Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 21: Golden Knights, Canadiens pick up convincing victories
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop action as we witness 16 teams get whittled down to the one that will be crowned as the 2026 Stanley Cup champions. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop on everything that happens in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.
The ever-entertaining rivalry between Atlantic Division foes kick-started the action on Friday night, while a potentially long series continues out on the West Coast.
Hot start helps Canadiens even series with Buffalo
After a disappointing result in the first game of the series, the Montreal Canadiens made sure they wouldn’t let the Buffalo Sabres take control of the series. The visitors started strong, and came away with a 5-1 win in Game 2, evening the Atlantic Division Final at a game apiece.
The Canadiens were sure not to allow the Sabres to obtain any momentum. Just 96 seconds into the contest, a hard forecheck led to Alex Newhook deflecting a shot-pass from Kaide Guhle to put the Habs up 1-0.
The pressure from the visitors persisted, with work from the blue line creating havoc. Less than three minutes after Newhook’s second of the playoffs, Mike Matheson put a shot that made its way through traffic and past Alex Lyon to put Montreal up by two.
The Sabres started to find their footing after falling behind early, but even as they started to create opportunities and seemed close to breaking through, the Habs extended their lead early in period two. A quick transition from Montreal led to Jake Evans making a great feed to Newhook for his second of the night.
However, after a couple of dust-ups, Buffalo finally got on the board late in the period, with Zach Benson notching his third of the playoffs with less than a minute to go.
There was a renewed sense of life in KeyBank Center when the third period began. However, the energy quickly dissipated when Alexandre Carrier absolutely sniped on Lyon less than four minutes into the frame, his first of the postseason, putting the Canadiens back up by three. Captain Nick Suzuki added an empty-net goal to seal the deal.
Newhook was the lone Canadien with multiple points in the win. Jakub Dobes had a much-needed bounce-back game, turning away 27 shots. Lyon made 25 stops on the losing effort.
Both teams struggled on the power play, as Montreal and Buffalo each went 0-for-5 on the man advantage.
Marner’s hat trick powers Golden Knights
It was a pivotal third game in the Pacific Divsion Final, and while the Anaheim Ducks had built momentum, the Vegas Golden Knights used a stellar performance from Mitch Marner to grab a 6-2 win on Friday.
The Golden Knights went right at the Ducks, and took advantage of a couple of early chances. Just over a minute into the contest, and on the team’s first shot of the game, Shea Theodore snuck a shot by Anaheim netminder Lukas Dostal to put the visitors out in front.
It took a little bit for Vegas to get its third shot on goal in the game, over 11 minutes in fact. However, that shot was a shorthanded opportunity for Brayden McNabb that found the back of the net for his first of the playoffs. Then, with just seconds to play in the first, Mitch Marner jammed home a rebound to send the Golden Knights into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.
The disastrous opening frame led Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville to yank Dostal, with Ville Husso coming in relief. However, the switch did little to spark the home side, as Marner scored his second of the game just before the halfway mark of the middle stanza. The former Toronto Maple Leaf completed the hat trick before the end of the frame.
The Ducks tried to show they had life in the third with goals from Beckett Sennecke and Chris Krieder, but an empty-net goal from Bret Howden put the game on ice, giving Vegas a 2-1 lead in the series.