EDMONTON—Facing an early deficit, the Vegas Golden Knights were sparked by its stars, setting the stage for Alex Tuch to send top-seed in the Western Conference into the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.Tuch scored the tiebreaking goal 1:34 into the third period, and the Vegas Golden Knights rallied from an early two-goal deficit to eliminate the Blackhawks with a 4-3 win in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.Vegas became the first team in the playoffs to advance to the conference semifinals. The Golden Knights will face the lowest remaining seed in the next round.Max Pacioretty scored in the closing seconds of the first period and Mark Stone scored less than a minute into the second as the Golden Knights quickly erased the Blackhawks early 2-0 advantage. Alec Martinez scored on a power play midway through the second period after Patrick Kane had given the Hawks a 3-2 lead.Robin Lehner made 23 saves including a couple of big stops in the closing seconds, and improved to 8-1 since being acquired by the Golden Knights from the Hawks back in February.Lehner had an emotional trip through the handshake line with his former teammates after the game.

”It felt really nice for me to close this out because it’s a bit weird playing your old teams, especially that group,” Lehner said. ”That’s a hell of a group, they treated me really well, got a lot of friends on that team, all love for that organization.”

The Blackhawks’ unlikely postseason run came to an end despite controlling most of the first period. Jonathan Toews scored his fifth of the postseason and Alex DeBrincat scored at 18:19 of the first to give the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead.Corey Crawford, who made 48 saves in a masterful Game 4 performance to keep his team alive, made 35 saves in Game 5. But Crawford couldn’t withstand a continued onslaught of pressure by the Golden Knights, capped by Tuch’s goal, using his size to hold off defenseman Adam Boqvist and score the deciding goal.

”We gave it a good chance the last couple of games. (Crawford) was great and gave us a chance,” Kane said.

The Blackhawks started strong looking to keep going after trailing in the series 3-0. Toews poked a rebound past Lehner midway through the first period to give the Hawks the early lead, and DeBrincat finished a beautiful build up at 18:19 for the two-goal advantage. DeBrincat was the recipient, but it was Connor Murphy’s spin and feed to Dylan Strome that set up DeBrincat’s second goal of the postseason.But the potency of the Golden Knights’ offense quickly responded. Pacioretty collected Brayden McNabb’s deflected pass at the side of the net and scored his first of the playoffs with 31 seconds left in the period. And less than a minute into the second, Stone tipped William Karlsson’s pass over Crawford’s glove and the Golden Knights were even.

”When I scored I kind of had that feeling that we were dialed in and getting it back,” Stone said.

Kane scored his 52nd career playoff goal, but Martinez’s goal was the first scored on the power play by Vegas in the series. It snapped the Hawks streak of 14 straight power plays killed off, dating back to its qualifying series win over Edmonton.

”It was a great opportunity for us to come in and play some meaningful hockey and a lot of guys stepped up to the plate and showed what they could do,” Toews said.

Bulls Executive Vice President – Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas announced today that Jim Boylen has been relieved of his duties as head coach.
MICHAEL REINSDORF: “No one could question Jim’s passion for our team and our organization. We sincerely appreciate his tireless efforts and contributions during his time with the Bulls, and we wish him and his family the very best.”
ARTURAS KARISOVAS: “After doing a comprehensive evaluation and giving the process the time it deserved, I ultimately decided that a fresh approach and evolution in leadership was necessary. This was a very difficult decision, but it is time for our franchise to take that next step as we move in a new direction and era of Chicago Bulls basketball. Jim is a great human being that cares deeply about this organization and the game of basketball. I want to thank him for his professionalism and commitment to the franchise.”
Boylen first came to the Bulls then as an associate head coach during the 2015-16 season and was named the team’s 23rd head coach on December 3, 2018. During his time at the helm of the Bulls, he compiled an overall record of 39-84 (.317).
A formal coaching search will begin immediately.

EDMONTON—Even though Reilly Smith called it a lucky bounce, a whole lot more than luck is working right now for the Vegas Golden Knights.Smith scored in overtime, Robin Lehner made 22 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Blackhawks 4-3 on Thursday to take a 2-0 lead in the first-round series. Vegas has won all five of its games since the NHL resumed.Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford stopped 35 of the 39 shots he faced, including 16 in the third period alone.The Western Conference top-seeded Golden Knights are looking for their first playoff series victory since 2018. They reached the Stanley Cup Final that year, then lost to San Jose in seven games in the first round last year.This was the third game already in the first round to go to overtime. Tampa Bay beat Columbus in the fifth overtime Tuesday, and Boston beat Carolina in double OT Wednesday. Smith’s goal came 7:13 into the first OT.Paul Stastny opened the scoring for Vegas 10:44 in after strong work down low by Smith and Jonathan Marchessault, and Nosek made it 2-0 at the 15:35 mark of the first period. It was Stastny’s first goal since hockey returned.The Blackhawks got goals from rookies Kirby Dach and Dominik Kubalik in the second to tie it. Mark Stone restored the lead for Vegas with 2:40 left in the period, then Dylan Strome got it right back for the Blackhawks 13.6 seconds before intermission.

