Caps advance to face Penguins
COLUMBUS: Alex Ovechkin scored twice and Braden Holtby had 35 saves as the Washington Capitals advanced to the Eastern Conference semi-finals with a 6-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 6 on Monday night.
The Capitals will next face Pittsburgh in the second round of the play-offs for a third straight year. The Penguins won each of the last two years on the way to winning consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist, and Dimitry Orlov, Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller also tallied for Washington.
Nick Foligno had two goals, Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who lost in the first round of the play-offs for the second consecutive season and fourth time overall. They remain the only active NHL franchise never to win a play-off series. Washington won four straight games after going down 2-0 at home with both games decided in overtime.
At Toronto, Frederik Andersen stopped 32 shots to help Toronto force a decisive Game 7 in the first-round series. The Maple Leafs beat Bruins 3-1.
William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Tomas Plekanec scored for the Maple Leafs, who trailed the series 3-1 before winning two straight. They also trailed 1-0 early in the second period of this one. Nikita Zaitsev added two assists, and Marner and Plekanec each had one.
Jake DeBrusk scored for the Bruins, and Tuukka Rask — pulled in Game 5 at home, finished with 27 saves.
Game 7 is tonight in Boston with the winners advancing to face Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
There was a moment of silence before the opening face-off at Air Canada Centre to honour the 10 people killed on Monday when a van mounted a sidewalk in Toronto’s north end and struck multiple pedestrians. Fifteen others were injured.