The Colorado Avalanche may have needed extra time, but then the celebrations in the second home win over the Nashville Predators were all the more violent. Nico Sturm had his part in it. The NHL on Friday morning.
And somewhere is Makar: frenetic cheering in Denver after the winning goal over Nashville.
Denver Post via Getty Images
It was 2:1 (1:1, 0:0, 0:0) after the sudden death in overtime for Colorado – and the arena in Denver literally shook when Cale Makar put the puck into the right corner after eleven and a half minutes in overtime slurped. There was also Nico Sturm from Augsburg on the ice, who switched from the Minnesota Wild to the foot of the Rocky Mountains during the season – combined with title hopes. And the Avalanche underlined their ambitions with the two home wins, two more successes are still missing to win the series.
Colorado only took the lead after five and a half minutes through Nathan MacKinnon in the first period, and the Predators equalized ten minutes later. Sturm stood on the ice for almost ten minutes and fired a shot at the opposing goal himself.
The Avalanche had dominated the opening game 7-2. The series now continues in Nashville, where the next two games in the series will be best-of-seven.
Raffl puts the lid on for Dallas
With a 5-1 (2-0, 3-1, 0-0) home win against the Washington Capitals, the Florida Panthers equalized their series to 1-1 after wins. The New York Rangers did the same, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 (1-1, 2-1, 2-0) at home. Russia’s left wing Artemi Panarin was one of the Broadway Blueshirts’ top performers with one goal and two assists.
The Dallas Stars also clinched their first win of the playoffs with a 2-0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0) win over the Calgary Flames. Villach’s Marco Raffl put the lid on with an empty netter in the final sequence of the game. Goalie Jake Oettinger made his first postseason shutout in his second playoff game with 29 saves.
