Tuuka Rask made 35 saves and Brad Marchand scored a game winning second period powerplay goal, as the Boston Bruins took a commanding lead in their best of seven Eastern Conference Finals series with the Carolina Hurricanes with a 2-1 win at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina Tuesday night. Boston now leads the series 3-0.
Despite a first period that was dominated by Carolina the game remained scoreless after one. Rask had to make a team postseason record 20 saves to keep it that way. Early in the second, Chris Wagner was the recipient of a great pass after a Canes turnover to put Boston up 1-0 at 1:21. Sean Kuraly intercepted an attempted clearing pass out of the zone by the Hurricanes Brock McGinn at the blue line to start the play, and passed down low to Joakim Nordstrom who made a perfect pass over to Wagner who was wide open and tapped it in a half empty net to the left of Carolina goalie Curtis McElhinney who had no chance on the play. Marchand netted the game winner 5:07 later with his sixth playoff goal in his 100th career playoff game on the powerplay. Marchand got a pass near the left faceoff dots from Charlie McAvoy, and dragged the puck into the high slot going from forehand to backhand and roofing it over the shoulder of McElhinney.
The host Canes got right back in it though at 13:48 when Calvin de Haan got his first career playoff goal. Carolina won a faceoff, and Justin Faulk passed over to de Haan who walked just into the faceoff circles to the right of Rask and fired a slap shot that found the back of the net. Boston had a goal early in the third disallowed by Torey Krug when Jake Debrusk interfered with McElhinney. The Bruins challenged the play, but it stood as goaltender interference. Carolina pushed hard for the tying goal but Rask came up with at least five Grade A stops in the final 20 minutes to secure the win, including a sprawling save on a Justin Williams re-direction with just under 13 minutes left. Boston also improves to 10-0 when leading after two periods in this postseason.
McElhinney made 29 stops in the loss for the Hurricanes. Boston was 1-5 on the powerplay, while Carolina was 0-5. The Bruins have won six straight playoff games for the first time since 1978. The black and gold also improve to 22-1 in playoff games when Marchand scores a goal.
Boston will look to sweep the series in game four and advance to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 2013, and third in eight years. Faceoff is set for 8 p.m. Thursday night in Raleigh.
