TORONTO — Patrice Bergeron scored early in the second ovetime and the Boston Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Wednesday in Game 1 of their first-round series that was postponed 15 hours to a rare late-morning start.
The game scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday night started the next morning at 11 after the Columbus Blue Jackets-Tampa Bay Lightning series opener went five overtimes.
Hurricanes-Bruins Game 1 wasn’t quite the same marathon with Bergeron scoring 1:13 into the second extra period. But it had plenty of theater from Carolina’s surprise scratches to a controversial goal and video review.
Joel Edmundson, who wasn’t with the Hurricanes last year and joined them in a trade from the St. Louis Blues after winning the Stanley Cup, opened the scoring 13:02 into the first period.
The way Boston tied it was plenty familiar, with its fearsome first line of Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak connecting. Bergeron won a faceoff to Marchand, who fed it to Pastrnak for the league-leading goal-scorer to finish it off at the 17:45 mark of the first.
ISLANDERS 4, CAPITALS 2
TORONTO — Josh Bailey scored a shorthanded goal 6:52 into the third period and New York overcame a two-goal deficit to beat Washington in a hard-hitting opener to the first-round playoff series.
Jordan Eberle and Anders Lee scored 1:54 apart spanning the second intermission. Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots and Anthony Beauvillier sealed it by scoring with 8:05 remaining in a game the Islanders overcame their own lack of discipline in allowing the Capitals seven power-play opportunities.
T.J. Oshie scored on consecutive power-play opportunities five minutes apart in the second period for Washington.
FLYERS 2, CANADIENS 1
TORONTO — Carter Hart made 27 saves, Joel Farabee scored 16 seconds after Montreal tied it, and Philadelphia beat the Canadiens in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Ivan Provorov also scored for the Flyers. Shea Weber scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price stopped 29 shots.
Montreal, the final club in the NHL’s 24-team restart, stunned the Pittsburgh Penguins — who had the NHL’s seventh-best record when the schedule was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic — 3-1 in the best-of-five qualifying round to book a place in the 16-slot playoff bracket.
Philadelphia sat fourth of four teams vying for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, then beat Boston, Washington and Tampa Bay by a combined 11-3 in the round-robin tournament to grab top spot.
AVALANCHE 3, COYOTES 0
EDMONTON, Alberta — Nazem Kadri and J.T. Compher scored 10 seconds apart in the third period, Philipp Grubauer stopped 14 shots and Colorado opened the playoffs with a victory over Arizona.
Colorado dominated the Coyotes through the first two periods, outshooting them 29-7, yet couldn’t get anything past goalie Darcy Kuemper.
Grubauer made the saves when he had to for his second career playoff shutout and Kadri broke a scoreless tie by punching in a rebound on a power play with 7 minutes left.
Compher scored on a backhanded rebound and Mikko Rantanen made it three goals in 1:23 to give Colorado the lead in the best-of-seven series heading into Game 2 on Friday.