Stanley Cup Playoffs takeaways: Hurricanes 'also fighting the refs'

Following the Carolina Hurricanes Game 3 loss to the Nashville Predators, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour commented on the series officiating. COURTESY: Hurricanes

The Nashville Predators have never been swept in a playoff series, and they won't start now.

With five minutes left in the fifth frame of Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes that threatened to push them to the brink of elimination, Roman Josi and Matt Duchene teamed up to claim the 5-4 double overtime victory to bring the series to 2-1.

It was a pretty spectacular goal, with Josi sending a soaring cross-ice pass to Duchene that was kind of reminiscent of Erik Karlsson's legendary long pass to Mike Hoffman for the Senators back in 2017. The pass perfectly set up Duchene, who accelerated, waited for the incoming poke-check from Alex Nedeljkovic, and flipped the puck over the netminder to get the Predators into this series and keep them a safe distance from the edge of elimination.

Duchene has underperformed in Nashville, struggling to find consistency and not showing enough of the skill we've seen from him in years past. But this goal? This was surely what Predators fans expected when the club landed him in free agency two seasons ago. In fact, the entire core of the Predators stepped up on Friday night: Ryan Ellis and Josi were excellent, as usual, but to see the high-skill forwards like Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Duchene step up with a goal each brought the home team to life.

Hurricanes battling more than just the Predators

While the Predators' core stepped up, they also had a little help...

And no, it wasn't the rowdy Smashville crowd.

“We played out butts off. We played great. We played hard. We're playing a great team. And to me … we're also fighting the refs. That's plain and simple," Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour said after the loss. "You can't tell me, two games in a row, we get seven or eight penalties and they get three when the game is this even? It's not right."

One of the biggest stories of this series has been how well the Hurricanes have executed their strong penalty kill. They successfully killed off seven penalties Wednesday, and were again tasked with a heavy workload Friday night -- including one in double overtime.

At the 11:40 mark of the second OT, Hurricanes defenceman Maxime Lajoie was called for hooking — a call Brind’Amour said post-game was “a knick-knack penalty when there was stuff going on all over.”

The Hurricanes killed that penalty, but the Predators scored the game-winner about a minute after.

“It just flipped the momentum, and they scored on the next shift after because we’re out of rotation. That’s not how it should go,” he said.

Hurricanes find rare weak spot in Saros' game

Going into Friday's game against the Predators, Hurricanes centre Vincent Trocheck had 12 career post-season games to his name, but no post-season goals during that span. That changed with lucky game No. 13, which saw Trocheck fire a perfectly-placed short-side shot that tucked in just above Juuse Saros' right shoulder in the tiniest window of opportunity.

Trocheck's goal was the second such short-side snipe against Saros. Game 1 saw a similar angle exploited by Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal:

In an era of big bodies in net, Saros measures in at less than six feet tall. Naturally, that makes him a little more susceptible to those over-the-shoulder, short-side tries -- something Carolina has no doubt studied. When you're facing a goalie as talented as Saros, who's been excellent all season and has made Carolina work for every point, any little edge or inch you can find can be the difference between winning and losing.

Bruins' power play the difference

Tuukka Rask went into Game 4 against the Washington Capitals tied with Gerry Cheevers for the most post-season wins by a Boston Bruins goaltender in franchise history. Nineteen saves and one win later, the veteran had himself a slice of Bs history.

But while Rask put together another solid game, only letting a single puck past him, he wasn't the star of the show on Friday night -- that honour belonged to the Bruins' power play, which ultimately propelled Boston to a 4-1 victory. The Bruins are now one win away from being the first team to advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Three of Boston’s goals came with the man advantage, making Washington pay for their undisciplined play, with defenceman Charlie McAvoy assisting on all three for a personal-best playoff point total. Compared to Washington’s one-for-seven power-play conversion (Ovechkin had Washington’s lone goal on the night), the special teams disparity was stark in this one.

Washington now has 48 hours to get their game back, or they’re going home.

Bruins lose Miller after dangerous Orlov hit

The Bruins were down a defenceman after losing Kevan Miller to injury Friday night. About seven minutes into the second period, Miller was caught with a high hit from Capitals defenceman Dmitry Orlov. Orlov clearly left his feet, launching himself at Miller and making contact with his head right after Miller passed the puck as he entered the offensive zone. Miller was visibly shaken up on the play and the team announced soon after that he'd been transported to the hospital for further tests.

Officials on the ice issued Orlov a major penalty before reviewing it and revising the call to a double-minor instead. Based on the fact he left his feet and Miller's head was the first point of contact, it seems likely Orlov will be hearing from the player safety department this weekend.

Avalanche must get used to life without Kadri

The Colorado Avalanche were without forward Nazem Kadri on Friday night, and they'd better get used to it -- Kadri was issued a massive, eight-game suspension by the league for his dangerous hit to the head of Blues defenceman Justin Faulk on Wednesday night. The ruling came down late Friday. Knowing he'd be without his depth centreman, head coach Jared Bednar inserted veteran Carl Soderberg into the lineup, who got on the board when he helped set up Brandon Saad's third period goal.

Newfoundland's Newhook nets his first NHL goal

It was a great night for East Coast hockey fans watching the Colorado Avalanche on Friday — and no, it wasn’t because of Nathan MacKinnon for once. It was Newfoundland’s very own Alex Newhook who landed himself on the scoresheet and in the highlight reels with his first career NHL goal to help fuel Colorado's 5-1 Game 3 victory to take the 3-0 series lead over the St. Louis Blues.

Newhook, drafted 16th overall in 2019, appeared in six regular season games this spring after signing with the club fresh off his college hockey season with Boston College. He tallied three assists in that short pre-playoff stint, and now has his first goal in the show.

While Wednesday's win was all about MacKinnon's dominance, he was held off the scoresheet Friday. Instead, Colorado's handful of goals came courtesy of a group of depth scorers in Ryan Graves, Newhook, Tyson Jost, Saad, and J.T. Compher.

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