Palat strikes twice as Lightning surge ahead

Ondrej Palat scored twice in the first 3:19 of the game Wednesday night, and the Lightning beat the host Bruins 4-1 to open a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots for the Lightning, who have won two straight since losing the series opener at home.

Anthony Cirelli scored his first career NHL playoff goal — with an assist from Yanni Gourde, whose wife gave birth on Tuesday — giving the Lightning a 3-1 lead late in the first.

Patrice Bergeron scored his fourth goal of the playoffs for the Bruins, and Tuukka Rask made 33 saves. Game 4 is Friday night. Palat scored just 1:47 in after Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk settled the puck with his glove in his own end, then appeared to lose track of it and skated away, leaving the Lightning with an easy 2-on-1 opportunity.

Palat made it 2-0 just 92 seconds later on a shot that deflected off Bruins defenseman Torey Krug and into the net.

It stayed that way until the Lightning picked up a power play in the final two minutes when Krug tripped Cirelli as he chased after the puck with an empty net in front of him.

The Lightning made it 4-1 anyway when Steven Stamkos found the empty net on the power play with 42 seconds left.

The NHL suspended Capitals forward Tom Wilson three games for an illegal hit on the Penguins’ Zach Aston-Reese.

The league announced the suspension less than 24 hours after Wilson broke Aston-Reese’s jaw with a violent collision near the bench in the second period of the Capitals’ 4-3 victory in Game 3.

Aston-Reese was stickhandling near the Capitals bench when Wilson drilled the rookie with his left shoulder. The force propelled Wilson up into the bench while Aston-Reese lay on the ice for several moments. He was diagnosed with a concussion and a broken jaw.

The NHL’s department of player safety ruled Wilson made Aston-Reese’s head the initial point of contact during the collision, pointing out that Wilson did not have to pivot to his left side to hit Aston-Reese.

The league said AstonReese made no sudden movement at the last second that made contact unavoidable. The league pointed out several ways Wilson could have finished the play legally only to instead launch himself at Aston-Reese.

“He extends up and into the hit unnecessarily,” the league said in a video.