Islanders are about to move into the next round – Rieder is also well on the way with Calgary
Directed through the legs with a clever pass Tom Kühnhackl scored the first goal and played a key role in helping the New York Islanders find their way to their second playoff victory. After the 4:2 win against the Florida Panthers in game two of the series, Kühnhackl and Thomas Greiss in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers shortly before moving on to the next round. The Islanders have their first match point on Wednesday evening in order to advance to the play-off round of 16 with another success. Also Tobias Rieder has good cards with the Calgary Flames and is leading 6-2 in the best-of-five series after a 2-1 win in game three against the Winnipeg Jets.
The Islanders initially fell behind on Tuesday evening before Kühnhackl moved in front of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrowski's goal in the second period and left the puck with a great backhand pass for fellow striker Matt Martin (27th), who immediately scored an unstoppable goal. From that moment on, the Islanders were better in the game and maintained their line even after conceding the second goal. "I thought our resilience was good. We improved in the second period. All lines contributed to the success," said Islanders head coach Barry Trotz.
Ryan Pulock (34th) and Jordan Eberle (37th, 51st) scored the other Islanders goals. In goal, the Russian Semjon Varlamov was once again preferred over the old man from Füssen. Kühnhackl from Landshut was on the ice for 8:30 minutes, but used this time effectively. The 28-year-old's effort had already contributed to a goal in the first game. “We already had the right focus when the players came to training camp,” said Despite about the condition of his team, “if we understand how we have to play, then we can be successful.”
Rieder played almost ten minutes for the Flames and didn't score a point. The goals for the team from head coach Geoff Ward, who supported the German national team as an assistant at the World Championships and Olympic qualification between 2015 and 2018, were spread across six different players. “We knew we needed an answer,” said Ward, referring to the 2-3 defeat the day before. On Friday night, Calgary has its first match point in game four against the Jets.
Korbinian Holzer (Nashville Predators) and Nico Storm (Minnesota Wild), on the other hand, are still waiting for their first appearance after the NHL restart. Nashville evened the series against the Arizona Coyotes 4-2, both teams now have a win. Minnesota lost to the Vancouver Canucks 3:4, and the series is now also 1:1 after victories. The Carolina Hurricanes were the first team to reach the play-off round of 3 with a smooth 0-XNUMX win against the New York Rangers.
(Photo: Dominic Pencz)