Panthers score 7 goals, outlast Bruins for wild win to force Game 7

Matthew Tkachuk scored twice, Eetu Luostarinen put Florida ahead to stay with 5:38 left in what was a crazed third period, and the Panthers forced a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round series by beating the visiting Boston Bruins 7-5 on Friday night.

Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour, Zac Dalpe and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Reinhart capped it with an empty-netter with 28 seconds left — the seventh and final goal of the third period, four of those goals by Florida.

Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak each scored twice for Boston, which got four assists from Brad Marchand and 26 saves from Linus Ullmark. Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Bruins.

Not even three power-play goals and one short-handed tally was enough to give Boston a win, either.

The game started along the exact sequence that Game 5 in Boston did on Wednesday night: Florida took a 1-0 lead, Boston tied it, Florida took a 2-1 lead, Boston tied it, Florida took a 3-2 lead, Boston tied it.

Evidently, that's when the teams decided a repeat performance was boring.

They combined for four goals in a span of 6:56 — this time, with the Panthers answering the Bruins.

And less than four minutes later, Luostarinen made it 6-5 — the Panthers back on top with 5:38 left, a sellout crowd in Sunrise waiving white towels in unison. Boston pulled Ullmark twice with hopes of netting the equalizer, had good looks at it in the final minute, but Bobrovsky and Florida's defence held on and Reinhart banged a puck off the boards, down the ice and into the net to seal the win.

Avalanche stave off elimination in Game 6

Mikko Rantanen scored his seventh goal of the playoffs, Artturi Lehkonen scored twice, including an empty-net goal in the closing seconds, and the visiting Colorado Avalanche beat the Seattle Kraken 4-1 on Friday night to force a Game 7 in their first-round playoff series.

Erik Johnson scored his first of the playoffs on a deflected shot 7:21 into the second. Lehkonen redirected Devon Toews's slap pass at 16:57 to give Colorado a 3-1 lead. Toews had two assists, as did Cale Makar after being suspended for Game 5.

Game 7 will be Sunday in Denver. It's the first Game 7 in franchise history for Seattle and the first for the Avalanche since the second round of the 2020 playoffs in the bubble when Colorado lost to Dallas.

Vince Dunn became the 14th different player to score a goal for Seattle this postseason when he slipped a slap shot past Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev at 15:48 of the first. Dunn was second in points for Seattle during the regular season but had been held without a point until scoring his third career playoff goal.

But Georgiev's night was mostly quiet, although he made big stops on Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jaden Schwartz in the final minutes. Georgiev finished with 22 saves.

Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer was peppered all night and only some spectacular saves kept the score from getting out of hand. Grubauer finished with 35 stops.

Stastny's OT winner sends Hurricanes to 2nd round

Paul Stastny scored 6:01 into overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 2-1 on Friday night in Game 6 to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sebastian Aho tied it midway through the third period for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen stopped 35 shots while making his first start of the post-season.

Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin finished with 39 saves. New York was eliminated in the first round for the first time in their last five trips to the post-season.

Derek Stepan started the winning sequence in overtime when he intercepted Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech's clearing pass. Stepan skated up and passed to Stastny, who fired a sharp-angle shot from the goal line that deflected off Sorokin's left pad and between his legs.

It was Stastny's third career overtime playoff winner.

After getting outshot in each of the first two periods, the Hurricanes had a 19-5 edge in the third and tied the score midway through the period.

Sorokin denied a backhand shot by Jesse Puljujarvi 2:13 into the third to keep the Hurricanes off the scoreboard. At the other end, Andersen saved a shot by Casey Cizikas less than 10 seconds later. Sorokin also had a nice glove save on Jordan Martinook at 8:17.

Aho from the left doorstep at 9:24 as he knocked the puck down out of the air with his glove and knocked it past Sorokin. It was his fourth goal of the series.

Stars eliminate Wild

Roope Hintz got Dallas going early, Jake Oettinger stonewalled his home-state team again and the Stars eliminated the Minnesota Wild with a 4-1 win in Game 6 of their first-round NHL playoff series on Friday night.

Oettinger made 22 saves for the Stars, who advanced to face the Colorado-Seattle winner.

Oettinger was bidding for his second shutout of the series before Freddy Gaudreau scored for the Wild with 7:07 left.

Filip Gustavsson, starting a fourth consecutive game for the first time in his first season with Minnesota, stopped 23 shots in two periods. Marc-Andre Fleury, who was in net for a 7-3 loss at Dallas in Game 2, took over in the third.

The Wild fell to 5-14 on home ice in the playoffs since the last time they advanced, a first-round win over St. Louis in 2015. They are 4-13 in franchise history in post-season series.