Bruins top Hurricanes, cutlead in series to 2-1
Bruins 4, Hurricanes 2: Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists on Friday night to help host Boston take its first lead against Carolina all season — and hold onto it for a victory in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Friday.
Rookie Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots in his first career playoff start after Linus Ullmark allowed eight goals in the first two games, both Hurricanes victories. That followed a regular season in which Carolina swept all three games, outscoring the Bruins 16-1 and never trailing.
Charlie Coyle scored a short-handed goal and added an assist, and David Pastrnak had a power-play goal and an assist for Boston, which hopes to even the best-of-seven series when it hosts Game 4 on Sunday. Taylor Hall added a power-play goal for the Bruins to make it 4-1 early in the third period.
Vincent Trocheck and Jaccob Slavin scored for Carolina, and backup goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 24 saves in his first career playoff start. He took over in Game 2 after starter Antti Raanta was injured in a collision with Pastrnak.
Maple Leafs 5, Lightning 2: Jack Cambell had 32 saves – including three to protect the lead on a late power play — and visiting Toronto beat Tampa Bay in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
Ilya Mikheyer had two empty-net goals in the final two minutes, and Morgan Rielly, Colin Blackwell and David Kampf also scored to help Toronto take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference matchup.
Ross Colton and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 31 saves.
Game 4 in Sunday night in Tampa. Wild 5, Blues 1: Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, Marc-andre Fleury stopped 29 shots, and visiting Minnesota took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference playoff series.
Joel Erickson Ek had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Greenway, Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin also scored as the Wild improved to 8-8 alltime in Game 3s. Fleury, playing in a 16th consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, earned his 92nd career playoff win.
Ryan O’reilly scored a power play goal and Ville Husso made 28 saves for the Blues.
Oilers 8, Kings 2: Evander Kane picked up his first hat trick in a Stanley Cup playoff game, Ryan Nugent-hopkins and Zach Hyman each had two goals, and visiting Edmonton dominated for the second straight game.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and assist for the Oilers, who lead the first-round series 2-1. He is the third Edmonton player in the past 25 years to score in each of the first three games of a postseason, joining Mcdavid (2020) and Bill Guerin (1998). Cody Ceci had three assists and Mike Smith made 44 saves.
Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist while Phillip Danault also scored for Los Angeles.