Lightning lead 3 teams in clinching
TORONTO — Brayden Point’s goal 5:12 into overtime Wednesday gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 5-4 victory over Columbus, eliminating the Blue Jackets from the Stanley Cup playoffs in five games after they squandered a twogoal, third-period lead.
Point also delivered the winner in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series, a five-overtime thriller that wound up being the fourth-longest game in NHL history.
Kevin Shattenkirk and Anthony Cirelli scored in the final eight minutes of regulation to erase a 4-2 deficit. Earlier, Columbus scored four consecutive times to overcome an early two-goal deficit of its own.
Tampa Bay was swept from the first round by the Blue Jackets last season.
BRUINS 2, HURRICANES 1
Patrice Bergeron broke a tie with 3.5 seconds left in the second period, and Boston beat Carolina to win the first-round playoff series in five games at Toronto.
The Bruins trailed 1-0 entering the final 5 minutes of the second period before scoring twice on the power play, first from David Krejci with 4:40 left and then Bergeron.
AVALANCHE 7, COYOTES 1
Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, Nazem Kadri also scored twice and Colorado routed Arizona to close out the first-round Western Conference playoff series at Edmonton, Alberta in five games.
Colorado, the No. 2 seed in the West, took control of the series with a Game 4 blowout and skated into the next round with three first-period goals in Game 5.
Kadri scored two goals for the second straight game, both in the first period, and finished with five in the series. Samuel Girard also had a goal in the first and MacKinnon scored twice in 58 seconds of the second to put Colorado up 5-0.
CANADIENS 5, FLYERS 3
Nick Suzuki buried the winner 22 seconds after Philadelphia tied it in the third period, Brendan Gallagher snapped a goal drought and Montreal won Game 5 at Toronto to stave off elimination and cuti its series deficit to 3-2.
Joel Armia scored twice for the Canadiens, Phillip Danualt sealed it into an empty net, and Carey Price made 26 saves.