”With James Van Riemsdyk off for hooking, Marchand scored on a backhander to give the Bruins the lead 5:28 into the

DENVER (AP) The Nashville Predators are done dealing with the speed of Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.Next www.officialcapitals.com , they get the physicality of Dustin Byfuglien and the Winnipeg Jets .There’s no easy test this time of year.”They’ve got size. They’ve got skill. They’ve got speed,” forward Austin Watson said Sunday night after Nashville beat the Avalanche 5-0 in Game 6 to clinch the series. ”Get our rest and get prepared.”Nashville looks every bit like the team that went to the Stanley Cup Final a season ago and won the Presidents’ Trophy this season. The Predators are hitting their stride heading into the Winnipeg series. They had 11 forwards notch at least a point in the Colorado series.Not to be outdone, the Jets had a balanced scoring attack in closing out Minnesota, 4-1.”We saw how the regular season went against them. They’re good hockey games,” said Watson, whose team went 3-1-1 against the Jets during the year. ”We’re excited.”This goaltending showdown should be worth the price of admission: Pekka Rinne vs. Connor Hellebuyck.One Vezina Trophy finalist against another. Both are coming off a solid series, with Rinne stopping 22 shots in a 5-0 win Sunday to close out the series with Colorado. Hellebuyck had a 1.94 goals-against average in eliminating the Wild.”Moving into the second round, I think you want to be playing very good defensive hockey against Winnipeg,” Rinne said. ”One of the better teams in the league. They have a lot of firepower, a lot of talent up front. Also Washington Capitals T-Shirts Authentic , like ours, their `D’ is a big part of their game. I think it’s going to be very exciting, good series.”The Western Conference semifinals feature a little bit of history: This marks only the third time the final four in the conference are all chasing after their first Stanley Cup since the introduction of conferences in `74-75, according to information provided by the league. The scenario also occurred in 2012 (the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Cup) and in 1984 (Edmonton).In the other semifinal matchup set to get underway, expansion Las Vegas faces San Jose.”Anytime you win a series you’re feeling confident,” Predators forward Nick Bonino said. ”We’re going to be as confident as we can going against Winnipeg. We know how good they are.”That’s a sentiment shared by forward Filip Forsberg, who scored four goals against Colorado.”It was a good test for us. These guys have been flying around for six games, playing really fast hockey,” Forsberg said. ”We’ve been trying to play as fast as we can as well. If we can bring that speed into the next round that will be good.”The Nashville defense will have its hands full with the likes of Jets forward Patrik Laine, who scored 44 goals in the regular season Washington Capitals Hoodies Authentic , and Blake Wheeler (91 points).Still, the Predators enter on a high after posting a shutout victory in a series-ending game for the first time in franchise history. They joined Vegas and Winnipeg as the third team to accomplish the feat this postseason.”It’s better to end it this way than hanging on at the end,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”There are other teams on the ice that are pretty good hockey teams. You see it in other series going on. It would have been great if you win (the series) 4-0 but that wasn’t the case. We had an opposition that was young, skilled and fast and they had nothing to lose, and they played that way. There were times in the first five games it didn’t look like it was just going happen – we were going to have to work for it.”It was nice tonight to play a game we were comfortable with.”The Avs take some pride in knowing they gave the Predators fits at times.”We made them fight for it,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.Exactly.”The way Colorado works and battles and plays the game fast, it definitely challenged us,” Predators center Colton Sissons said. ”It was a good experience for us going forward.”— BOSTON (AP) Sean Kuraly isn’t so good at waiting.The Boston Bruins forward is usually going full-speed on the ice, whether it’s chasing the puck on the forecheck or sizing up an opponent for a hit. So when he saw David Pastrnak’s shot hit off the post and flutter into the air, it was tough for Kuraly to be patient.”A play like that doesn’t come around very often. When it does Washington Capitals Hats Authentic , it’s kind of a waiting game,” he said on Thursday night after bunting the puck into the net to help the Bruins beat Toronto 5-1 in the opener of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.”It’s not really my style,” said Kuraly, who had to resist hitting the puck before it fell below the level of the crossbar to avoid being called for a high stick. ”To go from 100 mph and hitting everything that moves and (wait) in front of the net, it can be a challenge.”Brad Marchand, David Backes and David Krejci each scored a power-play goal, and Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots for Boston. Pastrnak scored to make it 3-1 with 38 seconds left in the second period, then moved in on goalie Frederik Andersen seven minutes into the third before backhanding the puck off the post.Kuraly waited, and then two-handed the puck off the shaft of his stick like a bunt as he fell over the sprawling goalie.”I’m a terrible baseball player,” he said. ”It has nothing to do with baseball.”Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is back at the TD Garden on Saturday night.”We’ve got a day to solve our problems Custom Washington Capitals Jerseys ,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. ”We could feel sorry for ourselves if we want tonight, but that’s a waste of time and energy.”Boston already scored two power-play goals when Toronto’s Nazem Kadri was thrown out of the game and given a five-minute major for an elbow to Tommy Wingels‘ head. Three-minutes later, Krejci bounced it in off Andersen from behind to make it 5-1.”I thought it was the appropriate call,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”Where it goes from here is out of my hands.”Zach Hyman scored Toronto’s only goal, and Andersen made 35 saves.”They cranked it up, and we didn’t answer,” defenseman Ron Hainsey said.The matchup is the first in the postseason for the teams since Toronto’s Game 7 collapse in the first round in 2013, when Boston rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the third period, scoring twice in the last 82 seconds of regulation to send it into overtime. The Bruins went on to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.The Maple Leafs never had a lead to blow in this one.And the Boston power play was the reason.”Obviously, our penalty kill wasn’t good enough www.officialhockeyjetsshop.com ,” Babcock said. ”We took too many penalties in the third, and the third was no contest.”With James Van Riemsdyk off for hooking, Marchand scored on a backhander to give the Bruins the lead 5:28 into the game. Hyman tied it for the Leafs with about three minutes before the break but Backes put Boston back in front early in the second on a pass from Krejci.Pastrnak converted a pass from Marchand with 38 seconds left in the period to make it 3-1, and then set up the next goal when he moved in on Andersen and bounced it off the post. As the puck fluttered in the air over the sprawled goalie, Kuraly came in trailing the play and knocked it into the net.NOTESPastrnak and Torey Krug had two assists apiece. … Toronto was 0-for-3 on the power play. Boston was 3-for-6. … The teams came into the game 34-34-1 in their first 69 playoff matchups, but the Maple Leafs hold an 8-6 series edge. … The Bruins pledged the profits of their 50/50 raffle – at least $50,000 – to support the victims of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus crash.—