Washington – Andrei Svechnikov scored the go-ahead goal with just under two minutes left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 5 on Thursday night, winning the second-round series and advancing to the Eastern Conference final for a second time in three years.
Captain Jordan Staal got his first goal of the playoffs, and Frederik Andersen stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced, including several on Alex Ovechkin.
After a give and go with defenseman Sean Walker, Svechnikov’s shot got through Logan Thompson from a bad angle with 1:59 remaining, and that was the difference in a game that was back and forth.
Seth Jarvis sealed it with an empty-net goal with 26.1 seconds remaining.
The Hurricanes improved to 10-5 in potential close-out games in seven trips to the postseason with coach Rod Brind’Amour. They will face either Florida in a rematch of the 2023 East final or Toronto in a reminder of 2002, and the Panthers are up 3-2 with the chance to eliminate the Maple Leafs as soon as Friday night.
Carolina is 35-7-2 through 82 games and then two rounds when scoring first.
Despite an unassisted goal by Anthony Beauvillier and some important saves among the 18 from Thompson, the Capitals saw their season end after finishing atop the conference and the Metropolitan Division and beating Montreal in the first round to win a playoff series for the first time since their Stanley Cup run in 2018. Washington started strong, got a few quality scoring chances but could not get through tight-checking defense to prolong the series.
After giving up the back-breaker to Svechnikov, Thompson was pulled for an extra attacker and the Capitals were unable to equalize and let Jarvis get to the loose puck for the empty-netter.
Hiller will return as Kings coach
Jim Hiller will return next season as the Los Angeles Kings’ head coach, new general manager Ken Holland says.
Holland praised Hiller and looked ahead to their new partnership Thursday during the Hall of Fame hockey executive’s introductory news conference at the Kings’ training complex. Holland is returning to the NHL after a one-year absence, taking over as the replacement for Rob Blake.
The 69-year-old former GM of the Detroit Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers immediately made it clear he isn’t in Los Angeles to blow up a team that has made four straight playoff appearances, only to lose to the Oilers in the first round every spring. Holland won’t make an immediate change behind the Kings’ bench – or even in the front office, where he plans to retain the assistant GMs and hockey executives who worked for Blake.
“Jim is going to be the coach,” Holland said. “Jim Hiller did a fabulous job in leading the team to 105 points. They were good defensively. They were good on special teams. The team played hard. I thought three weeks ago that this was a team that had the potential, the ability to go on a long playoff run. He’ll be a better coach next year for the experience that he went through this year.”
Holland and Hiller spent two hours in discussion Wednesday, the GM said. Hiller, who replaced the fired Todd McLellan in February 2024, was an assistant coach to Mike Babcock in Detroit a decade ago while Holland was the Wings’ general manager.
The Kings tied the franchise records for victories (48) and points this season under Hiller, only to lose four straight playoff games to Edmonton after going up 2-0. Los Angeles is a consistent playoff team with star power and solid depth, but Holland knows his job is to get the Kings off this franchise plateau.
“I’m hoping to add something to it, maybe a little different idea,” Holland said. “I’m looking forward to getting going. … I understand that this is a marketplace that’s really competitive. You talk about all the competition for the entertainment dollar, so it’s important that you win and you compete. Got to find a way to make the team a little bit different, a little bit better. I think the experiences they’ve been through here will benefit us down the road.”
Blake voluntarily left the team less than two weeks ago, according to president Luc Robitaille. Holland called the Kings “a legitimate Stanley Cup contender” this season, and he praised Blake for his rebuilding job.
The Kings’ search quickly zeroed in on Holland, who spent the past year working in the NHL’s hockey operations division after he left the Oilers by mutual consent. Robitaille said the Kings are “very fortunate” to hire Holland.
“He knows the path of what it takes to get to the championship,” Robitaille said. “That’s a hard thing to do, and that’s a hard thing to learn. His experience, what he’s done over the course of his career, is very important for this franchise to get to that next level.”
Holland won one Stanley Cup as an assistant GM in Detroit and three more during his 22 years as the Wings’ general manager. In 2019 he moved on to Edmonton, which made the playoffs in all five years of his tenure and even advanced to Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final before falling to Florida.
Holland said he wasn’t sure whether he would return to a front office after he left Edmonton, but he’s ready. He spent the winter watching games every night at home in British Columbia when he wasn’t working alongside NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell.
“I’m excited to be back in the saddle,” Holland said. “I’ve got a lot of energy. I had an opportunity this past winter to get my batteries re-juiced.”
Holland called Los Angeles “one of the great sports cities in all the world,” and he is already getting to know the breadth of the city in a way he never did as a visitor: He spent the past two nights in a hotel in Manhattan Beach, the beautiful seaside enclave where most of the Kings’ players and executives live.
“My wife is excited, and my grandkids are really excited,” Holland said. “Let me tell you, they’re looking forward to coming to LA, watching some Kings games and going to Disneyland.”
Oilers rely on defense, goaltending
The Oilers have been the team that didn’t seem bothered by giving up four goals because they were more than capable of scoring at least five.
And, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl anchoring the team, Edmonton can still win shootouts.
But winning a Stanley Cup has been elusive because an uncertain defense and shaky goaltending has largely been the Oilers’ undoing. That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore as they prepare to face Dallas or Winnipeg in the Western Conference final.
The Oilers wrapped up their second-round NHL playoff series by shutting out the Golden Knights over the final six periods of regulation and 7:14 of overtime to win in five games. Vegas, which finished fifth in the regular season with 3.34 goals per game, had trouble generating any kind of offense in those last two games.
The Golden Knights had just a combined 15 high-danger chances in those games, according to Natural Stat Trick, and 37 scoring chances overall.
