Cody Eakin rifled a shot into the top corner to lift the Dallas Stars to an overtime victory, while the Nashville Predators ended their longest-ever game in thrilling fashion with a triple overtime win over the San Jose Sharks. Both series are now all tied up at twos.
Here are three things we learned in the NHL:
Eakin it out
The Dallas Stars regained home-ice advantage against the Blues after Cody Eakin scored his first goal of the post-season and the first playoff overtime goal of his NHL career.
The 24-year-old has been a solid contributor for Dallas while filling in for Tyler Seguin on the top line throughout the post-season, racking up seven assists in nine games prior to Thursday’s victory.
It was a long time coming for Dallas — more from a historical sense — as the Stars haven’t won a playoff overtime game on the road since Brenden Morrow helped beat the Sharks in April of 2008.
The Stars now head back to Dallas for Game 5, which takes place Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET., with the series even at 2-2.
Defensive issues remain
While the Stars had to be thrilled to tie up their series with St. Louis, their overall defensive play still remains a concern.
The Stars were heavily criticized throughout the regular season — based on their finicky play in their own end — and those issues were certainly evident at times in Thursday’s Game 4 victory.
The team allowed multiple breakaways in the opening period of the game, including one to Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko who happened to break wide open despite Dallas having six skaters on the ice. That says a lot.
At that point of the game, the Blues had all of the momentum before they joined in the questionable defensive play with a horrendous turnover that led to Dallas’ first goal of the game.
Use the boards, Joel Edmundson.
Later, Jay Bouwmeester almost gave Radek Faksa his second of the game with a nearly identical turnover.
It was tough to watch at times… for the coaches, anyway.
The play is under review…
After 111:12 of game time, the Predators came out victorious in Game 4 thanks to Mike Fisher’s triple overtime winner to tie the series 2-2.
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Preds Mike Fisher records his first OT winner in the playoffs since April 18, 2004 vs the Maple Leafs.
There was no questioning that Fisher’s long-awaited marker was a good goal. The Sharks, however, did not have such luck with the bounces — or the reviews.
First, a wild scramble off a Joel Ward wraparound attempt had Logan Couture raising his arms as if the game was won. Joonas Donskoi had a chance at it, but after review it was determined that a goal-line stand by Pekka Rinne (and all the other Predators) was enough to keep the puck out.
Minutes later it was Joe Pavelski‘s turn. The Sharks captain threw himself at Rinne while throwing the puck at an open net, then made a diving swipe to push one into the net. First, the officials had to determine whether Pavelski got his stick on the puck in time (he did), but upon further review the goal was waved off for goaltender interference.
The San Jose bench argued that Pavelski was shoved into Rinne by Paul Gaustad, but their appeal fell on deaf ears.
