Bruins beat Canes to tie series at 2-2
Bruins 5, Hurricanes 2: Brad Marchand had two goals and three assists, including the tiebreaker early in the third period, and the host Boston Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday to even their first-round playoff series at two games apiece.
Boston was playing without its top two defenseman after Charlie Mcavoy was a last-minute scratch and joined Hampus Lindholm on the sideline, but the Bruins twice rallied for their second straight playoff win.
Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, and David Pastrnak had one of each for the Bruins. Rookie Jeremy Swayman made 23 saves.
Brett Pesce and Jordan Staal scored for Carolina, and Antti Raanta returned to stop 23 shots for the Metropolitan Division champions.
Game 5 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night in Carolina, and Game 6 will be in Boston on Thursday.
Saturday’s games
Capitals 6, Panthers 1: Ilya Samsonov rebounded after allowing an early goal, and the host Washington Capitals bounced back on Saturday to show they can very much hang with the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers.
Samsonov made 29 saves, Alex Ovechkin scored a power-play goal and assisted on another and the Capitals blew out the Panthers 6-1 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the first-round series.
Penguins 7, Rangers 4: Danton Heinen’s first playoff goal in three years just past the midway point of the third period broke a tie to lift host Pittsburgh to a victory over New York to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference series.
Pittsburgh blew a three-goal firstperiod lead but recovered behind the play of third-string goaltender Louis Domingue and Heinen, who jumped on a loose puck near the New York goal line and flicked a shot by Alexandar Georgiev 11:02 into the third to put the Penguins in front to stay.
Avalanche 7, Predators 3: Gabriel Landeskog scored twice in the second period, and top-seeded Colorado beat host Nashville for a commanding 3-0 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.
Stars 4, Flames 2: Joe Pavelski scored twice and got the game-winner on the first power-play goal in the series for Dallas as the host Stars beat the Flames to take a 2-1 lead in their firstround Western Conference playoff series.
The Stars were 0 for 10 with an extra skater, though one of those power plays had been for only 4 seconds earlier in Game 3, before Pavelski’s tiebreaking goal with 9:55 left made it 3-2.