Hurricanes swamp Bruins again, 5-2
Lightning square series against Leafs
RALEIGH, N.C. — Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter each scored twice and the Carolina Hurricanes overcame the early loss of goalie Antti Raanta to beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the first-round series.
Jesper Fast had the game’s first goal for Carolina in another strong offensive showing to start this series. Rookie goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov came on in relief of Raanta to finish with 29 saves.
The Hurricanes also played with a physical edge against a Boston team that has knocked them out of the playoffs twice in three postseasons. And it came in a game that quickly went from competitive to feisty and downright ornery — namely after Boston’s David Pastrnak knocked Raanta from the game midway through the first period when he struck the goaltender in the head with a gloved hand as he tried to skate past him.
Already down injured No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersen to start the playoffs, Carolina turned to Kochetkov as Raanta exited while bleeding from an apparent mouth injury.
Patrice Bergeron scored both of Boston’s goals, the first on a loose rebound in the second and then another on a redirection near the crease in the third. Linus Ullmark surrendered four goals for the second straight game and finished with 29 saves.
The Bruins had 12 penalties for 26 minutes.
The Hurricanes converted twice on on the power play, including Niederreiter’s finish at the crease on a 5-on-3 sequence for the 4-1 lead at 18:52 of the second.
LIGHTNING 5, MAPLE LEAFS 3: In Toronto, Victor Hedman had a goal and three assists for his first four-point playoff game and Tampa Bay evened the firstround series.
Nikita Kucherov added a goal and two assists and Brayden Point, Corey Perry and Brandon Hagel also scored for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves in a bounce-back performance after the Lightning dropped the opener 5-0.
Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist for Toronto, Michael Bunting and Alexander Kerfoot also scored and Jack Campbell made 29 saves. Auston Matthews had two assists.
The Lightning opened the scoring on a power play with 1.4 seconds left in the first period. After making a big stop on Point from the slot, Campbell was beaten by Hedman from in tight on a broken play where the puck popped out to the defenseman on the goaltender’s doorstep.
Vasilevskiy made a glove save on Timothy Liljegren early in the second, then Hedman sent Perry in alone on a breakaway less than a minute later to make it 2-0 at 2:21.
WILD 6, BLUES 2: In St. Paul, Minn., Kirill Kaprizov had a hat trick and Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice for Minnesota, which snapped back at St. Louis to even their first-round playoff series.
Frederic Gaudreau and Kaprizov scored on the power play for the Wild, who went 0 for 6 with the man advantage in their 4-0 defeat in Game 1 and were 1 for 9 against the Blues over three regular-season losses.
The Wild beat their Central Division rival in regulation for only the third time in 16 games since the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and an assist for the Blues.