Bruins halt Hurricanes’ dominance, trim deficit
For 16 periods over six games, the Carolina Hurricanes dominated the Boston Bruins.
Five straight wins, including two in the playoffs. Twenty-six goals to three. Never did the Hurricanes even trail the Bruins over 325 minutes, 41 seconds.
“It’s been a while,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said, noting that the teams didn’t play in the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, so they hadn’t beaten Carolina since 2020. “Playing with a lead, we’ve talked about it enough. It makes a difference for both teams.”
Brad Marchand scored the go-ahead goal to give Boston its first lead against Carolina all season. Then he added a pair of assists to help the Bruins hold on at home Friday night and beat the Hurricanes 4-2 in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
Bruins 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 shorthanded goal and added an assist, and David Pastrnak had a powerplay goal and an assist for Boston, which hopes to even the best-ofseven series when it hosts Game 4 today.
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.
Maple Leafs 5, Lightning 2: Jack Campbell had 32 saves — including three to protect the lead on a late power play — and Toronto beat Tampa Bay in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series in Florida.
Ilya Mikheyer had two emptynet goals in the final two minutes, and Morgan Rielly, Colin Blackwell and David Kampf also scored to help Toronto take a 2-1 lead in
the best-of-seven Eastern Conference matchup.
Ross Colton and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 31 saves.
Game 4 is tonight in Tampa. 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.
Oilers 8, Kings 2: Evander Kane picked up his first hat trick in a Stanley Cup playoff game, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman each had two goals and Edmonton dominated Los Angeles
for the second straight game, posting a victory in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series in Los Angeles.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and assist for the Oilers. He is the third Edmonton player in the past 25 years to score in each of the first three games of a postseason, joining Connor McDavid (2020) and Bill Guerin (1998). Cody Ceci had three assists and Mike Smith made 44 saves.
Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist while Phillip Danault also scored for Los Angeles, which had a 45-37 advantage in shots on goal. Jonathan Quick allowed four goals and made 13 saves while Cal Petersen gave up four goals while making 16 saves.
Game 4 is tonight in Los Angeles.
Wild 5, Blues 1: Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots and visiting Minnesota beat St. Louis to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.
Joel Erickson Ek had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Greenway, Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin also scored as the Wild improved to 8-8 all-time in Game 3s.
Fleury, playing in a 16th consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, earned his 92nd career playoff win.
Game 4 is this afternoon in St. Louis.