The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins advanced to the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs with dramatic one-goal victories in seventh-game showdowns on Wednesday.
Nathan Horton scored 5:43 into overtime to give the Bruins a 4-3 home victory over the Montreal Canadiens, while Lightning goaltender Dwayne Roloson made 36 saves in Tampa Bay’s 1-0 triumph at Pittsburgh.
Both winning teams captured their best-of-seven Eastern Conference matchups by four games to three to move on. Tampa Bay will face East top seed Washington in round two while the Bruins will meet East second seed Philadelphia.
Photo: Reuters
In the Western Conference, top overall seed Vancouver will meet Nashville in round two while Detroit will face San Jose.
In Boston, Chris Kelly put the Bruins ahead 3-2 with 10:16 remaining in the third period on his third goal of the series but P.K. Subban pulled the Canadiens level at 3-3 with only 1:57 remaining in regulation time.
Montreal forced an over-time game in the NHL playoffs for a record ninth night in a row, but were denied another emotional maximum-length first-round victory after having eliminated Washington in seven games last season.
Johnny Boychuk and Mark -Recchi had scored in the first 5:33 to give Boston a 2-0 lead, but Montreal answered on Yannick Weber’s power-play goal 9:49 into the first period and equalized on a short-handed goal by Tomas Plekanec 5:50 into the second.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the visiting Lightning took the lead 5:41 into the second period on Sean Bergenheim’s third goal of the series and Roloson made spectacular saves to make certain the lead would stand to the finish.
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