Taylor Hall had a pair of goals, including the game winner in overtime on Monday night as the Boston Bruins beat the New York Islanders 3-2 at TD Garden in Boston.
Hall opened the scoring with a powerplay marker at 19:21 of the first period for a 1-0 Boston lead. New York scored a pair of second period goals though from Oliver Wahlstrom and Mathew Barzal, wedged around the 29th goal of the season for the Bruins Brad Marchand. The teams went scorless in the third, and Hall would win it by skating in down the left wing and cutting across the low slot lifting a backhander top shelf at 2:53 of the extra session to end it.
Tuuka Rask stopped 16 shots for the win in goal, as Boston improves their record to 33-15-7. David Krejci assisted on all three goals, while Hall (two goals) and Marchand (one goal, one assist) both had two points. Semyon Valarmov played the first two periods in net in the loss for New York stopping 25 of 27 shots, while Illya Sorokin stopped 10 of 11 in relief over the final 22:53. The Islanders are now 32-17-7. The Bruins finish as the third seed in the Eastern Division and will face the Washington Capitals in the first round of the NHL playoffs that will begin Saturday with game one in Washington. New York will face Pittsburgh in the opening round. The B’s play one more regular season game in Washington against the Capitals on Tuesday night.
