TORONTO (AP) — Linus Ullmark made 29 saves for the first playoff shutout of his career as the Ottawa Senators edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0 on Tuesday night to cut the deficit in the teams’ first-round series to 3-2.
Thomas Chabot and Dylan Cozens gave the Senators a 2-0 lead before Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk added empty-net goals for Ottawa, which once again staved off elimination after picking up a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 4 at home Saturday. Tkachuk and Stutzle added two assists each for three-point performances.
Anthony Stolarz stopped 15 shots for the Leafs.
Only four NHL teams have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series — the 1942 Leafs, 1975 Islanders, the 2010 Flyers and the 2014 Kings.
Game 6 is Thursday in Ottawa.
HURRICANES 5, DEVILS 4, 20T
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sebastian Aho hammered a one-timer past Jacob Markstrom at 4:17 of the second overtime to help Carolina beat New Jersey to clinch their first-round playoff series.
The score came with the Hurricanes on a four-minute power play on a double-minor high-sticking penalty by Dawson Mercer that sent Jesperi Kotkaniemi skating off to the tunnel with a towel to his face. Aho provided the capper, the only lead the Hurricanes would have in a wild game that pushed them into the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They’ll next play the winner of the Montreal-Washington series, with the Capitals leading 3-1 in that one.
Carolina won this game despite falling behind 3-0 in the first 10 minutes.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, WILD 2, OT
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brett Howden scored 4:05 into overtime Tuesday night to give the Golden Knights a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild and put Vegas one game away from advancing out of the Western Conference first round.
The Golden Knights take a 3-2 series lead back to St. Paul for Thursday night’s Game 6. Vegas, which had the second-best record in the Pacific Division this season and won the Stanley Cup in 2023, will try to advance to at least the second round for the fifth time in their eight-year history.
Minnesota will attempt to avoid another first-round series exit. The Wild’s last series victory occurred in 2015 when the Wild made the second round.
William Karlsson and Mark Stone also scored goals for the Golden Knights, and Jack Eichel had two assists. Eichel had just one assist in the first four games. Adin Hill made 20 saves.
OILERS 3, KINGS 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mattias Janmark scored the tiebreaking goal at 7:12 of the third period, and Edmonton beat Los Angeles for their third consecutive victory and a 3-2 lead in their first-round series.
Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored and Calvin Pickard made 20 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who can advance with a win in Game 6 in Edmonton on Thursday.
Edmonton was finally rewarded for dominating possession and shots throughout Game 5 when Janmark converted a rebound of Viktor Arvidsson’s shot.
After some fraught final moments, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added an empty-net goal to finish the Oilers’ franchise-record third consecutive comeback playoff victory.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped 43 shots for the second-seeded Kings, who are one loss away from their fourth consecutive first-round playoff exit at Edmonton’s hands despite winning the first two games of this series at home and blowing third-period leads in the next two.
