Israel Folau could still be paid by Rugby Australia despite having his contract ended because of a social media post in which he said "hell awaits" gay people, says former international Pat Howard.

Folau's future will be decided on 4 May at a hearing requested by the 30-year-old full-back following his dismissal.

It will be heard behind closed doors in Sydney by a three-member panel.

"I can't see him playing again for Australia," Howard told BBC Sport.

"[But] you can still be paid but not selected."

Howard is an experienced sports administrator who left his position as the high-performance manager of Cricket Australia in November following another high-profile sporting controversy in the country - the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March 2018.

"I never like writing anybody off ever, for anything," said Howard, capped 20 times by Australia at rugby union. "There's got to be repercussions and then where he ends up, so be it."

Folau signed a four-year deal with Sydney-based Super Rugby side the Waratahs in March and had a contract with Rugby Australia until 2022, having escaped punishment for similar comments last year.

Rugby Australia said he "had committed a high-level breach of the Professional Players' Code of Conduct warranting termination of his employment contract".

Howard said the situation "needs to come to a conclusion", but that the case for sacking Folau was "murky".

"I'm sure they're planning for him not to be involved. But I look at this differently," he said.

"It's the employment aspect. Unfortunately that will be protracted. You can still be paid but not selected. Selection and employment are two different things. It's very murky.

"You shouldn't be able to sack people for religious reasons, we all get that, but you also can't just say things that vilify everybody. These two things absolutely contradict each other.

"That's the real challenge. But a lot of the players have said the situation is not rectifiable, so I think that's laid the platform."

FONTANA, Calif. – Simon Gregg’s TA class victory in round two of the Trans-Am Presented by Pirelli West Coast Championship at Auto Club Speedway was not how he wanted to claim it.

Nicholas Rosseno’s TA2 class win and first overall finish played out exactly to script in the young Californian’s wildest dreams.

Gregg needed to complete only half of the race’s scheduled 36-lap/100.8-mile to claim the victory and maximum points as his only TA-class rival, Greg Pickett, was unable to start Sunday’s feature

Pickett’s Ford Mustang, which won the West Series season-opener at Thunderhill Raceway, lost an engine in qualifying – as it had at Thunderhill. Late on Saturday evening, the team learned the spare was not plumbed to fit the Mustang engine bay, forcing them to withdraw.

“First, hearing about Greg [Pickett’s] engine was a bummer,” said Gregg, the soft-spoken Floridian who this month is celebrating 20 years with the Minnesota-based, Troy Benner-owned Derhaag team.

For his first race at Auto Club Speedway, Gregg had come focused on winning, had been fastest of all in practice and qualifying, and was determined to claim his fifth career Trans-Am victory. With his only competition unable to start, though, Gregg had only to complete half the race distance to collect the victory. His crew sent him out to do half distance plus one lap, which Gregg did dutifully, pulling away three to five seconds per lap from the TA2 pack behind, retiring quietly on lap 20.

“I’m excited about [the next race at] Laguna Seca,” Gregg said in the morning, forced to hold back his enthusiasm until the next race in just a week’s time.

Thus the story at Fontana was the growing TA2 class, and it was a dramatic tale start to finish, with a big cast, a string of woes, and a happy ending for the trio of podium finishers.

The highly anticipated Brad McAllister vs. Anthony Honeywell/Mustang vs. Camaro duel in TA2 was over at the start as the differential in periodontist McAllister’s Thunderhill-winning and Fontana pole-winning Mustang failed and he coasted through the pit exit into the paddock.

CPA Honeywell’s second-fastest-qualifying Honeywell Competition/TFB Performance Camaro tore away into a comfortable lead which he’d extended to nearly 17 seconds on lap 25 when his alternator failed and he, too, coasted into the pits.

Honeywell’s retirement handed the lead on lap 25 to Michael Mihld who was suddenly in the spotlight, the Temecula, Calif., native having worked his way to the front from next to last on the grid, starting at the back because a broken suspension pick-up forced him to miss qualifying.

Mihld’s story lasted only one lap. A driveshaft broke as he accelerated toward turn 12 on the very next lap and he rolled silently to a stop.

In the space of two laps, Rosseno moved from third to first, into a comfortable lead he would extend to 23.14 seconds and never relinquish.

While it sounds like a boring second half, the race was never dull, thanks to a breathtaking battle between David Smith’s Shockwave Marine Camaro and Cameron Parsons self-supported similar car which lasted in varying degrees of intensity from laps 17 to the final lap 36, the pair passing and re-passing several times.

