Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
The end of April on Tuesday brings two Game 3s in the NHL playoffs. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the winner of Game 3 of a postseason series that was tied 1-1 wins the series more often than not. In fact, 67.4 percent of the time in Stanley Cup playoff history. However, teams that have won a Game 3 in this postseason to take a 2-1 lead are just 1-3 in that series.
Both series Tuesday shift venues. The first game is from the Eastern Conference as the Boston Bruins visit the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus is a -120 favorite for Tuesday, but Boston remains the -125 favorite to win the series.
Arguably the best acquisition by any team ahead of this season’s trade deadline was the Blue Jackets landing Ottawa forward Matt Duchene. In his team’s 3-2 win to even the series Saturday, Duchene scored the winner at 3:42 of double overtime on the power play. It was his fourth goal of these playoffs and first career overtime playoff goal. He’s tied for second on the Blue Jackets with eight total playoff points.
Artemi Panarin – who is set for free agency this summer like Duchene – had the other two goals and leads the team with nine points. Panarin has at least one point in all six games. Blueliner Seth Jones had two assists in Game 2, his third straight game with two points. He also played a whopping 38:01. Columbus has been the NHL’s best team with the man advantage in the 2019 playoffs, going 7-for-18 (38.9 percent). That’s not possibly sustainable.
The late game is from the Western Conference with the San Jose Sharks visiting the Colorado Avalanche, who are -120. On the series line, San Jose is the -125 favorite. The Avs, the last team in the West field and who upset top-seeded Calgary in Round 1, evened the series with a 4-3 win on Sunday.
Defenseman Tyson Barrie scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second and was the No. 1 star with that goal and two assists. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and Mikko Rantanen an assist. They lead the Avalanche with 11 points each in the playoffs and have at least one point each in every game. Sunday was only Colorado’s third win in the past 10 years in San Jose, including playoffs.
San Jose defenseman Brent Burns had two goals and an assist in the loss. Not clear if the Sharks will have top center Joe Pavelski for Game 3. He hasn’t played yet in this series due to a head injury suffered in Game 7 of the first round against Vegas.
