Bruins Defeat Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Boston Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Hurricanes won Game 2 with a score of 3-2. Here is the recap of Game 3 between the Bruins and Hurricanes.

Scratches

Boston: John Moore, David Pastrnak, Urho Vaakanainen, Maxime Lagace, Zach Senyshyn, Jakub Zboril, Trent Frederic, Nick Ritchie, Jeremy Lauzon, Karson Kuhlman, Tuukka Rask

Carolina: Alex Nedeljkovic, Roland McKeown, Joel Edmundson, Steven Lorentz, Jake Gardiner, Clark Bishop, Jake Bean, Ryan Dzingel, Anton Forsberg, Max McCormick

1st Period

The Hurricanes started the game strong and got an early power play from a tripping penalty committed by Bruins forward Brad Marchand. However, they weren’t able to convert it. But, they still managed to take control of the first five minutes of the period before the Bruins started building momentum. No goals were scored during this period but both teams settled into this game during this period.

The score was tied at zero heading into the second period.

2nd Period

To make up for Marchand’s early penalty, Bruins forward Charlie Coyle scored on a power play 14 seconds into the period to get the game’s first goal. From there, the Bruins continued to pick up more momentum as they outshot the Hurricanes 20-8 during the period. However, the Hurricanes would push back and get scoring chances of their own. Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho came close to tying it with 16:49 left in the period but the puck rang off the crossbar.

Boston went into the third period with a 1-0 lead.

3rd Period

The Bruins got another early goal this time shorthanded from forward Sean Kuraly to extend his team’s lead to two. Kuraly’s goal came just 1:16 into the period. From there, the Bruins continued to dominate on the offensive end getting more scoring chances. However, the Hurricanes would get another power play after not scoring on their carry over power play from last period. Bruins goaltender Jaroslav Halak tried to play the puck out of the zone. But, Hurricanes forward Nino Niederreiter would grab the puck out of the air and score in an empty net. But, Marchand would make up for Halak’s mistake by sealing the game scoring into an Hurricanes empty net. Marchand scored with 30 seconds left to play.

Boston won the game 3-1 and took the series lead 2-1.

Three Stars of the Game

Third Star: David Krecji (2 assists)

Second Star: Brad Marchand (1 goal, 1 assist)

First Star: Charlie Coyle (1 goal, 1 assist)

A scary moment happened when Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov got tangled up with Bruins captain Zdeno Chara during the third period. Svechnikov fell awkwardly and appeared to have sustained a lower body injury but there hasn’t been any updates as of yet. He left with 4:38 remaining in the third period and wouldn’t return to the game.

With that said, this would be a horrible loss for Carolina should Svechnikov miss games due to injury. This means that other players have to step up and play just as hard on both ends of the ice. Without Svechnikov, the Hurricanes have to figure out how to space out the ice offensively to get scoring chances. Of course Aho could do that part but the team can’t rely on Aho should Svechnikov miss games.

On the other hand, Boston were without two players this game: David Pastrnak and Tuukka Rask. Pastrnak was out for the second straight game due to being unfit to play. However, Rask had opted out of the postseason to be with his family. Rask put out a statement prior to the start of Game 3. He ended his statement giving thanks to the Bruins organization and his teammates for their support and wished them success moving forward. Without Rask on the ice, Halak looks to be the Bruins’ number one goaltender. Halak looked good in this game but he’s going to have to be consistent if the Bruins want to get back to the Stanley Cup Final.

Game 4 of the Bruins-Hurricanes series is on Aug. 17 at 8:00 p.m. EST.