“We certainly didn’t give each other anything, and I’m glad I did short-track racing,” said Canadian Smith after the race. “I really thought I could pick up the draft at the start from McAllister, but it didn’t work out that way…”

McAllister’s differential breaking on the line caught out Smith who was right behind, and sent the red Shockwave Camaro to nearly the back of the TA2 field — into the clutches of young Parsons who had started last after missing qualifying altogether with alternator problems.

In spurts and bursts, the pair slowly worked their way forward, all the way up to second and third following the spate of mid-race retirements, where their scrap in the closing laps kept the crowd in the pit lane boxes on their feet.

For his back-to-front efforts and race-long battling, Smith took the Cool Shirt Systems Cool Move of the Race award.

Rosseno was a jubilant winner, his consistency over the closing laps belying his lack of experience: Fontana was only his second-ever race start.

“I haven’t raced a car competitively ever, other than quarter midgets and stuff when I was a little kid. License last year and then Trans-Am this year.”

With such a big lead, was Rosseno hearing things in those final laps?

“I started smelling things actually,” he said. “I started to get a little hint of gear oil. We’d been having problems with the rear end throughout practice and the race at Thunderhill. But we made it to the finish!”

Rosseno, an IT specialist by day, acquired the ex-Justin Napoleon Camaro last year and maintains it with his dad, a “family project” that earned an impressive reward at Auto Club Speedway.

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – A new track record wrecks in qualifying and hard racing in the Drydene heat races.

All were leading up to a thrilling 40-lap feature Sunday night at Jacksonville Speedway, but then Mother Nature intervened.

World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and track officials were forced to postpone the remainder of Sunday’s event, which still had the last chance showdown and feature to go.

Series and track officials are looking for a reschedule date.

With 42 cars in attendance and a packed house at the speedway, the night started with NASCAR star Christopher Bell setting a blistering sub-10 second lap in hot laps – 9.887 seconds, a second faster than Logan Schuchart’s 2016 record setting lap of 10.805 seconds. That lap didn’t count for the track record since it came in hot laps.

Instead, Aaron Reutzel reset the track record in qualifying with a 10.028-second lap.

“We were fortunate enough to draw good and not go out too late,” Reutzel said after claiming the track record. “The track definitely fell off there.”

The event then moved into four thrilling Drydene heat races. Reutzel continued to show his speed by winning the first heat. Three-time series champion Sammy Swindell and rookie Carson Macedo had a fierce battle to the finish of the second heat, with Swindell coming out on top. Schatz won the third heat and David Gravel won the final heat, with Brent Marks finishing second from 10th.

The final heat was the start to Marks’ comeback story, after crashing in qualifying and not making a lap. His strong heat race run put him in the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash. He grabbed the lead at the start of the Dash and set sail for the checkered flag, claiming his first Dash win of the season.

The Last Chance Showdown was on track next, but Mother Nature decided to let rain fall, thus bringing an end to the evening.

SLINGER, Wis. – Even after winning a track championship and accomplishing a feat done only once before in 70-plus years of racing at Slinger Super Speedway, Alex Prunty still thinks he has something to prove.

That’s why he’s back to defend his super late model title and his defense got off to a good start Sunday.

Prunty won the second of the twin 50-lap super late model features during Slinger’s opening day. His uncle, Dennis, won the first 50-lapper. Alex Prunty finished fourth in that feature.

In victory lane, Alex Prunty said it was a long, but busy offseason.

“We changed a lot of stuff,” he said. “We kind of went back to the drawing board. People look at our year last year and I know we won the championship, but I wasn’t happy. I want to be top of the chart speed and qualifying was a struggle. We changed a lot of stuff.”

With last season’s championship, Prunty joined Miles Melius as the only drivers to win a track championship at Slinger in three divisions. Melius won the midget title in 1949, stocks in 1954 and won five modified titles between 1958 and 1967. Prunty, in addition to his super late model title in 2018, won the Slinger Bees title in 2010 and the limited late model title in 2012 and ’15.

To him, some critics still weren’t impressed.

“Last year was a year where a lot of people looked at like we lucked into it,” he said. “This year, it’s kind of wanting to prove and verify yourself. A lot of the great champions have won two times.”

Would that be enough? Prunty believes no, even if he were to win three in a row. That’s why he continues to come to the track and compete, even after accomplishing the one feat he wanted to do since he was a 6 years old.

“This is our 11th year here and I’m still trying to prove myself,” Prunty said.

