Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson is being evaluated after taking a high hit from Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel in Game 5 on Saturday night.

Capitals head coach Barry Trotz was not pleased.

"John took a high hit. He was unsuspecting, with about a minute left. He's being evaluated right now," he said, according to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski. "I know the standard's been set, so I'm going to leave it up the league. It was a head shot in my opinion."

Here's a look at the hit:

Carlson is the Capitals' top blue-liner, so any time missed would be detrimental to the team's chances of moving on. This is especially true considering Tom Wilson is still suspended for one more game, Andre Burakovsky hasn't played since Game 2 of the first round, and Nicklas Backstrom left Game 5 with an upper-body injury.

On the flip side, Guentzel has 10 goals and 21 points this postseason, so if he were to be suspended, the Penguins would be missing an irreplaceable piece of their offense.

Game 6 is set for Monday night in Pittsburgh, as Washington holds a 3-2 series lead.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Kyle Connor scored two goals and had an assist as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Nashville Predators 6-2 on Saturday night, pushing the Presidents' Trophy winners to the brink of elimination with a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference semifinal.

Now the Jets, who just won their first playoff series in the first round, will have a chance to clinch a spot in their first Western Conference final Monday night in Game 6 back in Winnipeg.

Connor Hellebuyck made 38 saves for the Jets.

Dustin Byfuglien and Mark Scheifele each had a goal and an assist, and Paul Stastny and Mathieu Perrault also scored as the Jets got four goals on 14 shots in the second period. Blake Wheeler also had three assists, and Nikolaj Ehlers added two.

Yannick Weber and Ryan Johansen each scored for Nashville. The Predators have not won consecutive games since taking a 2-0 lead over Colorado to start the playoffs.

Pekka Rinne, Nashville's Vezina Trophy finalist, was pulled for the third time this postseason after giving up six goals on 26 shots.

Lady Antebellum became the latest star act to handle the U.S. anthem, and the Grammy-winning trio missed part of the lyrics . But Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton waved the rally towel, and one of first catfish to hit the ice was tossed by Caleb Daniel, a 5-year-old Predators fan with a new heart.

Nashville coach Peter Laviolette switched his lines again, swapping out Scott Hartnell for Kevin Fiala. This change didn't work.

Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice brought back Perrault on the third line after missing eight games with an upper-body injury.

The Predators had plenty of great scoring chances while outshooting the Jets 11-7. Only a great performance by Hellebuyck kept it scoreless through the first period for the first time in this series.

They made up for that in the second. Patrik Laine helped get the Jets on the board with a shot that deflected off Stastny's right hand and past Rinne at 7:44. Defenseman Yannick Weber tied it up for Nashville with a wrister from the left circle at 11:08 .

Then the Jets scored two goals 2:05 apart. First, Connor scored off the rebound of a shot by Scheifele with 7:30 left for his first postseason goal, then Rinne lost his stick in a scrum in the crease. The puck squirted out, and Byfuglien scored with a slap shot for a 3-1 lead with 5:25 remaining. Connor made it 4-1 with a wrister from the slot with just under three minutes to go.

The period seemed to be slipping further away from Nashville when Viktor Arvidsson went to the box for slashing. But Johansen scored his fifth goal this postseason with 2:01 remaining for the first short-handed goal of his career in the postseason.

The Jets made it 5-2 just 28 seconds into the third, stifling any Nashville rally when Scheifele scored his ninth goal this postseason from the slot . Perreault capped the scoring at 6:23 to chase Rinne for the second time this series.

NOTES: Nashville now is 0-4 when trailing after two periods. ... Weber's goal was the fourth of his career in the postseason and first with Nashville.

---

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

---

Follow Teresa M. Walker at www.twitter.com/teresamwalker

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne was yanked in the third period of Game 5 against the Winnipeg Jets after allowing six goals on 26 shots.

This is already the third time this postseason - and the second time this series - that Rinne has been pulled mid-game in favor of Juuse Saros.

