Last night’s action continued the trend of tightly-contested hockey in these Stanley Cup playoffs, and today’s games promise more of the same. Here’s your recap of the night that was, and an open thread fro tonight’s contests.

Last Night’s Games:

Montreal Canadiens: 1 @ Winnipeg Jets: 0, MTL leads series 2-0

What a story the Montreal Canadiens are turning out to be. After an epic 3-1 series comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens now have the dagger pointed at the throat of the Winnipeg Jets. Down Mark Scheifele, serving the first of his four-game suspension, while also missing Paul Stastny and Dylan DeMelo due to injury, the Jets are struggling to get anything going in this series.

Tyler Toffoli scored the night’s only goal on a dazzling shorthanded play, and Carey Price was outstanding whenever Winnipeg did get chances. All in all, the Jets looked discombobulated; failing to sustain much of an offensive attack, and the likes of Pierre-Luc Dubois and Nik Ehlers have yet to pick up the offensive slack in Scheifele’s absence. If the series keeps going this way, it’s hard not to picture Montreal advancing to the third round.

Colorado Avalanche: 2 @ Vegas Golden Knights: 3                         COL leads series 2-1

This series has easily been the most thrilling of these Stanley Cup playoffs, and last night was another entry in this special chapter of hockey. With their season on the brink, the Vegas Golden Knights came out absolutely flying, but Philipp Grubauer continue his lights-out campaign, turning them aside at almost every opportunity.

William Karlsson opened the scoring, but Carl Soderberg answered to tie the game less than two minutes later. Frustration was beginning to mount for Vegas into the third, as they peppered Grubauer with shots, but it was the Avs that broke through. Mikko Rantanen beat Marc-Andre Fleury to take a 2-1 lead, but a pair of late goals by Jonathan Marchessault and Max Pacioretty propelled the Golden Knights to their first win of the series.

Today’s Games:

Carolina Hurricanes @ Tampa Bay Lightning, 4:00pm (SN, USA, TVAS)                                    TBL leads series 2-1

Boston Bruins @ New York Islanders, 7:15pm (CBC, NBC, TVAS), BOS leads series 2-1