Marchand the hero as Bruins overpower Hurricanes
Brad Marchand scored a pair of third-period goals and had three assists as the Boston Bruins earned a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes to even their Eastern Conference firstround play-off series at 2-2 on Sunday.
Boston began the third period on a 36-second 5-on-3 and capitalised as Sebastian Aho’s double-minor for high-sticking continued.
At the 44-second mark, Marchand buried the go-ahead goal from the left circle following Charlie Coyle’s feed.
Patrice Bergeron finished with a goal and two assists. Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak each logged a goal and an assist, and Coyle added two helpers.
At St Louis, Jordan Binnington made 28 saves and snapped his nine-game post-season losing streak as the Blues defeated Minnesota 5-2 to even their first-round play-off series at 2-2.
Binnington, who replaced Ville Husso as the starting goaltender, earned his first play-off victory since Game Seven of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.
Jordan Kyrou and David Perron each scored two goals and Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and two assists for the injurydepleted Blues, who were without defencemen Torey Krug, Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo.
At Tampa, Steven Stamkos, PierreEdouard Bellemare and Pat Maroon scored in the first eight minutes for the Lightning, who cruised to a win 7-3 against Toronto in Game Four of their Stanley Cup first-round play-off series.
Ross Colton netted two goals, Corey Perry and Ondrej Palat also scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for the two-time defending champions Lightning, who evened the best-ofseven series 2-2. Game Five is today in Toronto.
William Nylander scored two goals, Jake Muzzin also tallied and Jack Campbell made 11 saves on 16 shots before he was replaced by the Maple Leafs, who are trying to win their first play-off series since 2004.
At Los Angeles, Jonathan Quick collected his 10th career play-off shut-out and the Kings rode a pair of first-period goals by Trevor Moore and Troy Stecher to a 4-0 win over Edmonton in Game Four of their Western Conference opening-round series.
Carl Grundstrom added a pair of late goals and an assist for the Kings, who evened the best-of-seven series at 2-2. Game Five is today in Edmonton.
Quick, who was pulled in the Kings’ Game Three blowout loss, made 31 saves on Sunday.
Goalie Mike Smith stopped 42 shots for the Oilers, who scored a combined 14 goals in a pair of victories in the second and third games of the series.