– Also picking up feature wins Sunday during the Slinger oener were Jacob Nottestad (limited late model), Ryan Gutknecht (sportsman), Steve Dickson (Slinger Bees), Steve Zoromski (Super Beez), Ryan Lovald (Figure 8) and Mick Ellis (American Super Cup Series).

“It was a hell of a battle,” Nottestad said, who also revealed he’ll be doing a full season at Slinger. “It’s a good start to the year.”

– Sunday’s festivities kicked off a season-long celebration at Slinger. This year, the village is celebrating 150 years since its founding, originally known as Schlesingerville. On Sunday, in addition to the twin 50-lap features, there was a 50-lap limited late model feature. It was the first time since 2006 the Slinger opener had a pair of features for the super late model division. Al Schill and Dennis Prunty won those races.

– Slinger’s 72nd season of racing got off to a quick start with Jerry Mueller breaking the track record in the limited late models (11.929 seconds). Mueller said it was his first fast time in 18 years.

– As a celebration of the past, more than 70 current and former track champions were united for a group photo. Among the champions on hand were Willie Goeden, Al Schill Sr., Rich Bickle Jr., Mark Ritger, Lowell Bennett and Johnny Ziegler.

– The new was also celebrated Sunday with the Wisconsin debut of Five Star RaceCar Bodies’ new late model body. It had already debuted on the East Coast, as well as in Arizona and Washington.

“We were exceptionally pleased with how they looked on the track,” said Steve Einhaus, sales manager for Five Star.

The new body was the first redesign by the company in 15 years. The noticeable difference for the fans was the revamped nose, which includes a clear distinction between Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.

Alex Prunty is one of those drivers with the new body and he said he didn’t notice too many differences one way or the other as far as performance on the track. In the first 50-lapper, he said he struggled with some of the handling, but made some adjustments ahead of the next 50-lapper and was strong from the onset of the feature.

Dennis Prunty won the other feature with an older body style.

BRASELTON, Ga. — The 42nd Historic Sportscar Racing Mitty came to a safe and successful conclusion Sunday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta where a competitive group of repeat and first-time weekend winners scored race victories on the 2.54-mile road course under picture-perfect sunny skies with temperatures in the low 80s.

Sunday began with the B.R.M. Chronographes Vintage and GT Classic Enduro Challenge and ended with the HSR Classic RS Cup sprint, and one driver won both feature races.

Todd Treffert is no stranger to victory lane on HSR race weekends and he added two more trophies from the HSR Mitty to his collection on Sunday. Treffert took both overall and GTC class honors in the B.R.M. Enduro Challenge in the morning and then closed out the weekend in winning style with a victory in the Classic RS Cup race.

Treffert competed in his always-quick Speedconcepts 1974 No. 141 Porsche 911 IROC that was prepared this weekend by the 901 Shop.

Fritz Seidel finished second to Treffert in both races in the Ecurie Engineering 1973 Porsche 911 IROC. Jack Lewis was third in the RS Cup race in his 1974 No. 9 Porsche 911 IROC while Treffert and Seidel were joined on the B.R.M. GTC podium by third-place finisher Eric Lux in the Goldcrest Motorsports 1973 No. 00 Porsche 911 RSR.

The Vintage-class victory in the B.R.M. race went to George Balbach in his Ecurie Engineering 1966 No. 0 Porsche 911. The win was the third-straight victory of the weekend for Balbach in two different Ecurie-prepared Porsches. He scored a Sasco Sports International/American Challenge Porsche-class win Friday in the 911 and a Saturday victory in a 1960 No. 0 Porsche 356B in the WeatherTech Sprint Group 2 race.

Balbach shared the B.R.M. Vintage podium with runner-up Jamie Busby in his 1970 No. 88 Porsche 914/6 and third-place finisher John Deford in the 1970 No. 57 Porsche 914/6. Both the Busby and Deford 914/6 Porsches are prepared by the 901 Shop.

Another Sunday Feature Race was the HSR Global GT sprint won by Patrick Dussault in his No. 121 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup car prepared by GT Racing. Marc Montour was second in his GT Racing 2014 No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 while Les Long completed the podium in third in his Air Power Racing 2007 No. 496 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup.

Balbach’s weekend-high tally of three race wins was matched by Louis-Philippe “LP” Montour – Marc Montour’s son – who picked up the overall Group 9 and 10 WeatherTech Sprint win in the No. 27 Aston Martin for the second straight day Sunday. In addition to sweeping his WeatherTech races, “LP” co-drove to a Saturday B.R.M. Enduro Challenge win with his father.

