NHL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP: Bruins recover from upset loss to Panthers with 4-2 win in Florida

Kings center Trevor Moore scored a power play goal three minutes into overtime to give Los Angeles a controversial 3-2 win – and a 2-1 series lead – over the visiting Edmonton Oilers. 

After Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was called for high sticking at 1:44, Moore, who grew up in nearby Thousand Oaks, California, took Gabriel Villardi’s pass from behind the net and put it between the legs of Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner to give the Kings their second OT victory of the series.

The Kings have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 4 on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe also scored for the Kings. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 38 shots. The Kings had a pair of power-play goals and are 4 for 15 in the series.

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid had the second multi-goal playoff game of his career. Evan Bouchard had a pair of assists, and Skinner made 28 saves.

Trevor Moore #12 of the Los Angeles Kings celebrates his goal winning goal with teammates

Trevor Moore #12 of the Los Angeles Kings celebrates his goal with Phillip Danault #24

Iafallo scored his second goal of the series with 33 seconds left in the first period when he knocked in a rebound after Skinner saved Matt Roy’s shot from the point.

It was Los Angeles’ third goal in the final minute of a regulation period during the series.

McDavid then broke out of his scoring slump with a pair of power-play goals in a 100-second span on wrist shots from the left faceoff circle.

The Oilers captain tied it at 1 with a shot that went over Korpisalo’s glove at 7:42.

McDavid then scored another one from the left faceoff circle with the man advantage, with a wrist shot to the short side at 9:22.

Edmonton’s advantage lasted only 18 seconds. The Kings went on the power play when Draisaitl was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after McDavid’s second goal. Los Angeles quickly converted when Kempe put in a one-timer off the boards after Viktor Arvidsson’s entry pass into the Edmonton zone.

The Oilers, who led the league with a 32.4% conversion rate on the power play during the regular season, are 4 for 8 with the man advantage in the series.

BRUINS 4, PANTHERS 2 

Any questions about the top-seeded Boston Bruins’ preparedness for the postseason were apparently answered in Sunrise, Florida on Friday night.

Following their upset loss to the Panthers in Game 2, Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist, Linus Ullmark stopped 28 shots as the Bruins topped the Panthers 4-2 in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round series on Friday night.

Charlie Coyle, David Pastrnak and Nick Foligno also had goals for Boston, which reclaimed home-ice advantage and took a 2-1 lead in the series. Dmitry Orlov had a pair of long outlet passes that became assists for the Bruins.

Alex Lyon stopped 23 of 26 shots for Florida, the Pastrnak goal with 11:28 remaining chasing him and having Florida send in Sergei Bobrovsky. And that suggests the Panthers have a big decision to make on a starting netminder before Game 4 in Sunrise on Sunday afternoon.

The Bruins were again without captain Patrice Bergeron, out with an upper-body injury. He won´t play in Game 4 either, with the Bruins believing he will be ready to play when the series returns to Boston for Game 5 next week.

Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) celebrates with teammates after scoring

Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart had goals for Florida, which didn’t get anything past Ullmark until 5:19 remained. Boston improved to 50-3-0 this season when allowing no more than two goals.

Florida is built to let shots fly. There have been three teams in NHL history to take more than 3,000 shots in a season – the 1970-71 Bruins are one of them, and the other two are the 2021-22 Panthers, and the 2022-23 Panthers.

That makes what Boston did even more impressive than it looked on the stat sheet.

The Bruins held Florida to four shots in the second period – matching the Panthers´ fourth-lowest total for any of their 254 periods this season to that point. And while completely clamping down on the defensive end, Boston turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-0 edge.

Marchand sent a wobbling puck toward the net from the right point, and Coyle – positioned in front of the net – chopped down at it as it sailed toward the goal. The puck bounced off the ice and past Lyon at exactly 6:00 of the second.

Pastrnak got the second of the long Orlov assists after getting behind the defense to beat Lyon for a 3-0 lead, and Foligno made it 4-0 by tipping a pass by Bobrovsky with 8:15 left.

The Bruins – as would be expected from a No. 1 seed coming off a big home loss – came out flying and controlled long stretches of the opening period.

But it was a rather innocuous-looking play that gave Boston a 1-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes. Hall was along the right boards when he took a long clearing pass from Dmitry Orlov, controlled the puck and fired a shot from just inside the blue line.

It got over Lyon’s glove, and just 2:26 into the contest Boston had the lead.

Official separates Panthers center Aleksander Barkov and Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy

ISLANDERS 5, HURRICANES 1

The Islanders were locked in another tight game with the Carolina Hurricanes until a big goal late opened a record-setting scoring outburst and helped New York get a big home win after a pair of one-goal losses on the road.

Kyle Palmieri and Matt Martin scored 44 seconds apart late in the third period and the Islanders beat the Hurricanes 5-1 Friday night to cut their first-round series deficit to 2-1.

