Blues edge Stars in overtime to advance in playoffs

Pat Maroon scored 5:50 into the second overtime Tuesday to give the St. Louis Blues a 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars and a place in the NHL Western Conference final.The home victory sealed a 4-3 win in the best-of-seven second round playoff series. They’ll face either the San Jose Sharks or Colorado Avalanche for a place in the Stanley Cup final.Tyler Bozak won an offensive-zone face-off for the Blues, Robert Thomas skated from the circle to the left of Stars goalie Ben Bishop, shot off the post, and Maroon tapped in the puck for the game-winner.“I scored the goal, it still hasn’t hit me, but what an exciting time in St. Louis,” said Maroon, a native of the Missouri city.Jamie Benn almost scored on a wraparound for Dallas at 4:19 of the second overtime.Vince Dunn also scored, and goalie Jordan Binnington made 29 saves for the Blues, who advanced to the conference final for the first time since 2016.Bishop made an NHL career-high 52 saves for Dallas, who also lost a game seven to the Blues in the second round in 2016.Bishop became the fifth goalie to stop 50 or more shots in a Game Seven since 1955-56. He kept the Stars alive through the second and third as St. Louis out-shot Dallas 31-4 in those two periods. Dunn scored his first goal of the playoffs to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 13:30 of the first period on a wrist shot from the left point that went off the right shoulder of Bishop.Mats Zuccarello tied it 1-1 at 15:55 after a wild sequence that started when Binning lost his stick in a tangle with the Stars’ Tyler Seguin.David Perron tried to clear the puck but his attempt caromed off the referee and ricocheted off the side of the net to the slot and Zuccarello fired home a shot.Bruins’ McAvoy suspended for Eastern finals openerBoston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy maintained that his hit on Columbus Blue Jackets right winger Josh Anderson on Monday was intended as nothing more than a hard hockey check.While the on-ice officials for the Bruins’ clinching Game 6 win in Columbus appeared to agree, issuing him only a two-minute minor for contact to the head, the NHL on Tuesday nonetheless suspended McAvoy for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Bruins open the series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday in Boston. After holding a hearing involving McAvoy, the league’s Department of Player Safety on Tuesday backed up the player’s contention that he had no malicious intent in the check on Anderson, who left the ice after the second-period collision but returned later in the game.The hit occurred after Anderson won control of the puck and was trying to move deeper into the attacking zone. His head appeared to take the brunt of McAvoy’s hit. “I put my shoulder into him. It was a hockey play. I tried to finish my check in a legal manner,” McAvoy said. “I was penalised two minutes and I served it.”However, the league said it issued the disciplinary measure because McAvoy could have made the check on Anderson without hitting him in the head.In a video released by the department that talked about the suspension, the league said: “It’s important to note that while Anderson’s body and front shoulder do absorb some contact on this check, the main point of contact was the head.”