Balbach came close to four wins this weekend but was edged by Joe Colasacco for Sunday’s WeatherTech Group 2 victory. Colasacco’s win in his rare 1963 No. 8 Alfa Romeo TZ-1 was popular with the large contingent of Alfa Romeo fans on hand this weekend to support the official marque of the 42nd HSR Mitty.

In addition to featured marque Alfa Romeo, historic Stock Cars were in the spotlight this weekend at the 42nd HSR Mitty and NASCAR legend Bill Elliott swept both Stock Car Feature Races Saturday and Sunday. Elliott drove a more-than-familiar 2006 No. 9 Dodge Charger.

Second-place in Sunday’s Stock Car Feature went to Brian Norman in another 2006 No. 19 Dodge Charger while Frank Marcum broke through for third in his 2001 No. 1 Ford Taurus.

The WeatherTech Sprint doubleheaders saw several competitors sweep both the Saturday and Sunday rounds in their respective run groups. Competitors going two-for-two overall in their WeatherTech races included Doc Bundy in the 1964 No. 124 Lotus 23b (Group 3), Tom O’Grady in the 1962 No. 53 Cooper T59 (Group 4 A/B), Edward Sevadjian in his 1969 No. 36 Chevrolet Corvette (Group 5) and Jacek Mucha in his 2006 No. 07 Swift JMS-016CP (Group 7 and 11).

Saturday winners

OXFORD, Maine — Garrett Hall drove to an impressive Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model victory Sunday afternoon at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway, taking the lead from reigning series champion D.J. Shaw, then hanging on to the top spot.

Hall, three times a winner in PASS action prior to last season, seemed almost surprised to be collecting the big trophy after struggling prior to the main event. After starting 20th in the 33-car field Hall patiently worked his way into contention, chasing down Shaw.

Shaw had his hands full just getting to the lead after starting 11th. Nick Sweet turned in the quickest laps of the day while setting the early pace before gremlins drove the car to pit road under green flag conditions. Maritime Canadian Pro Stock champion, and 2018 PASS North race winner Cole Butcher took command after Sweet was sidelined.

Butcher and Shaw soon waged a long battle for the lead as Hall steadily moved upward in the running order. Late caution periods in a race that was otherwise reasonably trouble-free offered Hall an opportunity and the Blackpoint Motorsports driver got his Norm’s Used Cars 94 past Shaw and into victory lane.

Hall’s last PASS Super Late Model victory was a memorable, wreck-after-the-checkered win over Ben Rowe at his hometown racetrack, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in September of 2017.

Shaw’s runner-up finish unofficially vaulted him to the top of the current PASS North Super Late Model standings. Cassius Clark, who won on opening night at Oxford Plains Speedway last year, earned third-place honors aboard the Nova Scotia-based King Racing 13.

Matty Sanborn scored a popular, first PASS Mods win, leading all 40 laps on his way to victory lane.  It wasn’t as easy as that sounds, as fellow first-win seekers Mike Carignan and Spencer Morse both mounted stiff challenges that were turned back by Sanborn.

Morse, who spun out of the lead pack and fell to the rear of the field at one point, charged back into second position under the checkered flag, with first-time PASS Mods racer Justin Larsen, the 2013 Mini Stock division champion at Oxford Plains Speedway, earning third-place hardware. Carignan and Billy Dixon rounded out the top five.

The finish:

Garrett Hall, D.J. Shaw, Cassius Clark, Cole Butcher, Gabe Brown, Derek Griffith, Mike Rowe, Alan Tardiff, Travis Benjamin, Ashton Tucker, Dan Winter, Evan Hallstrom, Eddie MacDonald, John Peters, Ben Rowe, Shawn Martin, Rusty Poland, Ben Tinker, Glen Luce, Craig Weinstein, T.J. Brackett, Johnny Clark, Calvin Rose Jr., Brandon Barker, Ryan Green, Nick Sweet, Curtis Gerry, Tracy Gordon, Ryan Robbins, Timmy Brackett, Bryan Kruczek, Reid Lanpher, Scott McDaniel.

ORNSKOLDSVIK, Sweden -- Jack Hughes, the likely No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL draft, broke the IIHF Men's World U18 Championship scoring record Sunday -- a mark that had been held by Alex Ovechkin.

Hughes collected three points in Team USA's 5-2 win in the bronze-medal game against rival Canada to finish his U18 worlds career with 32 points, one more than what Ovechkin put up over the 2002 and 2003 tournaments.

