Panthers score 7 goals, outlast Bruins for wild win to force Game 7 | CBC Sports

Matthew Tkachuk scored twice, Eetu Luostarinen put Florida ahead to stay with 5:38 left in what was a crazed third period, and the Panthers forced a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round series by beating the visiting Boston Bruins 7-5 on Friday night.

Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour, Zac Dalpe and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Reinhart capped it with an empty-netter with 28 seconds left — the seventh and final goal of the third period, four of those goals by Florida.

Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak each scored twice for Boston, which got four assists from Brad Marchand and 26 saves from Linus Ullmark. Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Bruins.

Not even three power-play goals and one short-handed tally was enough to give Boston a win, either.

The game started along the exact sequence that Game 5 in Boston did on Wednesday night: Florida took a 1-0 lead, Boston tied it, Florida took a 2-1 lead, Boston tied it, Florida took a 3-2 lead, Boston tied it.

Evidently, that’s when the teams decided a repeat performance was boring.

They combined for four goals in a span of 6:56 — this time, with the Panthers answering the Bruins.

And less than four minutes later, Luostarinen made it 6-5 — the Panthers back on top with 5:38 left, a sellout crowd in Sunrise waiving white towels in unison. Boston pulled Ullmark twice with hopes of netting the equalizer, had good looks at it in the final minute, but Bobrovsky and Florida’s defence held on and Reinhart banged a puck off the boards, down the ice and into the net to seal the win.

Stastny’s OT winner sends Hurricanes to 2nd round

Paul Stastny scored 6:01 into overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 2-1 on Friday night in Game 6 to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sebastian Aho tied it midway through the third period for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen stopped 35 shots while making his first start of the post-season.

Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin finished with 39 saves. New York was eliminated in the first round for the first time in their last five trips to the post-season.

Derek Stepan started the winning sequence in overtime when he intercepted Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech’s clearing pass. Stepan skated up and passed to Stastny, who fired a sharp-angle shot from the goal line that deflected off Sorokin’s left pad and between his legs.

It was Stastny’s third career overtime playoff winner.

After getting outshot in each of the first two periods, the Hurricanes had a 19-5 edge in the third and tied the score midway through the period.

Sorokin denied a backhand shot by Jesse Puljujarvi 2:13 into the third to keep the Hurricanes off the scoreboard. At the other end, Andersen saved a shot by Casey Cizikas less than 10 seconds later. Sorokin also had a nice glove save on Jordan Martinook at 8:17.

Aho from the left doorstep at 9:24 as he knocked the puck down out of the air with his glove and knocked it past Sorokin. It was his fourth goal of the series.