NHL playoffs Round 2 live updates: News, matchups, predictions (2024)

Filip Chytil's two goals catapulted the New York Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6 on Saturday to force a Game 7 Monday. Chytil has scored four goals in the playoffs after posting 22 points in 67 games during the regular season.

Second-round matchups

Eastern Conference

• Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Tampa wins series 4-0)
• Carolina Hurricanes vs. New York Rangers (Series tied, 3-3)

Western Conference

• Colorado Avalanche vs. St. Louis Blues (Colorado wins 4-2)
• Calgary Flames vs. Edmonton Oilers (Edmonton wins series 4-1)

Monday's schedule

Rangers vs. Hurricanes picks, odds: Expert predictions for Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 7

All times ET

• 8:00 p.m.: Rangers at Hurricanes

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(Photo: Jared Silber / NHLI via Getty Images

The Western Conference final is a battle of fast, faster and fastest — ever.

Between Avalanche superstars Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon and electrifying Oilers captain Connor McDavid, there won’t be a lack of speed in this series.

McDavid is on another level, though.

“He’s the best player in the world,” MacKinnon said earlier this season.

The Athletic enlisted the help of five Hockey Hall of Fame players — five of the fastest and smoothest striders to ever lace them up — to dish on what makes No. 97’s skating a cut above.

(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)

Nathan MacKinnon made sure to enjoy Colorado’s win over St. Louis the night of Game 6, but he didn’t hesitate to acknowledge the team’s next challenge: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers.

“It’s got to be a full-team effort to shut those guys down,” he said. “But we’re confident. We feel if we play our best, we can get it done against anybody.”

The Western Conference final gets underway Tuesday in Denver. The hockey world is anticipating brilliant goals, high-octane offense from both sides and, regardless of the result, some of the NHL’s best young players getting a chance to play for the Stanley Cup.

(Photo: Perry Nelson / USA Today)

The Hurricanes were buzzing about Saturday night in Raleighwood two weeks ago before Round 1, Game 7 against the Bruins. Coach Rod Brind’Amour said at the time it was “a different feeling” than the team would have had in the past heading into a do-or-die game. “This time around, I felt like it was our time,” he said.

They went on to win the game 3-2, with unlikely hero Max Domi scoring two, and you might have thought that would open the floodgates — that the Canes were ready to start plowing through postseason opponents the way they have in recent regular seasons.

If so, you were wrong.

Round 2 against the Rangers has been different — closer games, tougher bounces, less room for error against Hart finalist Igor Shesterkin — but the results have been exactly the same, with the Canes winning the first two at home, dropping the next two on the road and ultimately landing in another Game 7.

There are plenty of questions ahead of this one. Two big ones stand out.

(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)

It would be enough of an advantage for the Rangers if Igor Shesterkin, the goalie who brought them to the playoffs, were simply outplaying his opposite number in the Hurricanes net.

But Game 6 was perhaps a turning point in this series. Shesterkin was his usual stellar self, making 37 saves while contributing a couple of secondary assists and a blatant interference minor in the Rangers’ 5-2 win Saturday. Antti Raanta spent the second half of the game at the end of the Carolina bench after being pulled. Raanta probably lasted one Rangers goal too long, having given up a couple of very stoppable shots in the first period to put the Canes in a deep hole.

To paraphrase Mark Wahlberg: Shesterkin is the guy who does his job. Raanta must be the other guy.

(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)

Nathan MacKinnon had only known the losing end of the second round.

Last year, he fired a slapper on Vegas’ net as the clock expired in Game 6, as if shooting hard enough could account for the three goals needed to tie the game. The postseason before, he stared blankly from the bench as Dallas’ players celebrated their Game 7 overtime win. And in 2019, he walked through the handshake line, stopping to congratulate goalie Martin Jones on handing Colorado a one-goal loss in Game 7.

The Avalanche star didn’t want any of that to happen again, especially knowing the talent on Colorado’s roster. So he did all he could to ensure an Avalanche victory in Game 5, completing a hat trick with an all-time, coast-to-coast goal Wednesday. But it wasn’t enough, as St. Louis scored a score-tying goal in the final minute and won in overtime.

“Hopefully everything happens for a reason,” he said after that game. “We’ve got to go get this done.”

(Photo: Jeff Curry / USA Today)

NEW YORK — Prior to the start of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series, it was generally assumed the Rangers’ biggest, and perhaps only, edge over the Hurricanes was in goal. That’s how New York made it to the playoffs in the first place, as Igor Shesterkin’s Vezina-caliber play was essentially the only reason the Rangers were able to overcome what was a middling five-on-five game throughout the regular season.

Through five head-to-head playoff games, though, it hadn’t played out that way. Shesterkin managed a 1.61 goals-against average and .949 save percentage — stellar numbers, to be sure — but Antti Raanta, called into duty because of the injury to Frederik Andersen, was holding up just fine with a nearly identical 1.60 goals-against average and .937 save percentage.

But then came Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, a 5-2 Rangers win in Game 6. Shesterkin still looked like his same old self, finishing with 37 saves, including a few of the spectacular variety, while Raanta ended up parked on the far end of the visitors bench just a few minutes into the second period after surrendering three goals on 13 shots. It set up a decisive Game 7 at PNC Arena on Monday in which the Hurricanes, now 0-6 on the road in the playoffs, will try to advance at home, where they are 7-0.

