The Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics both were on the road to continue their first round playoff matchups on Sunday, and both teams came up victorious to take a 3-1 stranglehold in their respective series.
At FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida- Tyler Bertuzzi scored a game winning third period goal, while Jake Debrusk and Taylor Hall had two goals each as the Boston Bruins scored four times in the final 20 minutes to pull away for a 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers in game four. Brad Marchand started the scoring in the first, knocking a loose puck in the crease past Sergei Bobrovsky on the powerplay at 9:45. Debrusk made it 2-0 also on the powerplay at 1:52 of the second period, re-directing a pass from Dmitry Orlov into the net right in the blue paint of the crease. Matthew Tkachuk got the Panthers on the board at 16:00, before Bertuzzi netted what turned out to be the game winner at 2:26 of the third. Sam Bennett scored an extra man tally to get Florida within a goal again at 6:11, but Debrusk knocked in a rebound at 8:05 and Hall scored twice including an empty netter at 19:31 to put it away. Linus Ullmark made 41 saves in net in the win, and was replaced by Jeremy Swayman with just over three minutes left. Swayman stopped the one shot on net he faced. Hall led all skaters with two goals and two assists. Pavel Zacha also added two assists. Tkachuk had a goal and an assist in the loss for Florida, and Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots. Boston will look to end the series on Wednesday night back at home at TD Garden with a 7 p.m. faceoff time.
At State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia- The Boston Celtics got 31 points from both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in taking a 129-121 win over the Atlanta Hawks in game four. After trailing twice very early on, a Tatum three-pointer 3:42 into action put Boston up for good as they led by as many as 14 in the first quarter. Atlanta cut it to 53-49 late in the second, before the Celtics ended the half on a 12-4 run to push the lead back to 65-53 at the break. The Hawks once again were able to slice into the lead, cutting it to five on a couple of occasions in the fourth quarter but the guests were too much and a pair of three-pointers by Tatum and Brown late would cap off the victory. Tatum added seven rebounds, four assists, and three blocks to his point total. It is the first time in the series that he didn’t register a double double. Brown had four rebounds and three assists. Also in double figures was Marcus Smart with 19 points, Derrick White 18, Malcolm Brogdon 14, and Robert Williams III with 13 points. Williams III also had 15 rebounds for the double double, along with three assists and two blocks. Trae Young had 35 points and 15 assists in the losing effort for Atlanta. De’Andre Hunter also had 27 points and Dejounte Murray scored 23. Boston looks to end the series back at home on Tuesday night with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
This is only the third time in Boston sports history that the Boston Red Sox won a regular season road game, and the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics also won road playoff games all on the same day.
Story by Chris Lessner/Video highlights courtesy of the NHL and NBA websites
