Bolts, B’s Advance and Other NHL Playoff News
(AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche have advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by earning Game 5 victories.
Brayden Point’s goal 5:12 into overtime ended the Lightning’s 5-4 win over the Blue Jackets.
Oliver Bjorkstrand gave Columbus a 4-2 lead early in the third period, but Tampa Bay knotted the score on goals by Kevin Shattenkirk and Anthony Cirelli over the final eight minutes of the period.
Point’s goal was his second OT tally of the series. He also ended the five-overtime marathon in the opener.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 37 shots for the Lightning, who were swept by the Blue Jackets in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
The Bruins closed out their series by scoring a pair of second-period goals to beat the Hurricanes, 2-1.
Boston trailed 1-0 entering the final five minutes of the middle stanza before scoring twice on the power play, the first from David Krejci with 4:40 left. Patrice Bergeron put the B’s on top for good with just 3.2 seconds remaining in the period.
David Pastrnak had two assists in his return to the lineup. Pastrnak was injured in the series opener.
Jarolslav Halak made 23 saves and was perfect after Haydn Fleury beat him midway through the first period.
Nathan MacKinnon’s two goals and two assists were among the Avalanche highlights in a 7-1 drubbing of the Coyotes. MacKinnon scored twice in 58 seconds of the second period to put Colorado up 5-0.
Nazem Kadri also scored twice for the second straight game to finish with five goals in the series. J.T. Compher had a goal and an assist to back Philipp Grubauer, who turned back 23 shots.
Grubauer blanked Arizona until Clayton Keller scored with 13:09 remaining.
Darcy Kuemper allowed six goals on 30 shots before being replaced by Antti Raanta in the third period.
Elsewhere on Wednesday’s Stanley Cup Playoff schedule:
— The defending Stanley Cup champs are one loss away from elimination. St. Louis led 3-1 in Game 5 of their series before J.T. Miller, Jake Virtanen and Tyler Motte scored in a 6:23 span of the second period to lift the Canucks past the Blues, 4-3. Motte also had a short-handed score in the first period, but the Blues responded with three straight goals. Jacob Markstom made 36 saves and blanked the Blues after Zach Sanford’s power-play goal 5:51 into the second period.
— The Canadiens forced a sixth game in their first-round series by fending off the Flyers, 5-3. Nick Suzuki snapped a 3-3 stalemate with about nine minutes left, 22 seconds after Joel Farabee tied it for Philadelphia. Joel Armia scored twice, including a short-handed tally 2:53 into the game. Carey Price stopped 26 shots in a physical game that featured numerous scuffles.