Casey Cizikas, Scott Mayfield and Anders Lee also scored as New York got four goals in a 2:18 span late – the fastest four goals in Stanley Cup playoff history – to pull away. Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 shots for the Islanders.

‘We knew every game would be a battle,’ Palmieri said. ‘We stuck with it and found a way to come through at the end.’

Things could have been worse for the Hurricanes were it not for Seth Jarvis’ heads-up play

Jesper Fast scored for the Hurricanes and Antti Raanta finished with 32 saves.

‘It’s a tough ending,’ Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. ‘It was a close game and then got away there at the end. We´ll regroup and come back the next one.’

Game 4 is back at the UBS Arena on Sunday.

The Islanders had two power plays in the first half of the third period, but couldn’t manage many scoring chances. Raanta then denied an in-close try from Bo Horvat with 6 1/2 minutes remaining to keep it tied 1-1. The Hurricanes goalie then made a sliding, sprawling save on a try by Noah Dobson about 40 seconds later.

With 1 second left on another Islanders power play, defenseman Sebastian Aho fired a shot from the right point that Palmieri deflected out of the air past Raanta with 3:51 left.

‘The puck is going wide but he tipped it,’ Raanta said. ‘Those are the goals that happen in the playoffs. Tough to make a save when the puck is going wide. It´s a good tip. … At the end of the day, it´s a loss and you have to learn from it.’

Martin then made it 3-1 just 44 seconds later as he got a pass from Palmieri and quickly beat Raanta from the left circle.

Nyles entertains fans during the third period against the Carolina Hurricanes during Game 3

The Hurricanes pulled Raanta for an extra skater with about 2 1/2 minutes remaining and Mayfield scored a long empty-netter with 1:49 left. With the goalie back in, Lee added to the lead 16 seconds later and the Islanders made playoff history with the four-goal outburst.

‘I thought we were playing really well,’ Cizikas said of the Islanders’ play leading up to the scoring burst. ‘We were doing what we set out to do from the start. We didn’t shy away from it. We kept rolling four lines, we kept going after them.’

A game that was physical from the start saw a lot of pushing and shoving in the final minute, with Lee and Carolina’s Jalen Chatfield earning misconduct penalties.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau #44 of the New York Islanders slides into the Canes’ Antti Raanta

Carolina had three power plays over an 11 1/2-minute stretch carrying over from the final minute of the first period into the middle of the second, but mustered only three shots on goal during the advantages.

‘(The penalty-kill) was big in the second period,’ Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. ‘The game could have changed momentum, but we definitely did a good job.’

Cizikas then gave the Islanders the 1-0 lead as he got a pass from Ryan Pulock after the defenseman kept the puck in the offensive zone and beat Raanta from the right side with 7:11 left in the second.

The Hurricanes tied it with a short-handed goal with 3:04 left on a 2-on-1 rush as Jordan Staal fed Fast on the right side and he redirected it into Sorokin. The puck was in the crease rolling toward the goal line when trailing Islanders forward Brock Nelson appeared to tip the puck in. It was Fast’s second of the series after he got the overtime winner in Game 2.

The raucous home crowd was loud from puck drop in the first postseason game at the second-year UBS Arena. The crowd erupted in a roar when Carolina’s Shayne Gostisbehere was whistled for hooking 7:50 into the game to put the Islanders on their first power play since late in the third period of Game 1. New York had no power plays in Game 2, while the Hurricanes went 1 for 6.

Sorokin smothered an attempt by Jesperi Kotkaniemi on the left doorstep 4 minutes in and had a kick save on a shot by Martin Necas from the left side with 8:12 left in the first. Sorokin also made a pair of big saves on Brent Burns early in a Carolina power play with about 30 seconds left in the first period.

Jesper Fast #71 of the Hurricanes is checked by Ryan Pulock #6 of the Islanders

WILD 2, STARS 1

The Minnesota Wild had a short memory after a lopsided loss in Dallas, and insist they’ll move on quickly from their latest victory.

Mats Zuccarello scored twice and Ryan Hartman had a three-point game as the Wild beat the Dallas Stars 5-1 Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.

“Tonight when you get home, the game is over. It´s a race to four,” Zuccarello said. “This game, too, we´ve got to forget quick because they come quick here. Get some rest tonight and tomorrow, and we know these guys are going to be ready to go on Sunday, so we´ve got to make sure we´re ready to go.”

Zuccarello scored Minnesota’s first goal on a backhander at 16:45 of the first period and beat Stars goalie Jake Oettinger on a breakaway at 14:07 of the third to bring the sellout crowd to its feet.

Marcus Johansson, Marcus Foligno and Hartman also scored for the Wild. Filip Gustavsson, who did not play in a 7-3 Game 2 loss in Dallas, made 23 saves.

Luke Glendening scores his first goal of the series at 2:25 of the second period for Dallas. Oettinger, a Minnesota native, stopped 20 shots.

Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) celebrates with goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32)