Mathieu Perreault, who hadn't played since Game 1 of the first round against the Minnesota Wild, notched the sixth tally that led to Rinne's departure.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Washington Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom left Game 5 against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an upper-body injury, head coach Barry Trotz said after the game.

There was no clear incident during which Backstrom may have suffered an injury, but it's worth noting the center only took three faceoffs in his 15:55 of ice time, indicating he may have already been battling some sort of wrist or shoulder ailment.

Already without forwards Tom Wilson and Andre Burakovsky, Washington would be in tough to close out its series - which it leads 3-2 - against the Penguins if Backstrom misses any time.

The Caps' first chance to finish off the Pens will come Monday night in Pittsburgh.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Warning: Story contains coarse language

Jakub Vrana is the man of the hour in Washington.

The Capitals winger scored the winning goal late in Game 5 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, and was clearly quite pleased with his accomplishment:

Vrana was promoted to the top line alongside Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin mid-game in place of Devante Smith-Pelly, who'd initially been filling in for the suspended Tom Wilson.

All three players drew points on the winning tally.

For his part, Vrana didn't seem bothered about being the second fill-in option

"That's just how the game rolls," he said. "Sometimes you're gonna make changes. Today we did. We were all ready. I felt comfortable out there."

It was Vrana's second career playoff goal, with the first - another game-winner - coming back in Game 2.

The Capitals can now advance to the conference finals for the first time in the Ovechkin era with a win Monday in Pittsburgh.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Step aside, Jaromir.

Sidney Crosby surpassed Jaromir Jagr for the second-most playoff goals in Pittsburgh Penguins franchise history with his second-period tally against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.

The goal was in vintage Crosby fashion, too, as he deflected home a Phil Kessel shot on the power play.

The redirect was Crosby's ninth goal and 20th point thus far this postseason. Considering the way he's been rolling, surpassing Mario Lemieux for the top spot on the franchise's playoff goal-scoring list could possibly happen in 2018 if the Pens make another run to the Stanley Cup final.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Washington sure capitalized on its opportunities late in the first period of Game 5.

Down 1-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins with less than two minutes remaining in the opening frame, the Capitals scored two goals in 33 seconds to take the lead.

The first came off the stick of defenseman John Carlson on the power play.

Forward Brett Connolly added the second in short order.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The United States defeated Denmark on Saturday to improve to 2-0 at the 2018 World Championship.

Goals were scored by Will Butcher, Chris Kreider, Cam Atkinson, and Nick Jensen, while goaltender Keith Kinkaid needed only 12 saves to earn the shutout.

The American squad defeated Canada in a shootout on the opening day of the tournament, and will next face off against Germany on Monday.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Boston Bruins will be without defenseman Torey Krug for at least Sunday's Game 5 of their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning due to a lower-body injury, head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed Saturday.

Krug suffered an apparent ankle injury during Game 4, and Cassidy added that the initial prognosis isn't all that encouraging.

"He's still getting evaluated, but doesn’t look good that it will be short term," Cassidy said.

Krug is averaging just over 20 minutes of ice time for the Bruins this postseason, and ranks fourth on the team with 12 points in 11 games (three goals, nine assists).

Cassidy added that Nick Holden will enter the lineup to play alongside Adam McQuaid on Sunday.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Kevin Fiala's absence from the Nashville Predators lineup will apparently be a short one.

The young forward told Brooks Bratten of the club's communications department that he saw his name on the lineup for Game 5 against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.

Fiala will draw in for veteran Scott Hartnell, while the rest of the lineup is expected to mirror that of Game 4, according to The Tennessean's Adam Vingan.

The veteran Hartnell replaced Fiala in Game 4, which the Predators won 2-1 on Thursday night,

Fiala played in the first three contests in Nashville's second-round series against Winnipeg after appearing in all six games of the opening-round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.

The 21-year-old scored in two of the three against the Jets before sitting out Thursday. He chipped in with a goal and an assist in the first round.

Copyright © 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.