Around the NHL: On to the 2nd Round

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs presented many close series, including a record-setting 18 games to go to overtime in the first round of the playoffs. Despite that kind of close competition, there are no series requiring the winner-take-all Game 7, the first time the first round has been completed without a deciding Game 7 since 2001.

All eight series came to a close by Sunday night, setting the stage for the second round.

Here's the updated look at the playoff picture.

As Friday morning hit, three teams had already punched their ticket to the second round: the Anaheim Ducks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators. The remaining five would take care of business during the weekend.

The Ottawa Senators fell on home ice to the Boston Bruins in overtime on Friday with a chance to put the series away. In overtime on Sunday afternoon, Clarke MacArthur was the hero, scoring the deciding goal on the power play that moved the Senators to the second round and ousted the Bruins.

For the fourth time in five games, the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs went to overtime in Friday's Game 5. Just 1:04 into overtime, Justin Williams scored the game-winning goal to put Washington ahead in the series. In Game 6 on Sunday, Auston Matthews scored in the third to put Toronto on the board first in the game, but Marcus Johansson scored the game-tying goal to force overtime and the game-winning goal at 6:31 of the overtime to help Washington advance to the second round.

All three games on Saturday featured one team with a chance to advance as well.

St. Louis was the first to move on, as the Blues withstood a rally from the Minnesota Wild that forced overtime and got a goal from Magnus Paajarvi to move on to the second round with a 4-3 win in Game 5.

The New York Rangers allowed the first goal of the game to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 6, but scored three unanswered goals, including two from Mats Zuccarello, to claim Game 6, 3-1, and move on as well.

The Edmonton Oilers jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second in Game 6 with two goals in 56 seconds by Leon Draisaitl and Anton Slepyshev. San Jose cut the lead to one, but the Oilers survived, getting an empty-net goal from Connor McDavid with less than a second left on the clock to seal a 3-1 win in Game 6 and advance to the second round.

With that, all four of the second-round series are set.

In the Western Conference, the Predators get the Blues in the second round. The Oilers will face the Ducks in their second-round series. Both series begin on Wednesday night.

In the Eastern Conference, the Penguins will face the Capitals. The Rangers will face the Senators. Both series will begin on Thursday night.

Unfortunately, that means no hockey for the next two nights, but after an exciting first round, there's a lot to look forward to in the rest of the playoffs.