Matthew Tkachuk scored the first of three unanswered goals as the Florida Panthers erased a third-period deficit and downed the visiting Boston Bruins 7-5 on Friday in Game 6 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in Sunrise, Fla.
The Panthers leveled the best-of-seven series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins at three wins apiece. Game 7 is scheduled for Sunday in Boston.
Boston’s Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak each scored his second goal of the game to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead by the 3:53 mark of the third. Florida then scored four of the next five goals.
Tkachuk led the Panthers with two goals and one assist. Eetu Luostarinen, Brandon Montour and Aleksander Barkov each logged a goal and an assist, while Anton Lundell registered a pair of helpers for Florida. Sam Reinhart and Zac Dalpe also scored for the Panthers.
Stars 4, Wild 1
Mason Marchment and Max Domi each had a goal and an assist and Dallas clinched its Western Conference first-round series against Minnesota with a win at Saint Paul, Minn.
Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston also scored and Jake Oettinger made 23 saves for the Stars, who won the final three games of the series.
Frederick Gaudreau scored for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 of 26 shots through two periods before he was replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury, who finished with six saves. The Wild lost their eighth consecutive playoff series.
Hurricanes 2, Islanders 1 (OT)
Paul Stastny scored six minutes into overtime as Carolina advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a win over New York in Elmont, N.Y
.
Stastny sent an angled shot from the goal line past Ilya Sorokin as the Hurricanes won the first-round series 4-2 and will face the winner of the New Jersey Devils-New York Rangers series in the second round. The Devils lead the Rangers 3-2 heading into Saturday night’s Game 6 in New York.
Sebastian Aho scored about midway through the third period for the Hurricanes. Goalie Frederik Andersen, who drew the start after sitting out the first five games behind Antti Raanta, made 33 saves. Cal Clutterbuck scored in the first for the Islanders, who reached the playoffs for the seventh time in 11 seasons but were eliminated in the first round for the first time since 2015.
Avalanche 4, Kraken 1
Artturi Lehkonen scored twice as defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado staved off playoff elimination by beating host Seattle in Game 6.
Mikko Rantanen added a goal and an assist as the Avalanche tied the best-of-seven first-round Western Conference series at three wins apiece. Game 7 is scheduled for Sunday night in Denver. Erik Johnson also scored and Devon Toews and Cale Makar had two assists apiece for Colorado. Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev made 22 saves.
Vince Dunn scored for Seattle, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 35 of 38 shots.
–Field Level Media
