Alex Tuch scored the tiebreaking goal 4:03 into the third period, propelling the visiting Buffalo Sabres to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Thursday night.

The result was the second straight victory for a road team in the best-of-seven series, which Buffalo now leads 2-1.

Noah Ostlund and Bowen Byram finished with a goal and an assist for the Sabres, while Alex Lyon stopped 24 shots in his first start of the playoff run.

Tanner Jeannot scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman turned aside 25 shots for Boston.

Hurricanes 2, Senators 1

Logan Stankoven scored for the third straight game and Carolina put host Ottawa on the brink of elimination with a win in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series.

Carolina leads the best-of-seven series 3-0, a deficit that only four NHL teams have overcome to win a playoff series. Jackson Blake also scored for the Hurricanes. Taylor Hall had two assists, and Frederik Andersen made 21 saves.

Drake Batherson scored for the Senators, who have yet to have the lead at any point through three games. Linus Ullmark turned aside 25 shots.

Avalanche 4, Kings 2

Artturi Lehkonen collected one goal and one assist while pacing Colorado to a road victory over Los Angeles, putting the Avalanche on the verge of sweeping their Western Conference first-round playoff series.

Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar and Brock Nelson also scored for the Avalanche, who will look to close out the best-of-seven series when they play Game 4 on Sunday in Los Angeles. Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves.

Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe tallied for the Kings, who have scored only four goals in the series’ three games. Los Angeles goalie Anton Forsberg stopped 19 shots, and Alex Laferriere collected two assists.

–Field Level Media

Artturi Lehkonen collected one goal and one assist while pacing Colorado to a 4-2 road victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, putting the Avalanche on the verge of sweeping their Western Conference first-round playoff series.

Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar and Brock Nelson also scored for the Avalanche, who will look to close out the best-of-seven series when they play Game 4 on Sunday in Los Angeles.

Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves.

“There can be no complacency this time of year,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “You have to have a killer instinct. You have to go out and expect you’ll play your best game.

“We knew we’d have to be really good tonight to win. We knew we had to capitalize better on our chances than in Game 1 and Game 2. You have to be dialed in as much as you ever have at this time of year.”

Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe tallied for the Kings, who have scored only four goals in the series’ three games.

“It’s the playoffs, it’s hard to score 5-on-5,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “If you look at the analytics and what we’re creating and what we created tonight, it’s a big number. In the regular season, we scored at a really, really good rate. We’re getting those looks, we’re just not capitalizing.”

Los Angeles goalie Anton Forsberg stopped 19 shots, and Alex Laferriere collected two assists.

Makar broke a 1-1 tie at 12:12 of the second period by finding the twine with a long wrist shot through the screen in front of the goalie for his first goal of the series.

Lehkonen’s third-period short-handed goal doubled the Avalanche’s lead. Taking advantage of Kempe fanning on a one-timer, Lehkonen sped away on a 2-on-1 rush and tallied when his pass attempt deflected off a defender’s skate and through Forsberg’s legs with 12:21 remaining.

Kempe made amends by converting a slick redirect for a power-play goal with 4:03 to go.

However, Nelson’s empty-net goal two minutes later rounded out the scoring for Colorado, which was the NHL’s top team during the regular season.

The loss leaves Los Angeles on the cusp of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. The Kings have lost six straight opening-round series, and they haven’t captured a series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014.

Landeskog opened the scoring with a fortuitous bounce at 5:29 of the first period. His long shot went wide of the goal but banked off the end boards and into the net off Forsberg’s skate.

The Kings drew even at 5:55 of the second period. Quinton Byfield sent the puck to the net off the rush and it ricocheted off Moore and into the cage to make it a 1-1 game.

The victory came at a cost for the Avalanche, as defenseman Josh Manson left the contest in the second period due to an upper-body injury.

Looking ahead to Sunday, Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said, “Just one game, at home, must-win game. Everyone’s going to give everything they’ve got. Got to win that one and then hopefully get to go back to Denver.”

