Jaroslav Halak, who was a late replacement for Tuukka Rask, stopped 29 shots as the Boston Bruins overcame a roster adjustment to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 in game three of their first round NHL playoff series on Saturday.
Charlie Coyle and Brad Marchand each had a goal and an assist and Sean Kuraly scored the other goal for Boston, who took a 2-1 series lead over the Hurricanes.
David Krejci had two assists for the Bruins, who are to play game four against Carolina in the best-of-seven series today.
Boston goaltender Rask opted out of the rest of the playoffs because of personal reasons.
The move was announced 90 minutes prior to the start of the game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
“I want to be with my teammates competing, but at this moment there are things more important than hockey in my life, and that is being with my family,” Rask said.
Halak, of Slovakia, had played in only the opener of the first five games for Boston since the season resumed earlier this month after being interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are not going to change the way we play no matter who is in net,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We can’t be worried about who’s out of the line-up. We have to worry about who is in the lineup.”
Carolina’s Nino Niederreiter scored with 13 minutes, 30 seconds to play in the third period when Halak’s turnover from behind the goal resulted in an easy shot into the empty net, cutting the Bruins lead to 2-1. Swiss forward Niederreiter was in the lineup after he was scratched in Thursday’s game two.
Goalie Petr Mrazek made 36 stops for the Hurricanes.
In other games on Saturday, it was:
‧ Coyotes 4, Avalanche 2
‧ Lightning 3, Blue Jackets 2
‧ Knights 2, Blackhawks 1
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but