Lightning strike early, hold off Bruins for 2-1 series lead
BOSTON — Ondrej Palat scored twice in the first 3:19 of the game, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Wednesday night to open a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots for Tampa Bay, which has won two straight since losing the series opener at home.
“Boston came in and took one of our games at home, we had to take one of theirs on the road,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We did that.”
Anthony Cirelli scored his first career NHL playoff goal — with an assist from Yanni Gourde, whose wife gave birth on Tuesday — giving Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead late in the first.
Patrice Bergeron scored his fourth goal of the playoffs for Boston, and Tuukka Rask made 33 saves.
Palat scored just 1:47 in after Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk settled the puck with his glove in his own end, then appeared to lose track of it and skated away, leaving the Lightning with an easy 2-on-1 opportunity.
Palat made it 2-0 just 92 seconds later on a shot that deflected off Bruins defenseman Torey Krug and into the net.
It stayed that way until the Lightning picked up a power play in the final two minutes, when Krug tripped Cirelli as he chased after the puck with an empty net in front of him.
The Lightning made it 4-1 anyway when Steven Stamkos found the empty net on the power play with 42 seconds left.
SHARKS 4, KNIGHTS 0
Tomas Hertl scored his teamleading fifth goal of the playoffs, Martin Jones made 34 saves for his sixth career postseason shutout, and host San Jose evened its second-round series against Vegas.
Marcus Sorensen and Joonas Donskoi scored in the first to allow San Jose to play from ahead, and Joe Pavelski added a power-play goal in the third to help rebound from an overtime loss at home in Game 3.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves, and Vegas failed to convert on all five power-play chances to lose for the second time in eight games this postseason.
The teams have now alternated wins through four games, heading into Game 5 on Friday night in Vegas.
Each team has a shutout and an overtime win so far this series, which is now a best-ofthree for a spot in the Western Conference Final.
Jones was sharp from the start, tying Evgeni Nabokov's record for most saves in a playoff shutout in San Jose history.
He robbed Reilly Smith early in the game and delivered big saves throughout. He was helped on a delayed penalty when Brent Burns cleared a puck off the goal line and when James Neal hit the post on a power play in the first period.
WILSON SUSPENDED 3 GAMES
The NHL suspended Capitals forward Tom Wilson three games for an illegal hit on Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese in the second period of Washington’s 4-3 Game 3 victory over the Penguins.
Aston-Reese was stickhandling near the Capitals bench when Wilson drilled the rookie with his left shoulder. The force propelled Wilson up into the Washington bench while Aston-Reese lay on the ice for several moments before skating off. He was later diagnosed with a concussion and a broken jaw.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety ruled Wilson made Aston-Reese’s head the initial point of contact during the collision, pointing out that Wilson did not have to pivot to his left side to hit Aston-Reese.
“He extends up and into the hit unnecessarily,” the league said of Wilson.