As the first round series in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs moved to underdog home ice, some teams were pushed onto the brink of elimination.
Does that apply as the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils or Edmonton Oilers carry a 2-0 deficit on Friday?
Game 3 will be important. In the Stanley Cup playoff history, teams with a 2-0 series lead won the series in 86% of the time. The team that took a 3-0 series lead took 98% of the time.
Read statistical insights from ESPN studies, a summary of what went down in Thursday’s game, and a game preview with Thursday night’s 3 stars from ArdaÖcal.
Matchup Notes
Washington Capitals of the Montreal Canadiens
Game 3 (WSH Lead 2-0) | 7pm ET | TNT
Oddly, the capital hasn’t been doing well historically after rising 2-0 in the Best Seven series. They are the only team in the NHL with a record of losing in that situation (4-6).
Editor’s Pick
2 Related
Capitals goalkeeper Logan Thompson did not play in the 2023 Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup run. He’s more than making up for that with his play in this series. In Game 2, Thompson stopped all 14 third season shots from the Canadians, keeping the cap lead. Overall, he has an average save rate of 0.951 and a goal of 1.47 for the series.
Conor McDavid or Conor McMichael? The cap winger scored two goals in the victory in Game 2, his first career multi-goal game. McDavid has more multi-goal games in his career, but this postseason has not yet been there.
The Canadiens have three different goal scorers in the series, including first line forwards Cole Kowfield and Nick Suzuki and veteran Christian Dovolak. For Dvorak, his goal in Game 2 was the third in his career.
Thompson was a big story for Cap, but Sam Montenbe was equally essential to the Canadians. He made some impressive saves on his way to a .921 save percentage and 2.49 goals (average) (rates that many other teams would like to see from goaltenders).
Carolina Hurricane of the New Jersey Devils
Game 3 (Car Lead 2-0) | 8pm ET | TBS
The Hurricanes continued their impressive winning streak by winning Game 2 on Tuesday as they rose 2-0 in each of their last five first-round series.
Frederick Andersen made 25 saves in Game 2 and won his 13th playoff victory at Carolina.
News Flash: Seth Jarvis is good. His goal in Game 2 was his 14th career playoff goal. This is to tie Sebastian Aho together with the most postseason goals scored by players under the age of 23 in franchise history.
New Jersey is hoping for good news for the injured player as Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon played in Tuesday’s game. Hughes averaged ice time second and second per game with the team in the regular season (21:09) behind Brett Pess (21:19).
Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom is solid with two losses, with 66 saves with 71 shots (.930 save percentage).
Los Angeles Kings of the Edmonton Oilers
Game 3 (LA Lead 2-0) | 10pm) | TNT
With warning that the Oilers never count, the Kings have history to escape the first round.
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The Kings’ power play continues to drive their success. They have scored power-play goals in seven consecutive games, including the end of the regular season, 5-10 in the series. It helped them to generate six goals in each of the first two games. This is a feat that has not been done since the 2014 San Jose Sharks (who did that against the Kings).
In Game 2, Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopital became the Kings’ first duo since Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey in 1992 (accidentally against the Oilers).
After the 2023 playoff start was uneven, Stuart Skinner was put on the bench. The Oilers hope that something similar will happen here. Skinner was pulled before he gave up five goals with 28 shots in Game 2. He was the third goalkeeper in playoff history for the Oilers, giving up five goals in consecutive playoff games and joined Grant Fuhr (1984, 1985) and Andy Moog (1981, 1983). The Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 1984 and ’85.
The star appeared in Edmonton – Conor McDavid had four points, while Evan Bouchard and Leon Draysithle had three points, but no depth scores. Can Kris Knoblauch clutter his lines a bit towards Game 3?
3 stars in Arda from Thursday night
When Bruce needed him, he delivered: St. Louis avoided going 3-0 against Winnipeg, assisting with a hat-trick and a 7-2 victory.
With his two power-play goals in his victory with the Golden Knights, Kaprizov climbed an impressive list. According to ESPN research, in the first 22 playoff games, only Mario Lemieux and John Drews have power play goals.
With his second game-winning goal, Schmidt became the first Panthers defensive man to score two win goals in one postseason.
Thursday Score
Florida Panthers 2, Tampa Bay Lightning 0
FLA leads 2-0
Defensive man Nate Schmidt scored his second straight game goal, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 19 shots that Lightning scored as the Defensive Cup champions went another path to begin their playoff journey. But the biggest story in the aftermath was Brandon Hagel’s hit against Alexander Barkov, who brought a major five-minute penalty and knocked Barkov out of the game. Complete summary.
play
0:35
Nate Schmidt’s slap shot gives the Panthers an early lead
Nate Schmidt scores on a slap shot, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead vs. The Lightning.
Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Ottawa Senator 2 (OT)
Tor leads 3-0
In the second straight game, the two teams needed extra time to solve the problem. And in the second straight game, the Maple Leafs win and send the Senators on the brink of elimination. Claude Giroux and Matthew Knies traded power play goals in the second, followed by Auston Matthews and Brady Tkachuk in the third. Leafs defensive man Simon Benoit won the game with a SI-I shot from 1:19 to OT from 1:19. summary.
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0:36
Simon Benoit’s OT winner gives Leafs 3-0 series lead
Simon Benoit won the Maple Leafs overtime winner, giving the Senator a 3-0 series lead.
Minnesota Wild 5, Vegas Golden Knights 2
Minimum lead 2-1
Well, this is interesting. The previous postseason was driven by favourites that earned the series lead, so Wild outperformed the much-loved Golden Knight through three games in the series. Kirill Kaprizov added this one goal and gave four this postseason. Wild scored five goals in two straight games and scored 12 overall in the series. summary.
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0:30
Marcus Foligno’s Empty-Netter completes Wild’s Game 3 Wins
Marcus Foligno scored with less than two minutes left, giving the Wild a 5-2 victory over the Golden Knights.
St. Louis Blues 7, Winnipeg Jets 2
WPG leads 2-1
St. Louis doesn’t go quietly at night. Bruce scored three goals in the first period, including the first two of Pavel Buchnevich’s hat tricks, but did not look back. Buchnevich also tallied the assists, with Cam Fowler (one goal, four assists) and Robert Thomas (four assists) joining him to fill the box score. summary.
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0:35
Pavel Buchnevich completes the blues hat trick
Pavel Buchnevich scored the third goal of the game and scored a hat-trick to bring the Blues up 4-1 over the Jets.
