Hurricanes defeat Bruins to open playoffs
Hurricanes 5, Bruins 1: Seth Jarvis and Nino Niederreiter scored secondperiod goals and Antti Raanta was strong in net to help host Carolina beat Boston on Monday night in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Raanta had 35 saves in his first career postseason start with No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen sidelined by injury. He held up against Boston’s game-opening surge to keep Carolina in it before Jarvis and Niederreiter scored roughly two minutes apart in the second period to break a scoreless tie.
Carolina never surrendered that lead. Teuvo Teravainen and Vincent Trocheck added third-period goals, which helped Carolina maintain control and then stretch out a lead in this best-of-seven series opener.
Andrei Svechnikov punctuated the win with an empty-net goal at 17:59, capping what turned into a dominating third period against a team that has twice ousted Carolina from the playoffs in recent years.
Taylor Hall scored for Boston early in the third, beating Raanta between the circles after a feed from Erik Haula from a tussle behind the net. He almost tied the game minutes later when he pinged the left post. But those were the only real mistakes for Raanta.
Maple Leafs 5, Lightning 0: Auston Matthews had two goals and an assist and Jack Campbell made 23 saves in the second playoff shutout of his career as host Toronto beat two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists. Jake Muzzin scored and David Kampf added a goal on a short-handed breakaway for Toronto, which killed off five Lightning power plays, including an early five-minute major.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 29 shots for the Lightning.
Kings 4, Oilers 3: Phillip Danault scored at 14:46 of the third period, leading visiting Los Angeles past Edmonton in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round playoff series.
Trevor Moore and Alex Iafallo each had a goal and assist for the Kings. Brandon Lemieux also scored.
Connor Mcdavid and Kailier Yamamoto each had a goal and assist for Edmonton. Leon Draisaitl rounded out the scoring with a power-play goal.
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick made 35 saves. Mike Smith stopped 31 of 35 shots for Edmonton.
Blues 4, Wild 0: David Perron had a hat trick and an assist to lead visiting St. Louis past Minnesota in Game 1 of their first-round series, one year after he missed the playoffs with COVID-19.
Ryan O’reilly scored, Torey Krug added three assists and Ville Husso made 37 saves for the shutout in his postseason debut for the Blues.
Marc-andre Fleury stopped 27 shots for the Wild. He got the nod over Allstar Cam Talbot, who went 13-0-3 in his last 16 starts.