Matt Grzelcyk scored a pair of goals and four others also had goals on Sunday afternoon, as the Boston Bruins routed the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden in Boston. The Bruins lead the best of seven series 2-0.
Grzelcyk opened the scoring on a pass from Marcus Johansson at 15:22 of the first. Johansson won a battle along the right wing boards and dragged the puck along the high slot, passing one to Grzelcyk who fired a wrister from the faceoff circle to the right of Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek that trickled across the goal line to make it 1-0. Jake Debrusk made it 2-0 just over three minutes later just six seconds into a powerplay opportunity. David Pastrnak fired a shot, and Debusk shoved the rebound past Mrazek after two initial stops by the netminder at 18:32.
Connor Clifton got his first career NHL goal on a feed from Johansson at 3:46 of the second. Johansson received a drop pass in the faceoff dots to the left of Mrzak and dangled with it and faked a shot getting the Canes goalie out of position, before passing over to a wide open Clifton in the slot who fired it into a half empty net. Grzelcyk made it 4-0 with his second of the day at 17:56, and Boston was well in control to taking a two game advantage in the series.
David Backes and Danton Heinen scored at 1:10 and 4:32 of the third period to make it 6-0, before Carolina finally got a pair on the board on goals from Justin Williams and Teuvo Teravainen at 11:17 and 17:32 to cap off the scoring. Charlie Coyle and Torey Krug each had three assists to lead the scoring. Grzelcyk had two goals, Heinen a goal and an assist, and Johansson had two assists for two point days for each. Tuuka Rask made 21 saves in the win, while Mrazek made 19 in the loss. Boston was 2-2 on the powerplay, while Carolina went 0-4.
Game three is scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday night at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Boston has now won five playoff games in a row.
