Nashville’s Nick Cousins celebrates with teammates after scoring the tying goal in the third period Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Nashville won in double overtime, 4-3. Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Luke Kunin scored his second goal at 16:10 of the second overtime and the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Sunday to tie the first-round series 2-2.

Kunin broke his stick and went to the bench for another. He then skated into the offensive zone and beat Alex Nedeljkovic from the inside edge of the left circle after a pass from Mikael Granlund.

Juuse Saros made a franchise-record 58 saves to ensure this series will return to Nashville for Game 6. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Carolina.

Ryan Johansen and Nick Cousins also scored for the Predators, and Mattias Ekholm and Mikael Granlund each had two assists.

This was the first time both teams had gone to multiple overtimes in back-to-back games in a series. Nashville improved to 5-3 by winning in double overtime for the second straight game, while Carolina dropped to 1-7 overall, with one loss while still the Hartford Whalers.

Brock McGinn had his first two-goal game in the postseason, and Vincent Trocheck also scored for Carolina. Jordan Martinook added two assists.

Advertisement

AVALANCHE 5, BLUES 2: Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves and Gabriel Landeskog scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as Colorado won in St. Louis to complete a four-game sweep of the West Division series.

Brandon Saad, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin also scored for Colorado, which recorded its first series sweep since beating Vancouver in the 2001 Western Conference quarterfinals.

The Avalanche outscored the Blues 20-7 and trailed for only 7:12 over the four games.

JETS 5, OILERS 4: Nikolaj Ehlers scored his second goal of the game 9:13 into overtime, completing a massive rally for Winnipeg, which erased a three-goal deficit in the third period to beat visiting Edmonton and take a 3-0 lead in their opening-round playoff series.

Mathieu Perreault, Blake Wheeler and Josh Morrissey scored in a stretch of 3:03 of the third to tie it and force overtime.

The Jets can sweep the series Monday night in Edmonton.

Advertisement

Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist for Edmonton, Zack Kassian and Jujhar Khaira also scored and Connor McDavid had three assists in a game played in front of no fans at Bell MTS Place, where the Oilers went 4-1 in the regular season.

Connor Hellebuyck made 44 saves for the Jets. Mike Smith stopped 32 shots for the Oilers.

NOTES

AVALANCHE: Colorado forward Nazem Kadri is appealing his eight-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis defenseman Justin Faulk.

The NHL Players’ Association filed the appeal Sunday night on Kadri’s behalf. The first appeal goes to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and Kadri could then take his case to a neutral arbitrator if he so chooses.

Kadri was suspended indefinitely after injuring Faulk in Game 2 of the Avalanche-Blues first-round series, pending a video hearing with the league’s department of player safety. That department handed down an eight-game suspension Friday night. Kadri already has missed two games and would have to sit out the first six games in the second round if the suspension isn’t reduced.

It’s Kadri’s third playoff suspension over the past six postseasons. He was suspended for the remainder of the first round in 2019 for cross-checking, which turned out to be five games, and was suspended three games for boarding in 2018.

 

Comments are no longer available on this story