NHL playoffs highlights: Golden Knights tie series, Senators stay alive with OT wins
Ivan Barbashev chipped in a rebound at the 17:26 mark of overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series Saturday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Reilly Smith set up the game winner, picking up a loose puck after Jake Middleton whiffed trying to clear the puck from his own zone. Smith then fired the puck toward the net where Barbashev put in the rebound of a Nicolas Roy rebound try for the first playoff overtime winner of his career.
The series is now tied 2-2 with Game 5 set for Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Tomas Hertl and Roy joined Barbashev with a goal and an assist. Defenseman Shea Theodore also scored for Vegas while Adin Hill made 29 saves.
Marcus Foligno scored for the third consecutive game and Marco Rossi and Jared Spurgeon also scored for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson finished with 42 saves.
Senators stay alive with OT win
Jake Sanderson scored at 17:42 of overtime for the Ottawa Senators, who avoided elimination with a 4-3 win in Game 4 of their first-round series against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Fresh off the bench, Sanderson kept the puck in at the left point and fired a wrist shot that beat Anthony Stolarz on the far side.
Sanderson also had an assist, and Linus Ullmark made 31 saves for the Senators, who trail the series 3-1.
John Tavares, Matthew Knies and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Maple Leafs. Stolarz made 17 saves.
David Perron put Ottawa ahead 3-2 at 7:32 of the third period. Adam Gaudette collected a rebound in the left circle and fed it to Artem Zub, who sent it to Perron on the doorstep for the tap-in.
Ekman-Larsson tied it 3-3 at 14:31. William Nylander held the puck in the left circle before spotting Ekman-Larsson uncovered in the right circle, where the defenseman snapped it under Ullmark's left arm.
Tim Stutzle scored on the power play to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 9:03 of the first period, taking a feed from Sanderson in the right circle for a one-timer that beat Stolarz high glove side.
Pinto doubled the Senators' advantage with a short-handed tally at 14:11. Pinto caught up to a loose puck just inside the Toronto blue line and broke in for a wrist shot on Stolarz, who thought he had it, but the puck slipped through the five-hole to make it 2-0.
Tavares cut the deficit to 2-1 at 19:05. Nylander took a pass from Chris Tanev at the point and fired it toward the net, where Tavares, on the doorstep, tipped it blocker side past Ullmark.
Knies converted on a delayed penalty to pull the Maple Leafs even at 10:12 of the second period. Mitch Marner deflected a puck out of the Toronto zone and Knies collected it for a breakaway, getting around Zub and roofing a wrist shot into the top left corner.
Gabriel Landeskog scores, Avalanche rock Stars
Gabriel Landeskog scored his first goal in nearly three years and added an assist and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 4-0 in Denver on Saturday night to even their playoff series.
Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 23 shots in Game 4 for his first career playoff shutout.
Nathan MacKinnon, Logan O'Connor and Samuel Girard also scored and Brock Nelson had two assists for Colorado, which bounced back from two overtime losses to Dallas in the Western Conference best-of-seven, opening-round series.
Jake Oettinger turned away 31 shots through two periods but was replaced by Casey DeSmith to begin the third. DeSmith made 13 saves for the Stars.
Game 5 is Monday night in Dallas.
Landeskog missed 1,032 days with a right knee injury that required multiple surgeries, and he returned to the ice in Wednesday's Game 3. It was his first NHL game since June 26, 2022, and Saturday night he scored his first goal in 1,041 days.
Nelson carried the puck down the left boards and slid a pass to the slot to Landeskog, who wristed a shot over Oettinger's left shoulder at 13:10 of the second period. His teammates swarmed him and the home crowd became raucous in celebration.
It was his first goal since Game 3 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final and was part of a dominant 20 minutes by Colorado, which outshot the Stars 22-5 in the second period.
The Avalanche continued to carry the play in the third period, holding a 14-7 advantage in shots, and Girard scored his first goal of the playoffs at 10:46 of the third period to seal it.
Colorado entered Saturday night 2-for-13 on the power play in the series but scored twice on special teams in the first period. The first came short-handed when O'Connor stole the puck from Thomas Harley at the Avalanche blueline, skated into the Dallas zone and beat Oettinger with a high shot at 12:39.
The Avalanche made it 2-0 at 19:36 of the first when MacKinnon's one-timer snuck between Oettinger and the left post just seconds before a penalty to Mason Marchment expired.