–Field Level Media

Logan Stankoven scored for the third straight game and the visiting Carolina Hurricanes put the Ottawa Senators on the brink of elimination with a 2-1 win in Game 3 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Thursday.

Carolina leads the best-of-seven series 3-0, and Game 4 is set for Saturday afternoon.

Only four teams in NHL history have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series. The last team to do it was the Los Angeles Kings against the San Jose Sharks in 2014.

Jackson Blake also scored for the Hurricanes. Taylor Hall had two assists, and Frederik Andersen made 21 saves.

Blake said of Hall, “Yeah, he’s one of the guys driving the bus right now. A huge piece for our group. For me and ‘Stanks’ to play with a guy like that who’s been around for a while and has had so much success in this league, it’s great to have him there.”

Drake Batherson scored his second goal of the series for the Senators, who have yet to have the lead at any point through three games. Linus Ullmark made 25 saves in the loss.

Carolina went 0-for-4 on the power play. Ottawa was 0-for-5 and is 0-for-12 for the series.

“Power play cost us the game,” Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk said. “… It was pretty frustrating, but we’ve got to find a way. We’ve never quit all season. Just got to step up to the occasion.”

Stankoven opened the scoring, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 5:13 of the first period. Hall got his own rebound after a shot on the rush, circled behind the net and then passed across to Stankoven, who scored on a wrist shot from the left circle.

Brady Tkachuk got in alone against Andersen early in the second period, but his backhand attempt was stopped.

The Senators had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:28 midway through the second period but did not convert.

Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson left the game at 10:07 of the second period with an apparent injury after taking a shot off his left hand. He had earlier taken a hit to the head from Hall.

Senators coach Travis Green said, “It’s pretty obvious why he left the game. I just don’t understand how there’s not a five-minute major called on a hit to the head. It’s a blatant hit to the head, the kind of hit you don’t want to see. It’s ridiculous there wasn’t a review,”

Batherson tied it 1-1 at 16:06 when he received Nick Cousins’ pass in the slot, went to his backhand and lifted it in over Andersen’s pad.

Blake put the Hurricanes back on top 2-1 at 17:29. K’Andre Miller received a pass at the point, skated down to the top of the left circle and passed down across to Blake, who scored past the diving Ullmark from the far post.

“They scored one, the building erupted a little bit there and then just to get that one quick, answer right away, I think that was really big for us as a group,” Blake said. “We had so many (penalty) kills tonight that were really big on the momentum side, and that goal was definitely one of them, too.”

–Field Level Media

Alex Tuch scored the tiebreaking goal 4:03 into the third period, propelling the visiting Buffalo Sabres to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Thursday night.

The result was the second straight victory for a road team in the best-of-seven series, which Buffalo now leads 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday afternoon in Boston.

“I thought our puck play throughout the game was really good,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Our passing was good. That led to better team speed. I don’t think (the Bruins) changed their game (playing from behind). They’re really good at how they play. We have to focus on how we play.”

Tuch slid down to the top of the left circle to snap the game-winner high on Boston’s Jeremy Swayman. He retrieved the loose puck after teammate Peyton Krebs was checked off it. Initially, the play continued with a failed Boston clearance landing the puck on Owen Power’s stick at the point.

After the Sabres killed back-to-back penalties in the third to finish a 4-for-4 night on the penalty kill, Noah Ostlund beat out an icing call and stuffed home an empty-net goal with 1:24 remaining.

Ostlund and Bowen Byram — who, like Tuch, has scored twice through the first three games — finished with a goal and an assist for Buffalo, while Alex Lyon stopped 24 shots in his first start of the playoff run.

Lyon made 10 of his stops in the final frame, including a key one on Charlie McAvoy’s one-timer inside 5:00 to go.

“Getting in for a few minutes last game was really helpful,” Lyon said. “… Just to get the feel of the game, that set me up nicely for today. I think we came in with a great mindset. You could feel it in the room, that we were just gonna send it for 60 minutes.”

Tanner Jeannot scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman turned aside 25 shots for Boston.

