B’s buzz in return to Beantown
Bruins earn first win vs. ’Canes this season
BOSTON — Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists on Friday night to help the Boston Bruins take their first lead against the Hurricanes all season — and hold onto it for a 4-2 victory over Carolina in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
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 powerplay 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.
Trocheck gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead, swiping in a rebound just as he was belatedly knocked down in front of the net. But Coyle tied it on a give-and-go with Jake Debrusk with 2:44 left in the first.
Five minutes into second, Marchand fought off the puck along the boards and headed for the slot, where he picked up Patrice Bergeron’s deflected shot and went high over Kochetkov — Boston’s first lead over Carolina in 325 minutes, 41 seconds this season.
The Hurricanes took back-to-back penalties late in the second, and soon after the 5-on-3 became a one-man advantage, Pastrnak wristed one in from the left circle to make it 3-1.
Maple Leafs 5, Lightning 2
TAMPA, Fla. — Jack Cambell had 32 saves — including three to protect the lead on a late power play — and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3.
Ilya Mikheyer had two empty-net goals in the final two minutes, and Morgan Rielly, Colin Blackwell and David Kampf also scored for Toronto.
Ross Colton and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 31 saves.
The Lightning are 16-0 in games following a playoff loss over the last three postseasons, including a 5-3 win in Game 2 of this series.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions were unable to build on the momentum of that victory, though, yielding goals to Rielly and Blackwell in the opening 10 minutes before falling behind 3-0 when Toronto took advantage of a turnover with Kampf’s wrist shot from in front of Vasilevskiy.
Colton’s power-play goal at 11:03 of the second period gave Tampa Bay hope for comeback, and Palat’s 38th career playoff goal trimmed Toronto’s lead to 3-2 with just over 14 minutes remaining in the third.
Campbell never flinched, though, standing tall on Tampa Bay’s final powerplay opportunity and the making another big stop down the stretch to thwart Brayden Point’s attempt to tie the score.
Toronto, which hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004, took the opening game of the series at home 5-0.