Pavel Buchnevich netted a hat trick and added an assist for the St. Louis Blues in a 7-2 win against the visiting Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round series on Thursday night.
Cam Fowler had a goal and four assists, Robert Thomas notched four assists and Jordan Binnington made 16 saves for the Blues, who trail 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. St. Louis’ Alexey Toropchenko, Jordan Kyrou and Colton Parayko also scored.
David Gustafsson and Neal Pionk scored for the Jets, who were coming off 5-3 and 2-1 victories in the first two games of the series in Winnipeg.
Connor Hellebuyck, who led the NHL in wins (47) and goals-against average (2.00) during the regular season, stopped just 19 of 25 shots for Winnipeg before he was replaced. Eric Comrie entered and saved two of the three shots he faced.
Maple Leafs 3, Senators 2 (OT)
Simon Benoit scored at 1:19 of overtime to lift visiting Toronto to the Game 3 win against Ottawa and a commanding 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Auston Matthews won a faceoff and sent the puck back to the defenseman, who fired it from the left point through traffic for Toronto’s second straight overtime win — setting up a potential sweep Saturday in Ottawa.
Matthews and Matthew Knies also scored and Mitch Marner had two assists for the Maple Leafs. Anthony Stolarz made 18 saves. Claude Giroux and Brady Tkachuk scored for the Senators and Linus Ullmark stopped 17 of 20 shots.
Panthers 2, Lightning 0
Nate Schmidt’s early goal held up as the winner and Sergei Bobrovsky posted 19 saves as visiting Florida shut down Tampa Bay to claim a 2-0 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series.
Schmidt scored at 4:15 of the first period to become the sixth defenseman in NHL history to score three goals in the first two games of the playoffs. Sam Bennett added an empty-netter for the defending Stanley Cup champions with 3.4 seconds left. Bobrovsky registered his fourth career playoff shutout.
Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 21 shots. The Lightning led the NHL with 292 goals during the regular season, but they have managed just two tallies in this series.
Wild 5, Golden Knights 2
Kirill Kaprizov scored a pair of goals to lead Minnesota to a win over Vegas in Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series in Saint Paul, Minn.
Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi each finished with a goal and an assist for the Wild, who took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Marcus Foligno also scored, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 30 of 32 shots.
Alex Pietrangelo and Reilly Smith scored goals for the Golden Knights. Goaltender Adin Hill gave up four goals on 21 shots through two periods. He was replaced by backup Akira Schmid, who stopped all nine shots he faced.