Jeannot continued Boston’s trend of scoring first in the series, beating Lyon on the first second-period attempt he faced at the 3:26 mark. After a bruising shift from the fourth line, McAvoy fed the puck ahead to Jeannot, who came down the left circle and whipped his first career playoff goal past Lyon’s blocker.

While Swayman denied Tage Thompson’s turnaround shot from the bottom of the right circle just over a minute later, Buffalo seized the momentum before the intermission, denying Viktor Arvidsson’s penalty shot at 9:50 before scoring the game-tying goal just 1:08 later.

The hosts had a chance to double their lead on Arvidsson’s attempt, which he missed wide after Rasmus Dahlin slashed him on a breakaway following a turnover.

Instead, it was a 1-1 game at 10:58. Noah Ostlund drove down the left wing and slipped a pass from beyond the goal line to Byram in the right circle, where he knocked home a low wrister over Swayman’s glove.

Before Tuch’s goal, Buffalo narrowly missed taking a 2-1 lead in the opening minute of the third, as an up-ice rush led Jason Zucker to a straightaway wrist shot that clanked off iron.

“They were the better team tonight, I’ve gotta say,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “It felt like we were a little tight in this one, but we were still right in it at the end. … We’re gonna bounce back. We’ve done it all year long.”

Ruff added, “Both teams left some high-quality stuff out there. … The opportunities were there.”

–Field Level Media

The Edmonton Oilers and superstar captain Connor McDavid are looking for a rebound as their Western Conference first-round playoff series shifts to Anaheim for Game 3 against the Ducks on Friday.

Not only did the Ducks even the best-of-seven series at one win apiece with Wednesday’s 6-4 victory, but they held McDavid — the regular-season scoring champ for the sixth time — off the sheet for a second consecutive outing.

McDavid, who has racked up 150 points in 98 career Stanley Cup playoff games, is not the type to admit whether his personal struggles are an issue, but it is a concern for the Oilers.

“He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “He wants the team to do well. He’s a leader and usually when we have success, he’s a big part of that. … I’m certain that he’s going to find his game.”

McDavid also left the game briefly after tangling feet with teammate Mattias Ekholm, but returned. He said it was “fine.”

The Oilers were the favorites going into the series against the up-and-coming Ducks, but have found themselves in a dogfight. Edmonton opened the scoring in both outings, but Anaheim led each of them going into the third period. It took a third-period comeback for the Oilers to claim the opener 4-3.

So far, the Ducks have cashed in thanks to the special-teams battle. While Edmonton has become known for its lethal power play, the Oilers have not scored with six man-advantages, while the Ducks have tallied three times on the power play, and also boast a short-handed tally.

Fortunately for the Oilers, they have plenty of playoff experience to lean upon.

“We’ve been in this situation a lot, 1-1 going on the road,” McDavid said. “We’re comfortable on the road, we like playing on the road. Obviously, we’d like a better outcome (Wednesday), but we’re comfortable going on the road.”

Anaheim returns full of confidence and not just because it claimed the franchise’s first playoff victory since facing the Nashville Predators in the 2017 Western Conference finals.

The Ducks, who snapped a seven-year playoff drought by reaching the second season, have shown they can go head-to-head against the two-time Western Conference playoff champs.

Plus, they showed their mettle by regrouping after seeing a 4-2 lead turn into a tie game past the midway point of the third period. The situation was eerily close to what transpired in the series opener, but this time Anaheim recovered.

“We have the confidence,” said Cutter Gauthier, whose second goal of the game broke the 4-4 tie with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. “All season long … we’ve been in some high-pressure moments. We knew they were going to come back with a great push and obviously scoring that goal and tying things up with eight minutes to go. Nothing was said on the bench… and I’m happy with how we reacted.”

That response has the Ducks looking forward to returning to Southern California with home-ice advantage, more experience and more belief in themselves.

“Game 1 we kind of sat back a little bit,” said forward Alex Killorn, who scored once in a three-point outing. “No one was sitting back (Wednesday), I think that’s why we ended up getting that goal with Cutter. We’re going to learn as we go on here and continue to get better.”

–Field Level Media