”I think we played a better team game today,” said Strome, who hit the crossbar early in overtime. ”We did a good job of holding their forwards up coming into the zone and giving our D a little more time. We’ve got to continue to do that and be ready for next game.”

Patrick Kane assisted on all three Hawk goals in the second period.

”I thought Chicago played really well,” said Lehner, who signed with the Blackhawks last summer and was traded to Vegas at the deadline. ”Everyone keeps saying they’re underdogs, but you look at their team, the experience, the skill – it’s Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane out there. It’s a lot of skill and they’re world-class players, so when they get opportunities, it’s hard.”

NOTES—Rookie D Lucas Carlsson made his Stanley Cup playoff debut, replacing Adam Boqvist on the Blackhawks blue line. … Stastny’s goal was his 23rd in the playoffs in his career, the most among Vegas players.
Game 3 is Saturday night.

Edmonton—Brandon Saad, Matthew Highmore and Dominik Kubalik scored and the Blackhawks beat Edmonton 3-2 on Friday, knocking the Oilers out of the postseason tournament.The Blackhawks won the best-of-five qualifying series 3-1 and advances to the round of 16.

”We knew what we wanted to do coming into the series,” Jonathan Toews said. ”Overall guys got better as the series went along.”

Josh Archibald and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton.The Oilers had been expected to beat the Hawks, given they were the fifth-seeded team in the Western Conference tournament and the Hawks were the bottom seed at 12.

”We had that two month break to kind of heal up, recover and prepare,” winger Brandon Saad said. ”We weren’t playing our best hockey so (it helped) to kind of have a reset, let guys look back and touch upon what makes us successful.”

Edmonton was led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the top two scorers in the league during the abbreviated regular season.The Oilers admitted the team didn’t match thenHawk’s intensity, and actually had more fight in them in their lone exhibition game last week against their hated rival the Calgary Flames.

”I thought we had our moments in this series … but you can’t play Calgary every night to bring it, so we’ve got to figure it out,” McDavid said.”They (Chicago) were really good. Give them credit.”

The Oilers scored 45 seconds into the game, on their first shot.McDavid fed the puck from the boards to Archibald as he streaked through the slot. Archibald redirected the puck up and over the left shoulder of Corey Crawford.Edmonton was without top-pairing shutdown defenseman Adam Larsson for a second consecutive game (deemed ”unfit to play”) and it showed when the Hawks scored the next two goals off point shots, catching the Oilers defense running around.At 5:16, Saad pounced on the puck from a rebound off a shot by Connor Murphy, swooped around the net – with Edmonton defenseman Oscar Klefbom draped all over him – and slid a backhand wraparound shot past goalie Mikko Koskinen.Less than three minutes later, Highmore, standing alone in front of the net, redirected a point shot by Duncan Keith past Koskinen.Nugent-Hopkins tied the game two minutes into the second period, pushing the puck past Crawford on a goal-mouth scramble.Edmonton’s defensive troubles worsened in the second period when Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat drilled Ethan Bear head-first into the boards from behind. Bear went to the dressing room and DeBrincat was assessed a five-minute major for boarding.The winner came midway through the third, when Hawks captain Jonathan Toews outmuscled Bear for the puck beside the Oilers net, then fed the puck to Kubalik for a one timer over the short-side shoulder of Koskinen.The Oilers made a late push but took a too-many-men penalty with two minutes left when there was bench confusion after Koskinen started heading off for an extra attacker but then stopped and stayed on the ice.Crawford made 41 saves for the win. Koskinen stopped 25 in the loss.The Hawks’ success was due to veteran leaders and scoring up and down the lineup. Toews had four goals and seven points in the series. Patrick Kane collected one goal and four points.Rookie Kubalik had five points in Game 1, but was otherwise quiet until his game-winning, and series-clinching goal.The Oilers suffered from a lack of scoring, other than from McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins. First line winger Zack Kassian was punted to the fourth line after an ineffective Game 1. Rookie Kailer Yamamoto, a point a game player after being called up in January, was kept off the scoresheet in all four games.McDavid finished with five goals and nine points. Draisaitl had three goals and three assists. Nugent-Hopkins recorded two goals and eight points.The Blackhawks were by all rights done for the year, headed out of the playoff picture when COVID-19 pandemic forced the NHL to shut down regular season at the 70-game mark in mid-March.The Oilers have missed the playoffs for 13 of the last 14 seasons and four of the past five seasons since drafting McDavid first overall. … The Hawks had goals from nine different players in the series. Nine of the 16 goals came off blue-line point shots.

UP NEXT

The Blackhawks advance to face Vegas in a best of seven Series starting Tuesday night at 9:45pm