The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Two-time champion Lightning strike back
Victor Hedman had a goal and three assists for his first four-point playoff game and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Wednesday night in Game 2 to even the first-round series.
Nikita Kucherov added a goal and two assists and Brayden Point, Corey Perry and Brandon Hagel also scored for two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves in a bounceback performance after the Lightning dropped the opener 5-0.
“I don’t know how far teams go when their big guys aren’t going,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You need them, especially at times when your back’s against the wall. Can’t say our backs were against the wall, it was one game, but we needed tonight. They stepped up and it started with our goaltender. He was outstanding.”
Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist for Toronto, Michael Bunting and Alexander Kerfoot also scored and Jack Campbell made 29 saves. Auston Matthews had two assists.
The Lightning scored three powerplay goals after the special-teams unit went 0 for 5 in the first game.
“Too many penalties,” Marner said. They’ve got a lot of guys that can make plays. We’ve got to stay out of the box.” HURRICANES 5, BRUINS 2 >> Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter each scored twice and Carolina overcame the early loss of goalie Antti Raanta to beat Boston and take a 2-0 lead in the first-round series.
Jesper Fast had the game’s first goal for Carolina in another strong offensive showing to start this series, and rookie goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov came on in relief of Raanta to finish with 29 saves.
The Hurricanes also played with a physical edge against a Boston team that has knocked them out of the playoffs twice in three postseasons. And it came in a game that quickly went from competitive to feisty and downright ornery — namely after Boston’s David Pastrnak knocked Raanta from the game midway through the first period when he struck the goaltender in the head with a gloved hand as he tried to skate past him.
Already down injured No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersen to start the playoffs, Carolina turned to Kochetkov as Raanta exited while bleeding from a mouth injury.
Patrice Bergeron scored both of Boston’s goals, the first on a loose rebound in the second and then another on a redirection near the crease in the third. Linus Ullmark surrendered four goals for the second straight game and posted 29 saves.
After Raanta’s exit, the teams constantly traded words and hits, along with repeatedly tussling after the whistle. The Bruins had 12 penalties and the Hurricanes converted twice on the power play.
WILD 6, BLUES 2 >> Kirill Kaprizov had a hat trick and Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice for Minnesota, which snapped back at St. Louis to even their first-round playoff series at 1-1.
Frederic Gaudreau and Kaprizov scored on the power play for the Wild, who went 0 for 6 with the man advantage in their 4-0 defeat in Game 1 and were 1 for 9 against the Blues over three regular-season losses.
The Wild beat their Central Division rival in regulation for only the third time in 16 games since the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.