Tampa, Fla. ( Associated Press) — Braden Point scored on a rebound with 1:56 remaining in overtime, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning win 4-3 over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night and force Game 7 into a first-round playoff . Series between Atlantic Division rivals.
Ondrej Palt, Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the two-time Stanley Cup champions, taking a two-goal lead for the second straight game and going 3–2 after entering the third period.
Andrei Vasilevsky had 30 saves, nine in overtime, to improve 18–0 after losing the previous three seasons.
John Tavares scored two goals in the last 34 seconds of the second period to put the Maple Leafs 3-2 ahead. Auston Matthews also had a goal for Toronto, having finished in the first round of each of the last five seasons and missing out on a win in their last eight close-out games.
Jack Campbell stopped 32 shots for the Maple Leafs, who are chasing their first playoff series win in 18 years.
Game 7 is in Toronto on Saturday.
Bruins 5, Storm 2
BOSTON ( Associated Press) — Brad Marchand scored one goal and assisted on another, and Jeremy Swimman blocked 23 shots to propel Boston ahead of Carolina and send their first-round playoff series into a decisive seventh game.
The home team has won all six games in the series so far – an edge for Carolina, who will host Game 7 on Saturday.
Charlie Coyle also scored for Boston, and Eric Houla and Derek Forbort added third-period goals before Curtis Ledger returned the puck into the empty net with 4:17 to play.
Andrei Svechnikov twice and Antti Ranta made 29 saves for the Hurricanes, who have won three games by a combined score of 15-4 and lost three on aggregate 14-6.
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