(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)

Filip Chytil gets a lot of credit for his two-goal game. But the star of this one was Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers netminder turned aside 37 of the 39 shots he faced and, according to Natural Stat Trick, saved 2.92 more goals than expected in all situations against 47 unblocked shots from the Hurricanes.

Though the Rangers finished the first period strong, Carolina pressured the rest of the way. At five-on-five, the Hurricanes generated the majority of the shots and won the quality battle with 65 percent of the expected goals share in the second, then 88.9 percent in the third. So even though New York mustered only 11.1 percent (!) of the expected goals share, it had the goaltending to keep the team in the game in the final period.

Oh, and Shesterkin also tallied two assists and took a penalty. Just an eventful game for the goalie all around.

(Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today)

Not many people know about Tyler Motte. But when he scored his first goal as a Ranger, a backhand flip into an empty net to seal Game 3 of the team’s second-round series against the Hurricanes, it was a reminder that the 27-year-old who plays bigger than his generously listed 5-foot-10 frame has quietly slipped into a very important role for the Rangers in this postseason, even as he doesn’t get the big minutes or big moments.

Carolina’s perfect home record in the playoffs remained intact with a Game 5 win against the New York Rangers. The Hurricanes’ winless road record in the playoffs will again be put to the test in Game 6 Saturday in Madison Square Garden.

Will we see a Game 7 or will Carolina book a place in the conference finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning? The Lightning have been waiting for an opponent since sweeping the Florida Panthers.

(Photo: James Guillory / USA Today)

The Johnny Gaudreau watch started minutes after the Calgary Flames were eliminated in five games by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the NHL playoffs Thursday night. As a series, it was chaos in motion — five distinct mini-dramas, each with its own individual plot. It took 31 years for the Battle of Alberta to resume hostilities and it didn’t disappoint, if you look at it simply through the prism of pure entertainment.

(Photo: Sergei Belski / USA Today)

More than a decade and one uniform change later, Darren Helm tallied a series-winning goal once again, this time sending the Avalanche to the Western Conference finals with a 3-2 win against the Blues. The goal came on May 27, 2022: 13 years to the day after his overtime winner with the Red Wings.

“What a day for you,” teammate Josh Manson said sitting next to him in their postgame news conference.

“My mom’s birthday is tomorrow, too,” Helm responded. “Happy birthday, Mom!”

He gave her quite a present.

(Photo: Jeff Curry / USA Today)

When the Lightning closed out their sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers, it was fitting which group was on the ice in the final minutes:

The penalty kill.

To win the series, they needed one more stop. So the Cup champs sent out their best group, with Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli, Ryan McDonagh and Erik Cernak. For one minute, it was a six-on-four, as the Panthers pulled Sergei Bobrovsky.

Cirelli closed off a passing lane, diving to make a clear. Andrei Vasilevskiy made three saves. And when a Gustav Forsling point shot snuck through traffic, the Panthers’ top two players, Alexsander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, were kept from the rebound. Mikhail Sergachev dove into the net to provide another wall, with Cirelli clearing the puck and Ondrej Palat sealing the game with an empty-netter.

(Photo: Kim Klement / USA Today)

You can shut down some of the most skilled players in the NHL, but if you have the puck as little as the Blues did in the series, you can’t expect to move on to the next round unless you’re capitalizing on your chances and limiting mistakes.

If you want to put it bluntly, the Blues had one great performance in Game 2, and if not for the miracle in Game 5, there wouldn’t have been a Game 6 on Friday. And even with an energized crowd of 18,086 at Enterprise Center on Friday, the Blues still went 0-3 on home ice in the series.

(Photo: Jeff Curry / USA Today)

When you win a series with a goal in the last six seconds of regulation, you are The Guy. For a guy like Darren Helm — 35 years old, memorable as a Red Wing but in his first season as a depth player in Colorado — the call is even easier. Helm had gone eight minutes without a shift, from the 13-minute mark to the five-minute mark, and then Jared Bednar put him out there at the end of the game. Was Bednar looking for a babysitter ahead of overtime? Did he have a premonition? Was he watching back in 2009, when Helm ended the Western Conference final before he’d scored a single regular-season goal? Any of those reasons would’ve been acceptable.

The payoff was as good as it gets, and it makes for narrative gold. It’s hard to imagine how tight things would’ve gotten for Colorado had this series gone to Game 7. All that margin for error the Avs had a few days back — sure, they were trying to avoid a fourth straight second-round flop, but they had a 3-1 lead — would’ve turned to smoke. And for as great as Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and the rest of the Avs’ big guns have been (and are, and will be), it was Helm who helped carry them into a new space.

(Photo: Andy Cross / Getty Images)

Eastern conference final on ESPN, west on TNT. ESPN got choice this season with cup final on ESPN.

Next year turner gets to pick.

FINAL: The Avalanche win 3-2 against the Blues. They take Game 6 and win the series, advancing to the Western Conference Finals against the Oilers.

The heroes? J.T. Compher, Darren Helm, Josh Manson. Just like everyone predicted.