RALEIGH
Youth Sebastian Aho Jersey , N.C. (AP) The Carolina Hurricanes haven’t had much to celebrate at their arena in recent years, at least when it comes to
the playoffs. At the end of another listless season, they kept the Tampa Bay
Lightning from partying there.Elias Lindholm scored 49 seconds into overtime,
and the Hurricanes prevented Tampa Bay from clinching the top spot in the
Eastern Conference by beating the Lightning 3-2 on Saturday night.Justin
Williams had a goal and an assist, Jordan Staal scored a deflected goal and Phil
Di Giuseppe had two assists for the Hurricanes. They had lost three straight and
four of five down the stretch during their ninth straight season without making
the playoffs – tied for the third-longest such drought in NHL history.”Listen,
it’s tough for me to put on a smile for a couple seconds, and then you realize
where you are,” Williams said. ”And then instantly turns into a frown.”Ondrej
Palat scored the tying goal with 8:49 left and Ryan Callahan also scored for
Tampa Bay. But with star Steven Stamkos out for a third straight game with an
upper-body injury, the Lightning earned one point for going to OT but
relinquished control of the Atlantic Division race to Boston.The Bruins, who
beat Ottawa 5-2 on Saturday night, will win the division and claim the top spot
in the East if they beat Florida on Sunday night.”You never want to leave things
into the hands of another team, but there’s still a chance for us to be the
first seed,” Tampa Bay center Alex Killorn said. ”We’ll wait and see.”The
winning goal came after Teuvo Teravainen charged between the circles and looked
left to Lindholm, who one-timed it past Louis Domingue.That came after J.T.
Miller set up Tampa Bay’s tying goal when he found Palat with a slick pass and
the defenseman one-timed it by Ward to make it 2-2.Cam Ward made 32 saves
against the NHL’s highest-scoring offense. The Lightning average a league-best
3.56 goals and in winning the first two games of the season series had scored
five goals in each.”Obviously, they’re top in the East for a reason, and pretty
much can be a threat every time they’re out there,” Ward said. ”We came in
tonight trying to finish the right way
Authentic Teuvo Teravainen Jersey , and I thought the effort was there all night. They’re going to get their looks and get their chances but … if I made
the save, the guys are right there to help me out.”Domingue stopped 39 shots for
Tampa Bay, which had won two straight and three of four.”I like the way that
we’ve played the past couple of games,” Killorn said. ”Tonight may not have been
as great as the other two, but it’s about putting a full game together and I
think guys are excited for playoffs. We’ve been in the playoffs, clinched, for a
while now. We’re kind of tired of waiting and we want to get started.”NOTES:
Staal won two awards following a vote of the local chapter of the Professional
Hockey Writers Association, earning the Steve Chiasson Award for determination
and dedication to the sport and the Josef Vasicek Award for cooperation with the
media. … The group also selected RW Sebastian Aho as team MVP.UP NEXTLightning:
Will watch the Florida-Boston game while awaiting the start of their first-round
series.Hurricanes: Preseason camp starts in September.— EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) —
Juuse Saros and the Nashville Predators found a way to shut down Connor McDavid
and the Edmonton Oilers.Saros made 31 saves in the shutout and the Predators ran
their winning streak to five games with a 3-0 victory over the Oilers on
Saturday night.“We knew before the game they had lots of talent so we had to be
solid in the defensive zone,” said Saros, who is unbeaten in four game this
season and got the call with Pekke Rinne out with an injury. “I think we were
that today and our penalty kill was really great, too.”P.K. Subban, Viktor
Arvidsson and Roman Josi scored for the Predators, who are a perfect 4-0-0 on
the road and have won seven of eight games this season. Mattias Ekholm had a
pair of assists.“People talk about our ability to jump in the rush and generate
offence, but we take pride in trying to make it as easy as we can on our
goaltenders,” Subban said. “It’s tough to play against us when we’re moving our
feet getting back to pucks.”The Oilers had a three-game winning streak halted.“I
don’t think we were as sharp as the last few games before,” said Oilers forward
Leon Draisaitl. “We were clicking and created a lot more chances than we did
today. We are still a work in progress. We need to create a little more than we
did tonight.”There was no scoring in the first period
Womens Victor Rask Jersey , with Nashville getting seven shots on Oilers starter Cam Talbot and Edmonton putting four on Saros.Nashville broke the
deadlock with 6:46 remaining in the second on a short-handed goal. Subban broke
up ice on a 2-on-1 after an Edmonton giveaway and took the shot himself, scoring
his second of the season.The Predators made it 2-0 about 90 seconds later after
a nice passing play set up Arvidsson, who slipped a wrist shot past Talbot.Josi
put the game away in the final minute with an empty-net goal.Nashville head
coach Peter Laviolette did the entire postgame interview while wearing a full
bull mask, something he had promised his team he would do if the Preds swept
both of their games against Alberta teams over the last couple days.“It was
going to be a tough trip, so we threw it out to the players and they got to
choose the back end of the challenge, so we’re honoring the deal,” he said.“Good
on him to hold up his end of the bet,” Subban chuckled.NOTES: It was the first
of three games between the teams this season, with the Predators coming into the
contest with 12 straight wins over the Oilers. . With defenseman Matt Benning
(undisclosed injury) and forward Ty Rattie (upper body) both getting injured in
their last game, Jason Garrison was reinserted on the blue line, while Alex
Chiasson made his Oilers debut up front. … Predators goalie Pekka Rinne also
suffered an injury in his team’s game on Friday, prompting the call up of
Miroslav Svoboda to serve as Saros’ backup. … Recently retired former Nashville
forward Jordin Tootoo was saluted for his contributions to Indigenous hockey.
Hailing from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Tootoo was the first Inuk player in the
history of the NHL, playing the bulk of his 13 seasons with the Predators.UP
NEXTNashville: Home against San Jose on Tuesday.Edmonton: Host Pittsburgh on
Tuesday.
