Stanley Cup Playoffs Buzz: Penguins, Predators to rely on backup goalies

Welcome to the Stanley Cup Playoffs Buzz, a daily in-depth look at the 2022 NHL postseason. There are four playoff games scheduled for Saturday, the sixth day of the postseason.

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On Tap

Florida Panthers at Washington Capitals, 1 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, NBCSWA, BSFL
Ilya Samsonov will start in goal for the Capitals, who look to rebound from a 5-1 loss in Game 2 that evened the Eastern Conference First Round on Thursday. Vitek Vanecek was pulled after allowing five goals on 19 shots, including three goals on the first seven, in the first two periods. Samsonov did not allow a goal on 17 shots in relief. In Game 2, the Panthers, who had more wins on the road (24) than the Capitals had at home (19) this season, looked more like the Presidents' Trophy winning team they are, getting a goal an assist each from centers Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaghe. Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, who scored 50 goals during the regular season, has been held to two assists through the first two games.
Colorado Avalanche at Nashville Predators, 4:30 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS, BSSO, ALT
The Predators, thanks to a heroic performance by third-string goalie Connor Ingram, took the Avalanche to overtime in Game 2 on Thursday, but still lost 2-1 and trail 2-0 with Western Conference First Round heading to Bridgestone Arena. Ingram will start Game 3 because No. 1 starter Juuse Saros remains unavailable with a lower-body injury. David Rittich, the No. 2 goalie, was pulled after allowing five goals on 13 shots in a 7-2 loss in Game 1. If Nashville doesn't start scoring, its goalie may not matter; the Predators have scored three goals in the first two games, the same total as Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon so far in the series.
New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins, 7 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS, ATTSN-PT, MSG
Louis Domingue will start Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round, tied 1-1, with Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith each unavailable because of injury. Jarry has yet to play in the series because of a lower-body injury and DeSmith, the Game 1 starter, is out for the remainder of the playoffs after having core muscle surgery on Friday. Domingue was the hero of the Penguins' 4-3 triple-overtime win in Game 1 and has stopped 52 of 57 shots. The Rangers have had six different players score goals and 11 different players register at least a point. Forward Chris Kreider, who scored an NHL career-high 52 goals in the regular season, and center Andrew Copp each has scored two goals.
Calgary Flames at Dallas Stars, 9:30 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS, BSSW
Goals are at a premium in the Western Conference First Round, which moves to American Airlines Center tied 1-1. Each team scored one non-empty net goal in the two games in Calgary. Center Joe Pavelski scored and forward Michael Raffl added an empty-net goal in a 2-0 Stars win in Game 2. Center Elias Lindholm scored in a 1-0 Flames win in Game 1. The goalies have been fantastic, as expected. Jacob Markstrom, who had a NHL-best nine shutouts during the regular season, has stopped 37 of 38 shots for Calgary and Jake Oettinger has stopped 54 of 55 shots for Dallas.

