On Sunday, April 21, the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 forcing a seventh game. The Maple Leafs started out the scoring in the first period, and forward Morgan Rielly scored with ten minutes to go. Forward Brad Marchand evened up the scoring two minutes later on the power play for the Bruins. The Bruins went on their second power play and capitalized, as defenseman Torey Krug scored his first goal of the series to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission. In the second period, forward Jake DeBrusk scored the lone goal to extend the Bruins lead to 3-1. The third period started off with forward Auston Matthews scoring his fifth goal of the series, cutting the lead to 3-2. With two minutes left the Maple Leafs pulled their goalie to gain an extra attacker, but Marchand capitalized on the empty net and scored his second of the game to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead.
Goaltender Tuukka Rask made 32 saves, allowing the Boston Bruins to advanced to the Eastern Conference second round with a 5-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in game seven on April 23. Bruins started out with two first period goals, one from forward Joakim Nordstrom and the other from forward Marcus Johansson. In the second period, forward John Tavares scored the lone goal for the Maple Leafs, cutting the lead to 2-1. It was all Boston in the third period as forwards Patrice Bergeron, Charlie Coyle and Sean Kuraly all picked up the goals for the Bruins to help them advance to the second round.
Bruins win game one versus the Blue Jackets
On Thursday, April 25, the Bruins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in overtime to take game one of the second round of the NHL playoffs. With 10 minutes left in the first period, forward Noel Acciari scored his first goal of the playoffs on the penalty kill for Boston. The Bruins held the 1-0 lead throughout the first and second period. In the third, the Blue Jackets evened it up when forward Brandon Dubinsky scored on a breakaway. Thirteen seconds later, forward Pierre-Luc Dubois gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead with 12 minutes left to play in the game. Coyle evened the game up at two with under five minutes to play, pushing the game into overtime. In overtime, Coyle scored his second of the game and fifth of the playoffs to give the Bruins a 1-0 series lead.
On Saturday, April 28, the Bruins fell to the Blue Jackets 3-2 in double overtime in game two of the seven-game series. The Bruins started out the scoring when defenseman Matt Grzelcyk scored on the penalty kill to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead early in the game. One minute into the second period, forward Artemi Panarin scored on the power play for the Blue Jackets to tie the game at one. Forward David Pastrnak put the Bruins back on top one minute later. Artemi Panarin scored his second goal of the game to tie the game at two and to force another overtime game in this series. In double overtime, Columbus capitalized on the power play when forward Matt Duchene scored the game winner and tied the series at one.
Hurricanes edge the Islanders to take game one
On Friday, April 26, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 1-0 in overtime to take game one of the series. For the Hurricanes, goaltender Petr Mrazek made 31 saves to collect the shutout. For the Islanders, goaltender Robin Lehner made 31 saves on 32 shots to keep the Islanders in the game up until the final buzzer in overtime. Four minutes into the extra period, forward Jordan Staal broke the zero to zero matchup by picking up his fourth goal of the playoffs, helping the Hurricanes take game one of the second round series.