Hughes's 20 points is the second highest single-tournament point total in the event's history. He fell just one point shy of equaling the record set by current Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov in 2011. Hughes set the mark for most points in a single tournament by a U.S. player.

"It's special," Hughes said of surpassing Ovechkin. "It's a cool tournament and I've been lucky enough to play in it twice. It's been two pretty good runs. It's really cool to be on top of that ranking, but for me this tournament is about gold. For us to come out with bronze, it's a good ending. We capped off our two years with a win."

As Hughes noted, the game represented the last of a two-year tenure at USA Hockey's national team development program for him and his teammates. Hughes leaves as the NTDP's all-time leading scorer by a significant margin. His 228 points in 110 career games dwarf those of Clayton Keller who held the record previously at 189.

Additionally, teammate Cole Caufield finished the tournament with 14 goals, which tied Ovechkin for the single-tournament record. The talented winger, who plays on the same line with Hughes, finished his NTDP season with 72 goals and his career with 126, both program records by a substantial margin. He shattered the single-season mark of 55, previously held by Auston Matthews. The career record was previously held by Phil Kessel, who scored 104 goals over his two years with the Michigan-based outfit.

The bronze medal win for Team USA also extended the country's unprecedented medal streak at the Men's U18 World Championship. This is the 16th consecutive year the Americans have come out with a medal, dating back to 2004. Over that span they have claimed nine gold medals, four silvers and three bronze.

Russia, which bounced the United States in a shootout Saturday, will meet host Sweden for gold Sunday.

The New Jersey Devils own the first overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hopefully the cleanup crew at SAP Center has some extra mop buckets. It's going to take a few to soak up the sarcasm that dripped from San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic in discussing an icing call that wasn't whistled by the officials and led to a critical Colorado Avalanche goal in their 4-3 win in Game 2 on Sunday.

"I'll take the high road and wait for the league's apology tomorrow," Vlasic said.

So it wasn't the right call?

"I'm taking the high road. Waiting for the apology tomorrow," Vlasic reiterated in what was presumably a reference to the NHL's apology to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Sharks' first-round opponent, after the on-ice officials mistakenly handed the Sharks a major penalty power-play that turned the tide in Game 7.

On this play in Game 2, with the Sharks and Avalanche tied 1-1 in the second period, Vlasic and Mikko Rantanen raced for the puck on what would have been an icing violation against Colorado.

The on-ice officials didn't whistle the play down, as they believed Rantanen had broken up the icing. But the Sharks hesitated, looking like they assumed one was coming. That led to a point-blank shot from Gabriel Landeskog that was stopped by goalie Martin Jones, but he couldn't stop the follow-up blast from defenseman Tyson Barrie, giving the Avalanche a lead they did not surrender.

While Vlasic disagreed with the call, Colorado coach Jared Bednar felt differently.

"It was the exact same as the icing here the other night, when [Erik] Karlsson had the inside track on [J.T.] Compher," Bednar said. "They're in a race. They blow it down for icing because Karlsson had the inside path. To me, on this one, I'm watching Mikko [Rantanen] go up the ice, he's got a head of steam, he's getting to the right area, he's got the inside path on Vlasic on the post. It looks to me like Mikko's going to get their first, so they let it go. To me, it's similar plays: The guy on the inside got the call. One was against us. One was in our favor."

Sharks coach Peter DeBoer split the difference, saying it was obvious that his players thought there should have been a whistle, but it was also obvious that they needed to play until they heard one.

"Whether or not I thought it was doesn't matter," he said. "Our players did. They let up. They relaxed for a minute, and it obviously wasn't. So the lesson in that was don't assume anything in the playoffs. Play and make sure."

The Avalanche tied the series 1-1, and Game 3 is Tuesday in Denver. The Avs lost Game 1 against Calgary in the first round and then roared back with four straight wins. The Sharks will go on the road tied 1-1 for the sixth time in franchise history. They won each of the previous five such series.

The Carolina Hurricanes are bruised and battered. They're also two wins away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals. Plus, the Colorado Avalanche got even with the San Jose Sharks -- but not without some controversy.

Here's what happened in the NHL Sunday night (check out replays of every playoff game on ESPN+) and what to watch for Monday night in today's edition of ESPN Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily:

Jump ahead: Last night's games | Three Stars
Play of the night | Today's games | Social post of the day

About last night ...

