NHL; Islanders Blank Flyers In Series Opener

UNDATED (AP) – The New York Islanders are the lowest seed remaining in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they were good enough to open their second-round series with a win against the No. 1 Philadelphia Flyers.  Semyon Varlamov stopped 29 shots and the Islanders opened their second-round series with a 4-0 win over the Flyers. Varlamov has posted consecutive playoff shutouts after failing to record one since 2011. He is the first Islander to record back-to-back shutouts.  Andy Greene opened the scoring at the 6:06 mark, his first playoff goal in a decade. It remained 1-0 until Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Anders Lee scored in the first nine minutes of the third. Devon Toews added an empty-netter shortly after Carter Hart was replaced by an extra attacker with about eight minutes left.  Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars made it two straight wins over the Avalanche by rallying for a 4-2 victory.  Dallas trailed 2-0 until Joe Pavelski and Radek Faksa scored power-play goals 43 seconds apart midway through the second period. Alexander Radulov notched the tiebreaking goal about five minutes later after contributing two goals and an assist in Game 1 on Sunday.
Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each had a power-play goal and an assist for Colorado. Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin was otherwise perfect while the Avs outshot Dallas, 41-27.