UNDATED (AP) — Craig Smith scored 5:48 into the second overtime Wednesday night to give the Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals and a 2-1 lead in the East Division first-round playoff series.
Smith outraced defenseman Justin Schultz to a puck behind the Capitals net and swept it around into the goal to end the third straight overtime game in the series. It was the 11th straight one-goal playoff game between them since 1998.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 800th combined regular-season and postseason goal, and Nic Dowd returned from a slap shot off the knee to add a goal for Washington. Ilya Samsonov returned from the COVID-19 list to make his playoff debut, stopping 40 shots for Washington, which lost the home-ice advantage after splitting the first two games at home.
Game 4 is Friday night in Boston.
Elsewhere in playoff action:
— Connor Helleybuyck made 32 saves on his 28th birthday, Dominic Toninato broke a tie midway through the third period and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 Wednesday night in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series. Playing just his third game for Winnipeg, Toninato tipped in Logan Stanley’s blast from the blue line, but the puck flew out so quickly it wasn’t immediately signaled a goal. Tucker Poolman tied it midway through the second, and Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler added empty-netters for Winnipeg in its first playoff meeting with Edmonton since 1990. Edmonton’s Jesse Puljujarvi scored his first playoff goal in his NHL post-season debut. Game 2 is Friday night in Edmonton.
— Nathan MacKinnon finished his first career playoff hat trick with an empty-net goal to help the Colorado Avalanche pull away late for a 6-3 win over St. Louis in Game 2 after the Blues avoided a pregame virus scare that nearly sidelined several players. Joonas Donskoi scored twice and Brandon Saad added an empty-netter as the Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff series. Since moving to Denver, Colorado is 13-1 all-time in best-of-seven postseason series when capturing the first two games. Sammy Blais, Brayden Schenn and Mike Hoffman had goals for St. Louis.
— Sebastian Aho scored twice and Alex Nedeljkovic was sharp in net to lead a perfect showing for Carolina’s penalty kill, helping the Hurricanes beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Wednesday night in Game 2 of the first-round playoff series. That lifted Carolina to a 2-0 lead as the best-of-seven series shifts to Nashville for Game 3 on Friday night. Nedeljkovic finished with 32 saves for the shutout in his second playoff start. Carolina turned away all seven power plays for the Predators. Juuse Saros finished with 28 saves to lead Nashville, which lost 5-2 in Game 1.
