BRUINS, BOLTS PICK UP WINS

Bruins 5, Maple Leafs 1

BOSTON — Brad Marchand, David Backes and David Krejci each scored a powerplay goal, and Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots to lead the Boston Bruins to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night in Game 1 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. David Pastrnak also scored for Boston, and Sean Kuraly bunted one out of the air and into the net over goalie Frederik Andersen to make it 4-1 with seven minutes gone in the third period. Krejci bounced it in off Andersen from behind to make it 5-1 after Toronto’s Nazem Kadri was thrown out of the game and given a five-minute major for an elbow to Tommy Wingels’ head.

Zach Hyman scored Toronto’s only goal, and Andersen made 35 saves.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is back at the TD Garden on Saturday night. The matchup is the first in the post-season 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.

Lightning 5, Devils 2

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning are off to a strong start in the NHL playoffs.

The top seed in the Eastern Conference got early goals from four players — none of them named Nikita Kucherov or Steven Stamkos — before holding off the New Jersey Devils for a 5-2 victory Thursday night in Game 1 of the first-round series. Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Yanni Gourde scored, helping the Lightning build a 3-0 lead that New Jersey trimmed to one goal before Alex Killorn and Kucherov, who added an empty-netter with 1:12 remaining, finished off the win.

Taylor Hall scored an unassisted goal in the second period, then assisted on Travis Zajac’s power-play goal that trimmed the Devils’ deficit to 3-2 midway through third against Andrei Vasilievskiy, who had 29 saves for Tampa Bay.

Killorn’s shot over the glove of goalie Kevin Kincaid’s glove restored a two-goal lead before Kucherov, who led the Lightning with 100 points this season, ensured there would be no comeback. Game 2 is Saturday at Amalie Arena.