NHL Playoffs: Connor McDavid knocks out Flames, and Hurricanes take series lead over Rangers
The Daily Goal Horn
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The NHL Playoffs now have another team advance to the third round.
In Calgary, the Battle of Alberta ended when Connor McDavid blasted a shot by the Flames’ Jacob Markstrom to send the Edmonton Oilers to the Conference Final for the first time in 16 years.
“It means everything to me and this group,” McDavid said after the winner. “We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, and this is one of the ups.”
Meanwhile, the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers stay the course with the home team winning every game so far. The Canes bottled up the Rangers outshooting them 34 to 17 to take a 3-2 series lead.
NHL Playoffs: Oilers 5 vs Flames 4 (OT)
Connor McDavid picked up only a single point in Game 5 and it was a big one. His goal 5:03 into overtime gave the visiting Edmonton Oilers a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames to advance them to the Western Conference final.
In the extra session, McDavid accepted a pass from Leon Draisaitl in the slot area and rang it off the post and in for his seventh of the playoffs.
“I was bad all night,” McDavid said. “I was riding the coattails of my teammates and got a great opportunity and so I’m happy to contribute.”
Darnell Nurse, Jesse Puljujarvi, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard scored to erase a 2-0 and 4-3 Flames leads. Mike Smith made 32 saves in the winning effort.
“He’s our leader, he’s our go-to guy. He’s the guy that everyone looks up to when you need him. He’s done it all season, he’s done it all his career,” said Draisaitl, who collected 4 assists. “Last two months or last month or whatever it has been, he’s been amazing for us. Eventually you just kind of run out of words.”
For the Flames, they got goals from Andrew Mangiapane, Mikael Backlund, Johnny Gaudreau and Calle Jarnkrok. Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots in the loss.
“They just made plays in key moments of games, and we didn’t,” Flames forward Blake Coleman said.
Edmonton now sits and waits in the WCF for the first time since 2006. The Colorado Avalanche are looking to close out the St. Louis Blues on the road in Game 6 on Friday night. If not, Game 7 will be on Sunday.
Hurricanes 3 vs Rangers 1
Teuvo Teravainen’s power-play goal midway into the second period lifted the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers. They now have the 3-2 series lead and hope to this out in New York on Saturday night.
“He’s a sneaky, skilled player,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Teravainen. “You see it on that goal. That’s a great catch-and-shoot that not many guys can do at that pace and put it in the right spot.”
Andrei Svechnikov and Vincent Trocheck added the other Hurricanes goals. Antti Raanta had an easy night’s work needing to make only 16 saves.
Carolina is now 7-0 at home in these playoffs, outscoring the opposition 25-8.
Mika Zibanejad scored the lone Rangers goal on the power play to tie it in the first period, but it was all Carolina from there. Igor Shesterkin made 31 stops in the losing effort.
“I didn’t think we played our game at all,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought we were reaching with sticks all night instead of finishing checks with the body like we did the other nights. Obviously, to me it was the worst game in the five games in this series. They pretty well dominated that game tonight.”
–Field Level Media contributed to this article