“I think it was our commitment to not giving up odd-man rushes,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “Vegas is a very good team when it comes to odd-man rushes and capitalizing off of defensive turnovers. We were very conscious of keeping the five guys between our net and the puck and getting above their good-skating defensemen.
“So I think we had a much more conscious effort to get pucks deep and kind of play a simple game and build off that.”
That defense made life considerably easier for beleaguered goalie Stuart Skinner, who was benched just two games into the playoffs after allowing 11 goals in the first two games of the opening series against Los Angeles.
Journeyman Calvin Pickard entered the crease and helped the Oilers roll off six consecutive victories to eliminate the Kings and take early control against the Golden Knights. But Pickard was injured in Game 2 of the Vegas series, and Skinner returned to the net.
His struggles continued in Game 3, allowing four goals to go with an .833 save percentage, and the Golden Knights won their only game – on a Reilly Smith goal with .4 seconds left.
Just throwing the puck on net against a struggling goaltender seemed like a recipe for Vegas to pull out the series victory. Except the Golden Knights didn’t get many such chances, their entries into the offensive zone disrupted and their space to operate once there negated.
“I think the last two nights we defended pretty well in front of (Skinner),” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Was it perfect? No. Were there some chances? Definitely. He came up big the last two nights.”
Or, as McDavid put it about Skinner, “Hopefully, it shuts a lot of people up talking about him.”
Skinner or Pickard, if he’s back, will be tested in the next series and will go against a team with an elite goalie, be it Jake Oettinger of the Stars or Vezina Trophy favorite Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets.
Maybe these back-to-back performances will serve Skinner well.
“Being able to come back in no matter what the scenario was and being able to have the resiliency in me is something I can be proud of,” Skinner said. “So much of it has to do with how the guys are playing in front of me. The way they’ve played ever since I’ve come back in is impressive.”
Not just for Skinner, but for the entire Oilers team, beating Vegas had the added benefit of revenge in what is becoming one of the Western Conference’s top rivalries.
The Golden Knights kept the Oilers from getting out of the second round two years ago, and it was Vegas that wound up lifting the Stanley Cup. The Oilers made it to the final last year only to lose in seven games to Florida, but they didn’t have to get past the Golden Knights.
This time, Edmonton did and in commanding fashion.
“There’s probably a lot of people that thought it was going to go longer than five (games) and probably not a lot of people that thought we would win,” McDavid said. “It’s nice to keep on rolling, to keep on proving people wrong. We’ve got a lot of belief in this room. It’s fun to be part of.”
Canada beats Austria 5-1 at hockey worlds
Stockholm – Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals to lead Canada to a 5-1 victory over Austria at the ice hockey world championship on Thursday.
The Colorado Avalanche center also had an assist to help move Canada atop Group A with Sweden. Both teams have 4-0 records and 12 points.
Travis Konecny and Will Cuylle scored and added an assist each for Canada, Sidney Crosby also scored and defenseman Brandon Montour had three assists. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 15 shots in net.
With Canada 1-0 down, MacKinnon took care of the comeback in the middle period. He started the rally 1:59 into the frame, scoring from the top of the left circle just eight seconds into a power play.
MacKinnon one-timed a slap shot to put Canada 2-1 ahead with 6:50 remaining when the referee was signaling a penalty and Canada pulled Fleury for the extra attacker.
“He’s a really good player, competitor, really good habits off the ice and on the ice as well,” Cuylle said about linemate MacKinnon. “Just trying to learn what he does and see if I can take a little bit of something from him. I liked the way we bounced back in the second.”
Red Wings forward Marco Kasper was scoreless with one shot and minus-1 in 17:43 of ice time for Austria.
In Herning, defending champion Czech Republic cruised past newcomer Hungary 6-1 to take the Group B lead with 11 points.
David Pastrnak led the Czechs with two goals and an assist. Jakub Flek, Petr Kodytek, Ondrej Beranek and Lukas Sedlak also scored.
Earlier in Herning, Sven Andrighetto scored four goals to lift Switzerland to a 5-1 victory over Germany.
Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider had one shot in 23:34 of ice time for Germany.
Following problems with the quality of the ice in Herning, organizers extended the time for breaks between the periods from 15 to 17 minutes.
On Tuesday, play had to be suspended in the opening period of a game between Germany and Norway and again in the middle period due to a hole in the ice.
Second round playoff scheduleEastern ConferenceCapitals vs. Hurricanes
(Carolina wins 4-1)
▶ Game 1: Carolina 2-1 (OT)
▶ Game 2: Washington 3-1
▶ Game 3: Carolina 4-0
▶ Game 4: Carolina 5-2
▶ Game 5: Carolina 3-1
Maple Leafs vs. Panthers
(Florida leads 3-2)
▶ Game 1: Toronto 5-4
▶ Game 2: Toronto 4-3
▶ Game 3: Florida 5-4
▶ Game 4: Florida 2-0
▶ Game 5: Florida 6-1
▶ Game 6: Friday at Florida, 8
▶ Game 7: x-Sunday at Toronto, TBA
Western ConferenceJets vs. Stars
(Dallas leads 3-1)
▶ Game 1: Dallas 3-2
▶ Game 2: Winnipeg 4-0
▶ Game 3: Dallas 5-2
▶ Game 4: Dallas 3-1
▶ Game 5: Thursday at Winnipeg, 9:30
▶ Game 6: x-Saturday at Dallas, TBA
▶ Game 7: x-Monday at Winnipeg, TBA
Golden Knights vs. Oilers
(Edmonton wins 4-1)
▶ Game 1: Edmonton 4-2
▶ Game 2: Edmonton 5-4 (OT)
▶ Game 3: Vegas 4-3
▶ Game 4: Edmonton 3-0
▶ Game 5: Edmonton 1-0 (OT)
x-If necessary
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.