Charlie Coyle scored a game winning powerplay goal late in the second period on Thursday night, and the Boston Bruins kept the trend going by winning on home ice with a 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6 of an Eastern Conference First Round Playoff series at TD Garden. The series is tied 3-3 with a winner take all Game 7 to take place Saturday back at PNC Arena in North Carolina.
Jeremy Swayman, the former University of Maine product, was making his fourth straight start in net in the series for Boston. It is the first time in his short career the rookie has started in four straight games. Neither team would score in the first period, with the Bruins having the only powerplay of the opening 20 minutes and Carolina holding an 11-8 shots on goal advantage.
For the first time in the six games with Carolina, Boston would get on the scoreboard first. Brad Marchand snapped a beautiful shot high and stick side past goaltender Antii Raanta from the right faceoff circle just 46 seconds into the second. It was the fourth of the playoffs for Marchand on the very first shot of the middle period. The Hurricanes had a chance just under three minutes later with their first powerplay but came up empty, having two shots go off the post behind Swayman during the man advantage. Boston took three more penalties during the 20 minutes, including two that came within 1:07 of one another giving Carolina a 5 on 3 advantage for 53 seconds but they still came up empty. During the next powerplay, Charlie McAvoy had a partial breakaway shorthanded but was stopped by Raanta. With the score still 1-0, the B’s coverted on their second powerplay when Coyle picked up a blocked shot that came right to his stick to the left of Raanta as he shoveled it into a half empty cage at 18:04 for the game winner and a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Carolina sliced the deficit in half when Andrei Svechnikov fired a quick shot from the left faceoff circle stick side past Swayman 3:24 into the third period off a nice feed from Sebastian Aho. The Hurricanes had another chance just 1:41 later when Martin Necas was stopped on the door step on a backhand. Boston extended it back to a two goal lead when Erik Haula re-directed a pass from McAvoy in the low slot and into the net at 7:08. Craig Smith had a breakaway for the Bruins just 1:08 after the Haula goal but was the turned away. Derek Forbort put it away tallying on a slapshot at 10:43. They added another when Carolina pulled Raanta for an extra man with 4:30 to go, and 13 seconds later Curtis Lazar scored his first career playoff goal into the empty net. Svechnikov ended the scoring with a powerplay marker for the Hurricanes with just 2:30 remaining in the game. Both teams are now 0-3 on the road in this series.
Swayman stopped 23 of 25 shots, securing all three of the Boston wins of this first round. Marchand and Coyle had a goal and an assist, and Thomas Nosek added two helpers. Marchand is now tied with eight other players in the history of the franchise for most points in the first six games of any one playoff series (11), with one of those being current teammate David Pastrnak who had 11 in 2018. Raanta had 29 saves in the loss for Carolina, as the Hurricanes were held to 1 for 6 on the powerplay on the night. Game 7 will be Saturday at 4:30 p.m. This will be an NHL record 29th playoff Game 7 for the Bruins, their 13th since 2008.
