The two most beautiful words in sports? Game 7. Lucky for hockey fans, Saturday will be filled with plenty of excitement as the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs first round sees three Game 7s on the same day.
The Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers will close the night with a 10 pm ET face-off on ESPN and fuboTV (try for free). There have been blowouts and close games in both arenas, but the main trend is that the team who scores first has walked away with the win. Edmonton made a Game 7 possible with a 4-2 win on Thursday. Evander Kane scored two goals in that game, and will likely continue to be the key for the Oilers offense moving forward. The left wing has registered seven goals in this series, which ties him with Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov and Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel for the NHL lead in this year’s playoffs.
Boston and Carolina opened Saturday’s action at PNC Arena, and like the series’ first six games, the home team prevailed. The Hurricanes punched their ticket to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 3-2 victory over the Bruins. Max Domi led the way for Carolina with three points, including two goals in the second period. The Hurricanes have now won six consecutive Game 7s and will next play the winner of the Rangers-Penguins series, which will conclude Sunday in another Game 7.
The Lightning’s dream of a Stanley Cup three-peat is alive and well. Left wing Nicholas Paul scored twice for the Bolts in the first two periods — not a bad way to register his first two career postseason goals. The third period was scoreless but still saw a lot of action. Toronto left the net empty with about two minutes remaining in the game, but their comeback attempt fell short. Brayden Point did not see any minutes in the last period due to a lower body injury. The Maple Leafs had 31 shots on goal but struggled to score because of a solid performance by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Their lone goal was scored by Morgan Reilly at the 13:25 mark in the second period.
Follow along as CBS Sports provides live updates throughout Saturday’s action.