NHL Playoffs: Which Teams Survived Game 5, and Which Series Ended on Tuesday?

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Nashville Predators forced Game 6, but the New York Islanders and Winnipeg Jets can't say the same as they exit the NHL playoffs.

The rubber hit the road for eight teams in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs Tuesday night, with four series threatening elimination for teams dealing with a 3-1 series deficit. 

By the time the first two games were played Tuesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs avoided having their season ended with a 2-1 overtime win over the Boston Bruins, while the New York Islanders went home for the summer after losing to Carolina 6-3.

Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Jets were at home in a tight battle with the Colorado Avalanche to try to force a Game 6, but they came up short. And the Vancouver Canucks looked to eliminate the Predators at Rogers Arena, but a tight low-scoring battle ended in Nashville's favor.

Here’s how things broke down and what comes next.

The Leafs had to play Game 5 against Boston without superstar center Auston Matthews, who remains sidelined with a mysterious malady. But Toronto came out strong and largely well-disciplined, scoring the first goal of the game on a Jake McCabe slapshot from the blueline. Most importantly, they leaned on young goaltender Joseph Woll to hold the Bruins to a single goal (from forward Trent Frederic) and force overtime.

From there, winger Matthew Knies pulled out the victory for Toronto when he beat Jeremy Swayman on a rebound knock-in from a John Tavares shot at the 2:26 mark of the first overtime period. 

However, were it not for Woll making a slew of saves in the third period and in OT, the Leafs would’ve been done for in regulation time. In particular, Woll stymied Bruins center Charlie Coyle from point-blank range 44 seconds into overtime. 

That gave Toronto a huge boost. As the Leafs outshot Boston 33-28 on the night, their 33rd shot from Knies ended the game and breathed new life into worrisome Buds fans.

What comes next in this series? Well, Game 6 will be played Thursday in Toronto, so there’s precious little time for either team to recuperate and regroup. 

It remains to be seen whether Matthews can return to action, but with Woll providing great goaltending that fellow Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov couldn’t in the first three Bruins wins in this series, Toronto has the new lease on life they were praying for after Game 4. - Adam Proteau

In the other early game Tuesday, the Carolina Hurricanes took out the pesky-but-still-clearly-not-as-good New York Islanders. And though the Isles tied Game 5 at 3-3 in the second intermission, the Hurricanes poured on the offense in the third period. They struck three times, including two goals in eight seconds early in the period from Jack Drury and Stefan Noesen, the latter scoring his third goal of the series as a worker bee forward.

The Isles outshot the Hurricanes in the second and third periods, but Carolina blistered Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov with a whopping 21 shots in the opening frame. Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen turned aside 22 of 25 Islanders shots to lock up the victory. 

The Islanders put up a fight in this series, but it was clear from the get-go that the Hurricanes were the faster, deeper, better squad. Carolina now moves on to what should be a terrific showdown against the New York Rangers.

For the Islanders, this series loss is a sobering comment on where they are in the pecking order of NHL teams. They have some gusto and talent, but they’re not on the same level as the truly elite Cup front-runners. 

This is the second straight season they’ve fallen to Carolina, and it’s the third straight year they’ve never gotten out of the first round. Something’s got to give on Long Island, and it’s only a matter of time until Lamoriello takes out his scalpel and reshapes the Isles roster significantly. - Adam Proteau

The Winnipeg Jets entered this post-season looking like a much-improved team than last year, finishing second in the Western Conference and winning eight straight games to end the regular season. And yet, they're leaving the playoffs the exact same way as last time.

After winning Game 1, the Jets lost four straight games to the Colorado Avalanche, with Tuesday's 6-3 loss ending the Whiteout early. The Avalanche, meanwhile, bounce back from a first-round upset loss last year to the Seattle Kraken by booking their place in the second round.

It was a tight battle for most of the contest.

The Jets had a gift early on when Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson attempted to clear the puck from a scramble and bounced it off teammate Artturi Lehkonen and in the net.

The Avalanche responded with two goals before the Jets tied it at 2-2. Then Lehkonen got the bounce he wanted. His shot on net was redirected away and toward Jets defenseman Neal Pionk. The puck went off Pionk's stick and went straight into the yawning cage.

From there, Tyler Toffoli tied the game at 3-3, but the Avalanche took control, scoring two straight. Add an empty-netter, and the series is over.

Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev couldn't have responded better in the series after an ugly Game 1 when he allowed seven goals on 23 shots. He posted a .917 save percentage or better in the following four games.

Connor Hellebuyck, meanwhile, had a series to forget. He conceded at least four goals in every game, not posting a save percentage higher than .872.

Colorado now awaits the winner of the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights series. Winnipeg now awaits another off-season of wondering what went wrong and how the team can take it a step further next season. - Jonathan Tovell

The Vancouver Canucks wanted to end the series at home after winning the last two games. But like the Bruins on Tuesday, they couldn't pull it off, losing by one goal to their opponents, the Nashville Predators.

The low-scoring matchup went two periods without a goal, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Canucks outshot the Predators 7-4 in the first period. But the Preds put on the pressure in the second frame, outshooting Vancouver 11-4 but not capitalizing on two power plays. The Canucks also had two power plays in the second period but came up empty as well.

Three minutes into the third period, Canucks defenseman Nikita Zadorov took matters into his own hands. The 6-foot-6, 248-pound blueliner received a pass between the faceoff circles in the Canucks zone, evaded a Predators forward and rushed up the ice. He protected the puck again as he entered the Preds zone and snapped the puck from a tight angle over the shoulder of 5-foot-11 goaltender Juuse Saros.

Four minutes later, Roman Josi entered the Canucks zone and produced a give-and-go with Filip Forsberg. Josi received the return pass and slipped the puck past Vancouver’s third-string goalie, Arturs Silovs.

Alexandre Carrier then gave Nashville the lead with less than eight minutes in the game. Like in Game 4, the Canucks tried hard to tie the game and force overtime, but this time, they were unsuccessful.

Saros posted an impressive .950 save percentage, while Silovs still played a respectable game with 20 saves on 22 shots for a .909 save percentage. But the pressure is on for Vancouver to end the series on Friday in Nashville, while the Predators now look to even the first-round battle and pull off a memorable comeback. - Jonathan Tovell