Dein erstes Forum » AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville

RALEIGH James Neal Jersey , N.C. (AP) Cam Ward allowed an early goal when the puck stuck in his skate. With Arizona trying to force overtime, the Carolina goalie used his glove to prevent another one.Jeff Skinner scored his second goal with 1:58 left, and the Hurricanes beat the Coyotes 6-5 on Thursday night despite giving up a weird goal with a puck lodged in Ward’s skate.”That first one was probably one of the weirdest goals I’ve ever seen,” Skinner said. ”You stick with it, though, and it paid off for us.”Skinner added an assist, and Valentin Zykov scored two goals, the second tying it at 5 with 10:14 remaining. Phil Di Giuseppe had a goal and two assists, and Jaccob Slavin had three assists.Teuvo Teravainen also scored, and Ward made 28 saves for Carolina. The Hurricanes had lost six of eight.Alex Goligoski scored twice, including arguably the most bizarre goal of the season when Ward unknowingly skated across the red line with the puck lodged in his right skate.Rookie Clayton Keller had a goal and an assist, Josh Archibald and Nick Cousins also scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots for Arizona. Eliminated from the playoff race last week, the Coyotes won at Buffalo on Wednesday night for their second straight victory.”We scored five goals, 5-4 Jonathan Marchessault Jersey , if we lock it down, we win the game,” coach Rick Tocchet said. ”We have to learn as a team, when you’re a little bit tired, you have to have mental toughness. You can’t just say you’re tired, and I’m going to make a stupid mistake. You’re tired, you can still be focused. … Good teams know they tired, and they can still stay in their structure, and I felt our guys gave in.”Skinner’s winner came when he backhanded his blocked shot past Kuemper after some slick passing from Di Giuseppe and Slavin. Ward preserved the lead with a slick glove save off Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s blast with about 40 seconds remaining.Goligoski’s second goal came on a power play with 10.3 seconds left in the second period and put the Coyotes up 5-4.His first goal was the one everyone will be talking about .Ward skated behind the net to play the puck midway through the first, and it somehow wedged inside his right skate. The play was not blown dead, so Ward returned to the net and as he dug into his crease, the puck crossed the goal line. After a brief video review, the goal was awarded to Goligoski.”It’s bad luck for Ward there, but good for us Marc-Andre Fleury Jersey , obviously,” Tocchet said.For the Hurricanes, that was a fitting application of Murphy’s Law to a once-promising season that has gone awry.”That’s a first – got to be a first,” coach Bill Peters said. ”It was one of those where you’re shaking your head, wondering `What else? What’s next?”’Since a victory over New Jersey on March 2, Carolina had gone into a tailspin – a slump marked by consecutive third-period collapses – to all but eliminate itself from the playoff chase. The Hurricanes entered nine points behind the Devils for the East’s final playoff spot.NOTES: Keller has points in seven straight games and is one goal shy of the team rookie record of 22 set by Peter Mueller in 2007-08. … Teravainen and C Sebastian Aho also each have points in seven straight. … Arizona D Niklas Hjalmarsson went down with an apparent leg injury late in the second. … The Hurricanes have given up at least three goals in six straight games.UP NEXTCoyotes: Continue their six-game road swing at Florida on Saturday night.Hurricanes: At Ottawa on Saturday night.— History is being made again in the Stanley Cup playoffs.On the heels of the first back-to-back champions in two decades, the NHL will get a new champion in the salary-cap era that began in 2005. Among the Lightning, Capitals, Jets and Golden Knights, only Tampa Bay has won the Stanley Cup, making this the first time the final four teams have combined for one title or fewer.Tampa Bay is in the Eastern Conference final for the third time in four years, and Washington has made the playoffs 10 out of the past 11 seasons. Yet after one of Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh lifted the Cup every time since 2009 Nate Schmidt Jersey , this crop of new blood is refreshing.”They’re all good stories,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”The same old story sometimes can get old. Once in a while a new chapter is written, and it’ll be good. This year there will be a new chapter.”The next chapter begins with the Capitals visiting the Lightning on Friday night, followed by the Golden Knights at Winnipeg on Saturday night. It’s a full turnover from the final four teams last year: Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Nashville and Anaheim.The Jets became the fourth and final team to reach the third round when they beat the defending Western Conference-champion Predators on the road in Game 7 on Thursday night. Winnipeg is the final hope for Canada’s first Cup celebration since Montreal in 1993 and is in the conference final for the first time in franchise history.”Having some diversity amongst the league is great, and I think it just shows the competitive balance throughout the league,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. ”Having good young players is a great place to start and you see that the teams that have good young players have gotten good fast. So I think it’s a good thing to have some fan bases have some extended postseason success. It just creates a better vibe.”The Lightning are trying to create the vibe Hockey Bay hasn’t seen since winning the Cup in 2004. They fell short in a six-game loss to the Blackhawks in the 2015 final with this core, led by Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.Even after missing the playoffs last year when Stamkos was out long term with a knee injury, Tampa Bay has plenty of recent playoff experience from recent runs and the additions of ex-Rangers players Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and J.T. Miller.”We’ve been here in this situation before,” Stamkos said. ”There’s no panic or nervousness. We’re excited.”Vegas hasn’t been in any situation before, building off the best inaugural season in NHL history by beating Los Angeles and San Jose to reach the West final. Among the four good stories remaining, none is as remarkable as the Golden Knights http://www.goldenknightsshoponline.com/authentic-oscar-dansk-jersey , who pieced together players from around the league to get further than anyone expected.”I haven’t been around a team like this,” general manager George McPhee said. ”This feels like more of a team than any team I’ve ever been with at the NHL level.”McPhee’s former team in Washington has the same feeling. The Capitals aren’t as deep or talented as in years past, but they’re in the East final for the first time since 1998, when McPhee was in his first season as their GM.”I’ve had some teams that have been very, very talented and they weren’t necessarily the best teams,” said Trotz, who is in the third round for the first time in 19 years as an NHL head coach. ”I think the belief in the group, or the chemistry in the group, is the intangible and this group has a good chemistry about it.”What excites Jets coach Paul Maurice most about the fresh teams in the conference finals is the hope it keeps alive in the remaining cities. And each one can legitimately believe its team has a chance to win it all.”That’s the great part about competition,” Maurice said. ”So that’s what’s the most exciting thing is you don’t know, right? There’s not a five-time Stanley Cup champion that’s just ran the first two series 4-0. It’s up for grabs. It’s right there.”—AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.—