Game 2: Carolina Hurricanes 2, New York Islanders 1 (Hurricanes lead series 2-0) The Hurricanes have personified the "next man up" philosophy through these playoffs, but this was ridiculous. Already down forwards Andrei Svechnikov (concussion protocol), Micheal Ferland (upper body) and Jordan Martinook (lower body), the Hurricanes lost defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk (upper body) 32 seconds into the first period and then lost starting goalie (and playoff hero) Petr Mrazek about six and a half minutes into the second period, after he stopped nine of 10 shots.

Next man up: Curtis McElhinney came on in goal and turned away all 17 shots he faced. Meanwhile, Warren Foegele and Nino Niederreiter scored 48 seconds apart in the third period to give the Hurricanes the 2-0 series lead.

Game 2: Colorado Avalanche 4, San Jose Sharks 3 (series tied 1-1) So is this the template for the Avalanche? Struggle in a Game 1 loss on the road, rebound with a great effort in Game 2 to even the series? It happened against Calgary in the first round, and it happened on Sunday against San Jose. "We'll take that. We'll win the next three. That'd be great," said defenseman Tyson Barrie with a laugh. "This was a little bit different than the Calgary one, but it's nice to be able to know that if you're down in the series, you can come back."

The Avs answered an Evander Kane goal in the first period with tallies by Gabriel Landeskog and Barrie in the second, and then a big goal from Matt Nieto in the third. Nathan MacKinnon's empty netter ended up being the game winner after Brent Burns' second goal of the game -- on the power play, with an extra skater -- made it a one-goal game with 11 seconds left.

Three Stars

1. Curtis McElhinney, G, Carolina Hurricanes. Anyone who paid attention to the Hurricanes this season knows that McElhinney had the stuff to step in and potentially win Game 2. From Dec. 31 through the end of the season, he went 13-6-1 for Carolina. Yet this was only his third career playoff appearance, and he certainly made it count with 17 saves in injury relief of Petr Mrazek as the Canes took a 2-0 series lead.

2. Tyson Barrie, D, Colorado Avalanche. Just a huge effort from Colorado's top puck-moving defenseman (pending Cale Makar's official breakout). His shot was tipped home by Landeskog for the Avs' first goal. Then he scored his first goal of the playoffs just over eight minutes later for the 2-1 lead. He had the secondary assist on their third goal of the game. He was on the ice for the Sharks' second goal, but otherwise played well throughout.

3. Brent Burns, D, San Jose Sharks. Burns had two goals and an assist in Game 2, including a late power-play goal that made things interesting. It should be noted, however, that he was on the ice for two of the Avalanche's non-empty-net goals.

Play of the Night

Then they took a 2-1 lead. #StanleyCup>pic.twitter.com/t6IjHhL4ns - NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) April 28, 2019

Just a gorgeous deflection here from Hurricanes forward Nino Niederreiter to give his team a lead it wouldn't surrender. Niederreiter was drafted fifth overall by the Islanders in 2010, and was traded to Minnesota for Cal Clutterbuck in 2013. The Wild traded him to Carolina for Victor Rask in January.

Dud of the Night

Bednar, on non-icing call: "Exact same as the icing the other night. Karlsson had inside track on [Nieto], they're in a race. They blow it down because Karlsson had inside path. [Mikko's] got inside path on Vlasic. 2 similar plays, guy on inside got the call." (HT @wyshynski)>pic.twitter.com/x5oQc7EtJv - Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 29, 2019

The Sharks on that icing call. Whether or not the linesmen blew the call -- and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic is waiting for his apology -- San Jose coach Peter DeBoer probably had the best take on Barrie's goal: "Whether or not I thought it was doesn't matter. Our players did. They let up. They relaxed for a minute and it obviously wasn't. So the lesson in that was don't assume anything in the playoffs. Play, and make sure."

On the schedule

St. Louis Blues at Dallas Stars, Game 3, 8 p.m. ET (Series tied 1-1)

On the one hand, Jordan Binnington had a .929 save percentage in three wins at Winnipeg in the first round. On the other hand, he had one good win (21 saves, .955 save percentage) and one not-so-great loss (four goals allowed on 24 shots) in Dallas this season.

Social post of the day

This video of the @NHLCanes>#TakeWarning>pic.twitter.com/4fiPcjpNGl - FOX Sports Carolinas (@CanesOnFSCR) April 29, 2019

You think the locals are fired up about this Carolina Hurricanes run?

Quotable

"This was the horseshoe-up-the-a-- game for us." -- anonymous Carolina player to Arthur Staple of The Athletic on Game 2.