Bruins, Sharks ahead in playoffs

NHL: Boston leads 2-0; San Jose up 1-0 in series

After the Bruins downed the Hurricanes 5-2 in Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference final, Carolina coach Rod Brind’amour accurately pointed out that the game wasn’t as one-sided as the score indicated.

He could not make the same claim about Boston’s 6-2 win against the Hurricanes in Game 2 Sunday.

This game was worse than the score indicated because it exposed how much the Hurricanes have to raise their game to be able to compete with the Bruins.

The Bruins are simply too deep and goalie Tuukka Rask is too sharp for the Hurricanes right now. The Bruins have now won five playoff games in a row, dating to the Blue Jackets series.

In those five victories, the Bruins have outscored opponents 22-8.

Matt Grzelcyk had a pair of goals, and Connor Clifton, Jake DeBrusk, David Backes and Danton Heinen also scored for Boston.

That means the Bruins scored six times without getting a goal from their best offensive players — Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak or David Krejci.

Everyone on the Bruins seems to be raising their level of play. The Hurricanes need that to climb back in the series when it moves to Raleigh, North Carolina, for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday.

In Game 2, the Hurricanes had only nine shots on goal in the first 30 minutes of the game.

Brind’amour kept goalie Petr Mrazek in the game despite giving up six goals on 25 shots.

The question going into Game 3 will be whether Brind’amour will switch to Curtis McElhinney with the hope of giving his team a spark.