RALEIGH, N.C. — As expected, the Hurricanes gave the Bruins their best shot in Game 3 as the Eastern Conference Finals shifted to their undefeated home ice at raucous PNC Arena.
But, like every other Hurricanes flurry in this series, the Bruins took it, then shoved it right back into their face.
After watching Tuukka Rask stand on his head in a 20-save first period, the Bruins made second-period goals from Chris Wagner and Brad Marchand stand up as Boston beat Carolina 2-1 on Tuesday night.
The Bruins only need one more victory in the next four games to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Rask saved 35 of 36 shots. The only goal he allowed, a slapshot by Calvin de Haan at 13:48 of the second period, gave Carolina brief life.
Wagner opened the scoring just 1:21 into the second period off of two great passes from Joakim Nordstrom and Sean Kuraly.
Marchand made it 2-0 when his backhanded shot went off de Haan and through the five-hole of Curtis McElhinney, who was solid in his start in place of Petr Mrazek.
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- No expected lineup changes for the Bruins, even if Noel Acciari returned to practice on Tuesday. Acciari, who hasn’t played since Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, has been cleared, but is sitting out due to a coach’s decision — with Bruce Cassidy opting to keep his current fourth line of Chris Wagner, Sean Kuraly and Joakim Nordstrom intact.
- While the B’s won’t be doing much shuffling going into Game 3, the same can’t be said for the Hurricanes, who are in need of spark after dropping a pair of matchups up at TD Garden. We likely won’t know if it’s Petr Mrazek or Curtis McElhinney in net for Carolina until warmups, as Rod Brind’Amour did not announce a starter during media availability Tuesday morning. Given the fact that Mrazek has posted an .808 save percentage so far this postseason, McElhinney could be due for a start. Regardless of which netminder gets the call, Bob Essensa and the B’s coaching staff have a gameplan mapped out.
- One adjustment that Carolina desperately needs to make — Who’s going to slow down the Johansson-Coyle-Heinen line? So far, throwing out a third or fourth line to wear Coyle and Co. down hasn’t worked, but the Hurricanes still need to worry about Boston’s top-six, too. It’s a lose-lose situation, as it seems like a given that one of the B’s top three lines will get their punches to land against Carolina.
- The Bruins have had 19 different goal scorers so far during this Cup run — tying the franchise record for most in a single postseason (1988). The all-time record is held by the 1987 Flyers, who had 21 different scorers en route to a Stanley Cup Final appearance.
- So far, Carolina’s penalty kill has yet to find an answer for the Bruins’ power play — with Boston cashing in on four of its seven opportunities on the man advantage this series. Boston’s power play leads all clubs this postseason with a 33.3 percent success rate.