TORONTO: Jeff Petry's sharp-angle goal in the third period Wednesday gave the Canadiens a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 3 of their qualifying-round series, moving Montreal ahead two games to one in the best-of-five set at Toronto. Montreal, seeded 12th and last among Eastern Conference postseason participants, pushed the fifth-seeded Penguins into an elimination game Friday.
Petry, who scored in overtime in Game 1, broke a 3-3 tie and scored Montreal's third unanswered goal at 5:33 of the third. He lifted a shot from the bottom of the left circle that went off the mask of goaltender Matt Murray, off the crossbar and in. Shea Weber added a goal and two assists, Paul Byron a goal and an assist, Jonathan Drouin a goal and Ben Chiarot two assists for the Canadiens. Carey Price made 30 saves. Patric Hornqvist, Jason Zucker and Teddy Blueger scored for the Penguins, and Murray made 27 saves.
PANTHERS 3, ISLANDERS 2
Mike Hoffman scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Florida stayed alive in its Eastern Conference qualifying series with a win against New York in Toronto. New York leads the best-of-five series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Friday. Hoffman added an assist and the Panthers also got goals from Erik Haula and Brian Boyle. New York, which got goals from Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Brock Nelson, had beaten Florida six straight times entering the contest.
COYOTES 4, PREDATORS 1
Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves to lead Arizona past Nashville in Game 3 of their best-of-five Western Conference qualifying series in Edmonton. Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist, and Christian Dvorak, Conor Garland and Carl Soderberg also scored for the Coyotes, who grabbed a 2-1 series lead heading into Game 4 on Friday. Viktor Arvidsson scored and Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators.
BLACKHAWKS 4, OILERS 3
Jonathan Toews scored the game-winner with 76 seconds remaining, and Chicago claimed a stunning win over Edmonton to move within a victory of advancing to the Stanley Cup playoffs' round of 16. The Blackhawks, the lowest seed in the Western Conference to reach the qualifying round, lead the Oilers 2-1 in the best-of-five series. Chicago will look to complete the upset on Friday. With overtime looming, Toews got a piece of a Connor Murphy point shot that also deflected off Oilers defender Ethan Bear and past Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen for his second goal of the game and fourth of the series. Chicago goalie Corey Crawford stopped 25 shots to earn the win.
LIGHTNING 3, BRUINS 2
Tyler Johnson's tiebreaking rebound goal with 87 seconds remaining in regulation kept Tampa Bay's round-robin record perfect at the expense of Boston. Johnson, who also had an assist, punched in a rebound off Yanni Gourde's shot from the left circle to lift the Lightning (2-0-0, four points) to the top of the standings in the week-long tourney, which will set the top four seeds in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Alex Killorn notched a goal and an assist, and Brayden Point also scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots. Boston's Charlie McAvoy and Chris Wagner tallied goals, and Tuukka Rask made his first start of the postseason and allowed three markers on 35 shots.
AVALANCHE 4, STARS 0
Pavel Francouz had 27 saves, Andre Burakovsky and Joonas Donskoi each had a goal and an assist, and Colorado beat Dallas in Edmonton. Cale Makar and Vladislav Namestnikov also had goals, and Sam Girard had two assists for Colorado, which has won its first two games of the seeding round of the NHL restart. Anton Khudobin had 36 saves for the Stars. - Reuters