2018 PLAYOFFS - scores/sched

LAS VEGAS (AP) Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots for his third shutout of the playoffs, and the Vegas Golden Knights went on to beat the San Jose Sharks 7-0 Thursday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Cody Eakin, Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault scored 1:31 apart early in the first period to get Vegas going. Alex Tuch, Shea Theodore, Colin Miller and James Neal also scored, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson each had three assists, and Marchessault and David Perron added two each.

Fleury, who improved to 5-0 in the playoffs, got his 13th career shutout in the playoffs - and second straight. He also blanked Los Angeles 1-0 in Game 4 of the first round.

 

wow. got outta hand quick

 

I believe.

 

I was watching the NFL draft last night and turned the game on. it was 2-0. I think it was 10 min later and it was 5-0. yikes. The Knights aren't messing around.

 

The Winnipeg Jets have defeated the Nashville Predators 4-1, despite being outshot 48-19, to take a 1-0 series lead.

Brandon Tanev, Paul Stastny (GWG) and Mark Scheifele (2) scored for the Jets.

Connor Hellebuyck made 47 saves to steal the win.

 

Steal the win is right. What a weird game.

 

The game played by Hellabuyck was almost perfect... and he made some nice saves too. The Jets did a good part in keeping the Predators shots coming from the outside, but some of the stuff was point-blank and Hellabuyck stood tall.

It was one of the, if not the most one-sided playoff games ive ever saw where the team being outshot dominated the scoreboard.

Huge win on the road for the Jets too, but I suspect some well needed and successful changes and adaptions will be made by Nashville... they are too good for that to happen again, in my opinion.

Why the Preds fans where booing the injuries to a guy who took a skate blade to the face was really disheartening to see. I had respect for the fans in Nashville up to that point... ridiculous.

What a game.

 

BRUINS AT LIGHTNING

3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVAS

TAMPA -- The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning open their best-of-7 series in the Eastern Conference Second Round at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

The Lightning defeated the New Jersey Devils in five games in the Eastern Conference First Round. The Bruins eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games.

Here are 5 keys for Game 1:

1. Tuukka time
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask had the lowest save percentage (.899) and the highest goals-against average (2.94) of the starting goalies on the eight teams that advanced to the second round.

Rask allowed four goals three times against the Maple Leafs, including Game 5, when the Bruins had a chance to win the series, and in Game 7, when Boston trailed 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period and 4-3 after two periods before winning 7-4.

Rask has allowed four goals in five of his past 10 starts, including a 4-0 loss at Tampa Bay on April 3.

"Tuukka is fine," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "He's been there. He's going to be good for us. That's that. We've just got to be good in front of him as well."

2. Shutting down Bergeron's line
Look for Lightning coach Jon Cooper to use his shutdown line of Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson and his shutdown defense pair of Ryan McDonagh and Anton Stralman against Boston's top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak whenever possible.

The Lightning have the last-change advantage as the home team in the first two games, which is key because if Cooper can play Point's line and the McDonagh-Stralman pair against Bergeron's line, it will free up Tampa Bay's top line of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller to potentially have more space to operate.

Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak combined for 30 points against Toronto.

"[Point] has this ability to check and be able to play with high-end players, very much like the guy that he might see a lot of," Cooper said of playing against Bergeron. "That's a special talent to have."

3. Penalty killing
The Lightning, who were 28th on the penalty kill during the regular season (76.1 percent), improved to 84.2 percent (16-for-19) against the Devils. The Bruins, who were third on the PK in the regular season (83.7 percent), dropped to 73.3 percent (11-for-15) against the Maple Leafs.

Tampa Bay will be facing a power play that scored at 33.3 percent against Toronto, aided by Bergeron winning 66.7 percent of his face-offs on the power play.

4. Vasilevskiy's confidence vs. Bruins
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy should be confident that he can defeat Boston after finally doing it April 3, making 33 saves in the 4-0 win. Vasilevskiy allowed three goals in each of his five previous starts against Boston (0-4-1).

Vasilevskiy should also be confident with how he's playing. He had a .941 save percentage (10 goals on 169 shots) and 2.01 GAA in the first round.

5. Rust vs. rest
The Lightning have had six full days between games. The Bruins played Game 7 on Wednesday.

It will be interesting to see if the Lightning's lengthy break leads to an energetic start, which is what they want, especially against a team coming off Game 7, or if they'll have to work their way into the game because of the time off.

Bruins projected lineup
Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak

Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Rick Nash

Danton Heinen -- Riley Nash -- David Backes

Tim Schaller -- Sean Kuraly -- Noel Acciari

Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy

Torey Krug -- Kevan Miller

Matt Grzelcyk -- Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask

Anton Khudobin

Scratched: Tommy Wingels, Brian Gionta, Ryan Donato, Nick Holden

Injured: Anders Bjork (shoulder), Brandon Carlo (ankle)


Lightning projected lineup
J.T. Miller -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Tyler Johnson

Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Yanni Gourde

Chris Kunitz -- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan

Victor Hedman -- Dan Girardi

Ryan McDonagh -- Anton Stralman

Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Louis Domingue

Scratched: Andrej Sustr, Jake Dotchin, Slater Koekkoek, Cory Conacher, Peter Budaj

Injured: Adam Erne (lower body)

 

Told y'all last yeer it wuz Trashville.

 

Sharks win Game 2 against Golden Knights in 2OT
Even Western series when Couture scores second of night at 5:13

 

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY...