TAMPA BAY, BOSTON FORCE GAME 7S
Brayden Point scored on a rebound with 1:56 remaining in the first overtime, giving the host Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night and forcing Game 7 in the firstround playoff series between the Atlantic Division rivals.
Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, who blew a two-goal lead for the second straight game and trailed 3-2 entering the third period.
Andrei Vasilevskiy had 30 saves, nine in overtime, to improve to 18-0 in games following a playoff loss over the past three postseasons. Jack Campbell stopped 32 of 36 shots for the Maple Leafs, who are chasing their first playoff series win in 18 years.
Game 7 is Saturday in Toronto. The Lightning are trying to become the first team to capture three consecutive Stanley Cup titles since the New York Islanders won four straight from 1980-84.
The Maple Leafs, who’ve been eliminated in the first round each of the past five seasons, are 0-for-theirlast-8 in close-out games.
Bruins 5, Hurricanes 2: Brad Marchand scored one goal and assisted on another to lead host Boston past Carolina and send its firstround playoff series to a decisive seventh game. Jeremy Swayman stopped 23 shots for Boston.
Andrei Svechnikov scored twice and Antti Raanta made 29 saves for the Hurricanes.
Carolina has won three games by a combined score of 15-4 and lost three by a total of 14-6. The home team has won all six games in the series so far. Carolina will host Game 7 on Saturday.
Blues 5, Wild 1: Jordan Binnington made 25 saves and host St. Louis beat Minnesota in Game 6 to advance to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. Ryan
O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in a dominant second period. St. Louis will face Colorado in the second round.
Oilers 4, Kings 2: Edmonton’s Tyson Barrie broke a 2-2 tie at 5:10 of the third period as the Oilers staved off elimination at Los Angeles. Game 7 will be Saturday at Edmonton.
Wednesday’s late result
Flames 3, Stars 1: Mikael Backlund, Andrew Mangiapane and Trevor Lewis all scored in the third period, leading host Calgary over Dallas to take a 3-2 lead in their first-round playoff series. The Flames can win the series today in Dallas. If necessary, Game 7 would be back in Calgary on Sunday.
Notable
Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews and Oilers center Connor McDavid are two of the finalists for the Hart Memorial Trophy, the NHL’s most valuable player award. Rangers goaltender is also in contention.