking at the result, many believe that NYI trashed the team from Philly, but it really wasn’t like that. Three of their four scores came in the final period when Flyers desperately chased the result. Islanders would have seven shots throughout the entire final frame.
Andy Greene scored an opener with 6:06 inside the first, putting his name on the playoffs scoresheet for the first time in more than a decade.
As time went by, the game became a bit slower and tougher, with both sides failing to score.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau made it 2-0 a little before three minutes into the final period, and Anders Lee raised the lead to 3-0 with 8:50 of the same after Mathew Barzal’s assistance.
Devon Toews hit an empty-netter with 7:39 to go.
Islanders’ goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov had 29 saves for his second shutout in these playoffs. Right now he is just 39 seconds away from Billy Smith’s franchise record for most minutes without a goal allowed in the postseason. Varlamov currently sits at 136:20.
Dallas Stars Confident Against Avalanche, 5-2
The franchise from Colorado had a 2-0 advantage when Mikko Rantanen scored a powerplay goal at 8:44 inside the second period. Everything would point towards Alvalanche’s easy win at that point. Previously, Nathan MacKinnon also hit the back of the net during the powerplay.
Suddenly the game became more intensified, and that suited the Stars much better. Dallas scored four goals in the span of 11 minutes, starting with Joe Pavelski, and continuing with Radek Faksa, Alexander Radulov, and Esa Lindell.
The final hit was delivered 10 seconds before the end, with Jamie Oleksiak’s empty netter. It seems that a 27-year old defenceman likes to score goals in the last moments. Just remember his game-winner against the Calgary Flames, in the previous round.
Stars’ goaltender, Anton Khudobin, posted 38 saves, and helped his team a lot, as Colorado outshot the rivals 40-27, putting on a massive pressure at certain points of the clash. For some, the Russian was the best player of the match by far.
Game 3 of this matchup is on Wednesday at 10:30 pm ET in Edmonton. Meanwhile, Islanders vs. Flyers Game 2 is set for the same day, only earlier, at 3 pm ET in Toronto.
