TORONTO (AP) — Victor Hedman scored with 5:50 left in the second overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins and their fourth berth in the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals in six seasons on Monday night.
Hedman beat goaltender Jaroslav Halak from the left circle, finishing a barrage that saw the Lightning outshoot Bruins 7-1 in the second OT. Tampa Bay improved to 5-0 in overtime games in this year’s playoffs.
David Krejci’s goal at 17:27 of the third period wiped out a 2-1 lead that Anthony Cirelli gave the Lightning when he redirected Hedman’s shot past Halak with just under eight minutes remaining in regulation.
Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy had 45 saves and Ondrej Palat scored his fifth goal in four games for Tampa Bay, which is back in the East finals after being swept in the first round in 2019.
Halak, who allowed 11 goals over the previous three games, stopped 32 of 35 shots.
AVALANCHE 6, STARS 3
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare began a five-goal scoring spree in the first period and Colorado avoided second-round elimination with a victory over Dallas in Game 5.
The Avalanche trail the Stars 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. They’ve never won a series in team history when facing a 3-1 deficit. Game 6 is Wednesday.
Andre Burakovsky, Nathan MacKinnon, Nazem Kadri and Mikko Rantanen also scored in a 2:36 span for Colorado in a high-flying first period. The five goals sets the franchise postseason record for a period.
Burakovsky added another in the second. He also had an assist.
Colorado goaltender Michael Hutchinson made an unexpected start as he stepped in for Pavel Francouz. Hutchinson earned his first NHL playoff victory by turning back 31 shots.
Stars starting goaltender Ben Bishop surrendered four goals before being replaced by Anton Khudobin with 6:17 remaining in the first.
Miro Heiskanen and Joe Pavelski scored second-period goals. Jamie Benn added another late in the third period and Denis Gurianov had three assists for a Dallas team looking to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2008.