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What We Learned

Depth charge for Maple Leafs
When the Toronto Maple Leafs needed complimentary scoring in Game 3 on Friday, the supporting cast rose to the occasion in a 5-2 win that gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference First Round. This was not a game where the familiar names -- centers Auston Matthews and John Tavares and forwards Mitchell Marner and William Nylander -- carried the offensive load. Instead, that was handled by forward Ilya Mikheyev, who scored two goals, and centers Colin Blackwell and David Kampf each scoring one. With Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper having the last change as the home team in Game 3, he could dictate the matchups and try to smother Toronto's big guns. That left it up to the remainder of the roster to supply secondary scoring, which is exactly what happened. -- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer
Lightning need to mind the gap
Gap control, or lack thereof, has proven costly to Tampa Bay in Games 1 and 3. Toronto has exploited the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion on odd-man rushes and it is costing the Lightning on the scoreboard. In the first period Friday, no one picked up Maple Leafs defenseman Igor Lyubushkin coming out of the penalty box, allowing him to pick up the puck and set up Blackwell for Toronto's second goal. In the third period, Tampa Bay somehow allowed Matthews, a 60-goal scorer during the regular season, to get behind its defense and get two quality chances denied by the brilliance of goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. If the Lightning don't tighten up their defensive coverage in Game 4, they could be looking at another disappointing result. -- Zeisberger
Blips on Hurricanes' penalty kill
The Carolina Hurricanes had the best penalty kill in the NHL during the regular season, at 88 percent. The Boston Bruins' power play was tied for 15th (21.2 percent) and went through an 0-for-39 drought in April. It would seem the Hurricanes might have an insurmountable advantage in that department, yet it was the Bruins crawling their way back into the Eastern Conference First Round on Friday with power-play goals by forwards David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall. Boston's 4-2 win cut Carolina's series lead to 2-1. The message after the game from the Hurricanes was they need to be better on the power play, and they need to stay out of the penalty box as well. -- Amalie Benjamin, staff writer
Sway is the way
The Bruins opted to make a change in goal for Game 3, and it paid off. Coach Bruce Cassidy swapped out veteran Linus Ullmark for rookie Jeremy Swayman, who made 25 saves on 27 shots in his first career NHL postseason start. Boston had planned to use each goalie in the series -- they split the regular-season evenly, with 41 starts apiece -- but after two losses and Ullmark allowing eight goals on 57 shots, it seemed like the right time to change. It was. Swayman got high marks for his composure, coming up especially big on a sequence in the second period just after forward Brad Marchand scored to give the Bruins their first lead in the series.-- Benjamin
Match game a Wild win
Conventional wisdom suggested the St. Louis Blues would dictate the matchups in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Enterprise Center because they had the home-ice advantage of last change. The Minnesota Wild put that to rest 39 seconds into the game when forward Jordan Greenway scored on a 2-on-1 break against the Blues' best defensive line, centered by captain Ryan O'Reilly. When Game 3 was over, the three forwards on the O'Reilly line each were a minus-2 in a 5-1 Wild win that gave Minnesota a 2-1 series lead, and Wild coach Dean Evason seemed vindicated in his assertion he is not afraid to play any of his lines against whatever matchup the opponent wants to dictate. -- Shawn P. Roarke, senior director of editorial
Blues ground to a halt
The Blues have scored three even-strength goals in the first three games of the series, scoring their other four on the power play. It is a surprising lack of production for a dangerous offensive team that had nine different players score at least 20 goals during the regular season. Part of the reason for the struggle is because Minnesota has done a good job of taking away the attacking speed in the neutral zone, according to St. Louis coach Craig Berube. "We've got to do a better job of making some plays on the rush," he said. "It seems like we're a little bit stagnant there. We've been a real good rush team all year and making plays on the rush and scoring goals, but the [defense] is beat up right now. We don't have the best puck movers right now, but we can't look at that as an excuse. We've got to find a way to figure that out, we've got to find a way to do it." -- Roarke
Oilers appear to have taken a step
Center Connor McDavid has scored one goal but the Edmonton Oilers have scored 17 in the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Kings for a 2-1 series lead. It's about as good a bit of news as any Oilers fan could hope for, that Edmonton no longer needs McDavid and center Leon Draisaitl to fill the net in order to win games. In three playoff games, McDavid is certainly contributing with six points (one goal, five assists) and Draisaitl has scored in each game, but the contributions are coming from all over the lineup, including five goals from forward Evander Kane, who had a hat trick in Game 3. This kind of balance is one of the keys for the Oilers if they envision themselves as a Stanley Cup contender. -- Tim Campbell, staff writer
Kings need better puck management
Coach Todd McLellan was brief in his postgame remarks after Game 3 on Friday, declaring that the Kings weren't good at anything in an 8-2 loss to the Oilers. One of the things he probably liked the least was Los Angeles' puck management. Whether it was routine plays on breakouts or making a precise pass to get the attack moving up the ice, the Kings seemed to struggle with every second play, especially once the Oilers took a 2-0 lead 6:07 into the game. It got only worse when defenseman Alexander Edler's turnover at the Kings blue line led to Kane's first of three goals. Los Angeles will have to be much crisper with the puck in Game 4 if they hope to be able to remain competitive in this series. -- Campbell

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About Last Night

Boston Bruins 4, Carolina Hurricanes 2
Swayman made 25 saves and the Bruins cut the Hurricanes' series lead to 2-1 with the home win at TD Garden. Marchand had a goal and two assists, and Pastrnak and center Charlie Coyle each had a goal and an assist for Boston. Center Vincent Trocheck and defenseman Jaccob Slavin each scored for Carolina and rookie Pyotr Kochetkov made 24 saves in his first playoff start.
Toronto Maple Leafs 5, Tampa Bay Lightning 2
Jack Campbell made 32 saves for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who took a 2-1 series lead with the road win at Amalie Arena. Blackwell scored his first career NHL playoff goal and Mikheyev scored twice for the Maple Leafs. Forward Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist, center Ross Colton scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for the Lightning.
Minnesota Wild 5, St. Louis Blues 1
Forward Kirill Kaprizov and center Joel Eriksson Ek each had a goal and an assist, and the Wild rolled on the road at Enterprise Center for a 2-1 series lead. Forwards Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman each had two assists, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves for Minnesota. O'Reilly scored and Ville Husso made 28 saves for the Blues.
Edmonton Oilers 8, Los Angeles Kings 2
Kane scored his first playoff hat trick and center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and forward Zach Hyman each scored twice for the Oilers, who won their second straight to take a 2-1 series lead. Draisaitl also scored and Mike Smith made 44 saves for Edmonton at Crypto.com Arena. Centers Anze Kopitar and Philip Danault each scored for the Kings.