play0:46Bowen Byram delivers Sabres’ 4th goal of the 1st period vs. BruinsBowen Byram scores the Sabres’ fourth goal to give Buffalo a significant 1st-period lead over the Bruins.
play0:35Nathan MacKinnon seals series win for Avs with empty-net goalNathan MacKinnon seals series win for Avs with empty-net goal
play0:42Brandon Hagel nets go-ahead goal for LightningBrandon Hagel nets go-ahead goal for Lightning
play1:14Ryan Poehling sneaks in OT winner for DucksAfter a lengthy review, Ryan Poehling’s OT winner stands for the Ducks as they put the Oilers on the brink of elimination.
Cale Makar doubles Colorado’s lead with near-post goal (0:56)Cale Makar doubles Colorado’s lead with near-post goal (0:56)
Bowen Byram delivers Sabres’ 4th goal of the 1st period vs. BruinsBowen Byram scores the Sabres’ fourth goal to give Buffalo a significant 1st-period lead over the Bruins.
Bowen Byram scores the Sabres’ fourth goal to give Buffalo a significant 1st-period lead over the Bruins.
Nathan MacKinnon seals series win for Avs with empty-net goalNathan MacKinnon seals series win for Avs with empty-net goal
Ryan Poehling sneaks in OT winner for DucksAfter a lengthy review, Ryan Poehling’s OT winner stands for the Ducks as they put the Oilers on the brink of elimination.
After a lengthy review, Ryan Poehling’s OT winner stands for the Ducks as they put the Oilers on the brink of elimination.
ESPN staffApr 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ETMultiple Authors
With one elimination Saturday and another Sunday, there are now 14 teams remaining that can win the 2026 Stanley Cup.
In Monday’s late game, the Utah Mammoth are hosting their second playoff game in franchise history, having won the first to take a 2-1 series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Here are previews and a best bet for Monday’s games, scores and highlights from Sunday’s contests, and updated playoff stat leaders.
Read more: Full schedule Playoff Central Stanley Cup odds First-round overreactions Top 50 player rankings
Of all the series in Stanley Cup playoff history in which one team has gone up 3-0, 131 have ended in a sweep, 58 ended in five games, 16 ended in six, six teams won in seven and four teams have lost in seven. Which group will this series join?
The Flyers have now lost the past five times when going for a four-game sweep, with the most recent successful sweep being in the 1995 conference semifinals against the Rangers.
The average age of the Penguins’ goal scorers through four games is 35 years, 112 days; the average age of the Flyers’ goal scorers is 28 years, 95 days.
Philly is outscoring opponents 9-2 at 5-on-5 when the line of Porter Martone, Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak is on the ice together this season, including playoffs; the Flyers are outscoring the Penguins 4-1 in this series.
Dan Vladar gave up three goals in Game 4, which was only the second time in 10 April starts in which he gave up more than two.
Sidney Crosby now has 204 career playoff points, which puts him in third all time for postseason points with a single franchise. The players ahead of him on that list were pretty good: Wayne Gretzky (252 with the Oilers) and Mark Messier (215, also with the Oilers).
Arturs Silovs was the MVP of the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs, securing an AHL championship for the Abbottsford Canucks. He stopped 25-of-27 shots in Game 4 to become the first goalie to win his playoff debut on the road facing elimination since Frank Pietrangelo in 1991.
The winner of Game 3 in a seven-game series tied at 1-1 has gone on to win the series 66% of the time in Stanley Cup playoff history, a good sign for the Mammoth.
Jack Eichel scored his 11th career playoff goal in Game 3, but that makes only two in his past 17 playoff games.
There is now a tie atop the Golden Knights’ career playoff scoring leaderboard; with an assist in Game 3, Mark Stone tied Jonathan Marchessault, with 75 playoff points.
Scoring the first goal of a game shouldn’t be a measurable skill, but here we are. Though Cooley’s seven goals to open the scoring through the regular season didn’t lead the league, he also sat out 28 games because of injury. Scoring first in 13% of his appearances actually did lead the NHL this season, and he already has done it once this postseason, in Game 1. The Mammoth lost that game, but have since taken a 2-1 series lead and hold the momentum heading into Monday’s Game 4.
The beauty of this prop is that Cooley doesn’t even need to be the first in the game to score, just the first to do it for Utah. — Sean Allen
The first three games of this series were drama-filled, back-and-forth battles. Game 4 was not that. The Sabres scored four first-period goals — off the sticks of Peyton Krebs, Josh Doan, Zach Benson and Bowen Byram — to stun the TD Garden crowd. Alas, the Bruins did not push back, and after a scoreless second period, the Sabres added another pair of goals in the third, thanks to Beck Malenstyn and Alex Tuch. Sean Kuraly netted a short-handed tally for Boston with 40 seconds left.
Bowen Byram delivers Sabres’ 4th goal of the 1st period vs. Bruins
There have been a number of surprises so far in the 2026 playoffs, but the outcome of this series is not one of them. Nathan MacKinnon finally got his first goal of the postseason via a power-play tally in the first period (which was also the Avs’ first with the man advantage in the playoffs), and the Avs kept the Kings at arm’s length from there.
Cale Makar, Nicolas Roy and Devon Toews put pucks past the goalie, and MacKinnon added an empty-netter in the third. Colorado will take on the winner of the Stars-Wild series, which picks back up with Game 5 on Tuesday. Full recap.
Nathan MacKinnon seals series win for Avs with empty-net goal
Nathan MacKinnon seals series win for Avs with empty-net goal
The intensity in this series has been dialed up to 11 since the start of Game 1, and that continued in Game 4. After a scoreless first period, Zack Bolduc and Cole Caufield netted goals in the second to send the Montreal faithful into a frenzy. They were slightly calmed with 54 seconds remaining in that period by Jake Guentzel’s goal that cut the lead in half.
The Lightning turned the tide in the third, including Brandon Hagel’s power-play goal to tie it 1:40 in, and his game-winning goal at 15:07. A critical Game 5 is back in Tampa on Wednesday. Full recap.
Brandon Hagel nets go-ahead goal for LightningBrandon Hagel nets go-ahead goal for Lightning
While the Avs-Kings result was not surprising, the Ducks being up 3-1 on the defending Western Conference champs certainly is. Edmonton jumped out to quick lead as Kasperi Kapanen scored his fourth goal of the playoffs just 38 seconds in, and they doubled it with a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins six minutes later. As has been a bad trend for the Oilers, they could not hold that lead. Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund answered in the second with power-play goals to knot the game at 2-2 after two.
Evan Bouchard scored on the power play in the third, but Jeffrey Viel scored his second of the playoffs to answer, sending the game to OT. It didn’t take long for the situation to resolve in the extra period, as Ryan Poehling scored his third of the playoffs, which was confirmed after review (to much protestation by Edmonton). The Ducks can close this series out on Tuesday in Game 5 back in Edmonton. Full recap.
Cale Makar doubles Colorado’s lead with near-post goal (0:56)Cale Makar doubles Colorado’s lead with near-post goal (0:56)
Philadelphia Flyers at Pittsburgh Penguins Game 5, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN) | PHI leads 3-1
Vegas Golden Knights at Utah Mammoth Game 4, 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) | UTA leads 2-1
The bet: Logan Cooley first Mammoth goal scorer (+550)
Colorado Avalanche 5, Los Angeles Kings 1 Avalanche win 4-0
Tampa Bay Lightning 3, Montreal Canadiens 2 Series tied 2-2
Cale Makar doubles Colorado’s lead with near-post goal (0:56)
ESPN staffApr 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ETMultiple Authors