Stanley Cup favorite Boston Bruins open NHL playoffs with win over Florida Panthers
Stanley Cup favorite Boston Bruins open NHL playoffs with victory over Florida Panthers, as NY Islanders go down to the Carolina Hurricanes – and LA Kings and Minnesota Wild win in OT drama
- Brad Marchand scored his 50th career playoff goal in the Bruins’ 3ā1 victory over Florida
- The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Islanders to take the lead in their series
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Brad Marchand’s 50th career playoff goal was the ultimate difference maker as the Boston Bruins opened their Eastern Conference first round with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Marchand, who stood at 3:41 in the second period, is the eighth active NHL player to reach that milestone, joining current team president Cam Neely (55) as the second Bruin ever to reach that mark.
David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston, which finished with the most regular season wins (65) and points (135) in league history.
Tyler Bertuzzi (two assists) became the oldest Bruins player with multiple points in his first career playoff game at 28 years and 52 days old.
Linus Ullmark, who missed Boston’s final game of the regular season, made 31 saves in the win.
Brad Marchand (left) scores against the Florida Panthers in the second quarter of the game
The Bruins – heavy favorites to win the Stanley Cup – won 3-1 to take the lead in the series
The Panthers finished with a 32-29 shot advantage. Florida’s fifteen shots were in the first period.
The Bruins played without captain Patrice Bergeron (illness).
Matthew Tkachuk scored and Alex Lyon stopped 26 shots for Florida.
Elsewhere, Sebastian Aho and Stefan Noesen scored power play goals to help Carolina open the first round of the playoffs with the win.
Antti Raanta finished with 25 saves to lead a defensive effort that saw the Hurricanes reject any chance the Islanders had by a man lead.
Ryan Pulock beat Raanta early in the second period for the Islanders, a big goal right after Carolina took a 2-0 lead on Noesen’s score. But that ended up being the last time either team would find the net, triggering a third period to the final horn.
Antti Raanta (left) and Paul Stastny (right) celebrate their victory over the New York Islanders
Ilya Sorokin finished with 35 saves for the Islanders.
There was overtime drama in Dallas as the home stars were defeated by the Minnesota Wild in the second OT period with Ryan Hartman scoring the winner.
The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, were stunned by the Los Angeles Kings despite leading 3-1 in the third period.
The Kings fought back to equalize with less than a minute left before sealing an OT win courtesy of Adrian Kempe’s second goal.