Sunday 26 April 2015 10:42, UK
Chicago's Duncan Keith scored with just under four minutes left to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 win over Nashville Predators and complete a 4-3 series victory to book a place in the last eight of the NHL Stanley Cup play-offs.
Calgary Flames also progressed to the second round with a comeback victory over west Canada rivals Vancouver Canucks to take the series 4-2, while the New York Islanders staved off elimination by beating Washington Capitals and sending their series to a decisive Game 7.
Detroit Red Wings beat Tampa Bay Lightning to also move within one win of progressing.
Chicago's Keith scored the winner with 3:48 left when he beat a screened Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne with a laser-like shot from the left point.
The defenceman, who also had the winning goal in a 4-3 double-overtime victory in Game 1, also contributed two assists in a stellar individual display.
Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp also scored for the Blackhawks, and Corey Crawford stopped 13 shots after replacing Scott Darling in the first period after the rookie netminder gave up three goals.
Chicago will face St Louis or Minnesota in the Western Conference semi-finals. Wild lead the series 3-2.
Calgary progressed with a 7-4 win against Vancouver, though the scoreline disguised the closeness of the contest, with the Flames only going ahead when Matt Stajan scored with 4:17 left.
Michael Ferland and Jiri Hudler each scored twice, and Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau added goals for Calgary. Hudler's power-play goal tied the game 4-4 at 6:14 in the third period.
Luca Sbisa, Brandon McMillan, Jannik Hansen and Radim Vrbata scored for the Canucks, who had led 3-0 midway through the first period. Calgary will play Anaheim in the second round.
Islanders' Nikolay Kulemin scored the go-ahead goal with 9:27 left and the Islanders beat Washington 3-1 to set up a Game 7 decider.
New York captain John Tavares had a goal and assist, and Nick Leddy had two assists in what could still be the franchise's final game at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Cal Clutterbuck then got the loud crowd on its feet by sealing the win with an empty-net goal with 53 seconds remaining.
John Carlson scored for the Capitals, who will host the deciding game Monday. The series winner advances to face the New York Rangers.
Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek stopped 28 shots to shut out Tampa Bay and help the Red Wings beat the Lightning 4-0 to claim a 3-2 advantage in the series.
Riley Sheahan, Drew Miller, Pavel Datsyuk and Danny DeKeyser scored for the Red Wings, who can close out the Eastern Conference matchup by winning Game 6 at home.
The shut-out was the second of the series for the young Mrazek, who had no previous NHL play-off experience before being named Detroit's starter over veteran Jimmy Howard. Mrazek also blanked the Lightning in Game 3 as well as having the only shut-out against the league's highest-scoring team during the regular season.
