The PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina has been a place of horrors during the NHL Playoffs so far for the Boston Bruins. After Boston had evened their first round series at 2-2 with a pair of wins in Boston in Games 3 and 4, the Carolina Hurricanes bounced back with a resounding 5-1 win in Game 5 on Tuesday night putting the B’s on the brink of elimination in the best of seven. Carolina has outscored Boston 15-4 in the three games in North Carolina, with the road team still yet to win a game in the series.
Jaccob Slavin opened the scoring, firing a shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle that trickled through the pads of Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman at 6:11 of the first period for a 1-0 Carolina lead. Tony DeAngelo had what turned out to be the game winner on the powerplay at 12:17 of the first, with a one timer and a perfectly placed shot that beat Swayman just inside the post stick side. Seth Jarvis had the next two markers for the Hurricanes, at 15:52 of the second and a powerplay tally 3:31 into the third period to make it 4-0. Connor Clifton had the lone goal at 10:09 of the the third for Boston, after the game had already been decided. Vincent Trocheck scored at 16:20 for Carolina to finish out the scoring.
Swayman in his first career road playoff start made 33 saves in the loss. Erik Haula and Taylor Hall had the assists on the Clifton goal. DeAngelo and Trocheck had a goal and two assists each for Carolina, while Teuvo Teravainen had three assists, and Jarvis added his two goals on the night. Antii Raanta stopped 33 of 34 shots in goal. Charlie McAvoy, who missed Game 4 due to COVID-19, did fly to North Carolina after clearing protocols and played 25 minutes after not traveling with the team. Game 6 is back in Boston on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in a must win for the Bruins to try to force a Game 7 back at PNC Arena.
