Monday's NHL playoffs: League-leading Bruins top Panthers in opener
Boston – Brad Marchand scored his 50th career playoff goal, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk also scored, and the NHL-best Boston Bruins opened the playoffs by beating the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Monday night.
Linus Ullmark, a Vezina Trophy candidate who led the league in wins (40), goals-against average (1.89) and save percentage (.938), stopped 31 shots and former Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi added two assists for Boston, which controlled the game even with captain Patrice Bergeron sitting out because of illness.
Matthew Tkachuk scored for the Panthers and Alex Lyon made 26 saves but gave up Marchand’s goal on a relatively easy shot.
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Boston.
The Bruins captured the Presidents’ Trophy, setting NHL records in points (135) and wins (65). Florida, last season’s No. 1 seed, earned the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot with a late-season push.
It’s the first playoff matchup between a No. 1 seed and the Presidents’ winner from the previous season since the award was introduced in 1985-86.
Pastrnak, a 61-goal scorer this season, was on the opposite side on the right wing from his usual spot on the power play. Bertuzzi collected the rebound of David Krejci’s shot in the slot and sent a quick backhand pass to Pastrnak, who snapped the puck into the net at 5:58 of the opening period.
Lyon gave up the soft goal early in the second when Marchand fired a seemingly harmless shot from the top of the left circle. Lyon bent down to catch it and it tipped off his glove, caroming into the net after hitting the inside of the right post.
Soon after, the TD Garden crowd started serenading him with chants of “Lyon! Lyon!”
Florida cut the lead in half when Boston defenseman Dmitry Orlov sent a blind, backhand pass directly out front, where Tkachuk collected it and flipped the puck past Ullmark at 6:34 of the second.
DeBrusk restored the two-goal lead when he dove into a pile and knocked the puck into the net out of a scramble near the crease late in the second.
As it did to so many opponents during its record-setting season, Boston bottled up Florida in the third.
More NHL playoffs
(At) Carolina 2, N.Y. Islanders 1: Sebastian Aho and Stefan Noesen scored power-play goals to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders on Monday night to open their first-round playoff series.
Noesen's tip on Brent Burns' shot from up top proved to be the winner at 2:27 of the second period, while Antti Raanta finished with 25 saves to lead a defensive effort that saw the Hurricanes turn away every chance the Islanders had with a man advantage to take the lead in the best-of-7 series.
Carolina, which came into the game with the league's No. 2 penalty kill, denied all four of New York's power plays. The Hurricanes also withstood the final roughly 90 seconds to protect the lead after the Islanders had pulled Ilya Sorokin for the extra attacker.