Ondrej Palat scored two goals to lead Tampa Bay to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon in Toronto, putting the Lightning on the cusp of reaching the next round in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Nikita Kucherov collected a pair of assists and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for the Lightning, who lead 3-1 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal.
The Bruins, outscored 10-2 in the last two games, were guilty of surrendering a couple of prime scoring chances early and paid the price when Palat opened the scoring — the third straight game in which the Lightning forward has scored.
After falling behind 3-0 by the end of two periods, the Bruins, the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners for the best regular-season record, got on the board thanks to Jake DeBrusk’s power-play goal at 7:04 of the third. But that was close as they could get.
Islanders 3, Flyers 1
Leo Komarov scored the tie-breaking goal in the final seconds of the second period for New York in a win over Philadelphia in Game 3 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series in Toronto. The Islanders lead the best-of-seven series two games to one.
The Islanders scored the final three goals of the game. Matt Martin scored the game-tying goal earlier in the second and Anders Lee added an insurance goal in the third. Goalie Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves.
Tyler Pitlick scored in the first for the Flyers. Goalie Carter Hart recorded 26 saves.
Golden Knights 3, Canucks 0
Robin Lehner made 31 saves to record his second shutout in three games and Vegas Golden Knights took a 2-1 lead in their Stanley Cup playoff series against Vancouver in Edmonton.
Alex Tuch and Zach Whitecloud netted first-period goals, while Mark Stone added the insurance marker early in the third period for the Golden Knights, who have claimed shutout victories in both wins in this series.
Lehner didn’t have his busiest night, but he was key during the first period, especially midway through the frame by making big saves on Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson during a Vancouver five-on-three power play. The Canucks controlled the shot clock in the first period but it was the Golden Knights who did all the scoring, thanks to goals 83 seconds apart by Tuch and Whitecloud.
–Field Level Media
