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 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. Game 5 is Monday night in Dallas.
Jake Oettinger turned away 31 of 34 shots through two periods but was replaced by Casey DeSmith to begin the third. DeSmith made 13 saves in relief for the Stars.
Landeskog missed 1,032 days with a right knee injury that required multiple surgeries, and he returned to the for Game 3 on Wednesday. It was his first NHL game since June 26, 2022, and Saturday night he scored his first goal in 1,041 days.
Golden Knights 4, Wild 3 (OT)
Ivan Barbashev chipped in a rebound at the 17:26 mark of overtime to give Vegas a victory over Minnesota in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series in Saint Paul, Minn.
The series is 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, and Adin Hill made 29 saves.
Marcus Foligno scored for the third straight game and Marco Rossi and blue-liner Jared Spurgeon also scored for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson finished with 42 saves.
Lightning 5, Panthers 1
Nick Paul scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as Tampa Bay defeated host Florida in Sunrise, Fla.
Despite the loss, the Panthers — the reigning Stanley Cup champions — lead this best-of-seven series 2-1. Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Luke Glendening and Anthony Cirelli (empty-netter) also scored. Nikita Kucherov had three assists and Gage Goncalves, Guentzel and Ryan McDonagh added two assists each for a Lightning team that had scored a total of just two goals in the first two games of this series.
The Panthers got a goal from Matthew Tkachuk. Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves.
Senators 4, Maple Leafs 3 (OT)
Jake Sanderson scored at 17:42 of overtime for Ottawa, which avoided elimination with a win in Game 4 of its first-round series against visiting Toronto.
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, other goals came from Tim Stutzle, Shane Pinto and David Perron, and Linus Ullmark made 31 saves for the Senators, who trail the Eastern Conference best-of-seven series 3-1.
John Tavares, Matthew Knies and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Maple Leafs. Stolarz made 17 saves.