SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk scored twice, Eetu Luostarinen put Florida ahead to stay with 5:38 left in what was a crazed third period, and the Panthers forced a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round series by beating the Boston Bruins 7-5 on Friday night.
Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour, Zac Dalpe and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Reinhart closed it out with an empty-netter with 28 seconds left — the seventh and final goal of the third period, four of those scores by Florida.
Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak each scored twice for Boston, which got four assists from Brad Marchand and 26 saves from Linus Ullmark. Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Bruins.
The team with the best regular-season record in NHL history took one-goal leads on two separate occasions in the third period — and couldn’t hold either one of them. Now, they face a Game 7 on Sunday just to get into the second round against a Florida team that has already staved off elimination twice.
HURRICANES 2, ISLANDERS 1, OT
NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Stastny scored 6 minutes into overtime, and the Hurricanes beat the Islanders in Game 6 to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Sebastian Aho tied it midway through the third period for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen stopped 33 shots while making his first start of the postseason.
Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin finished with 39 saves. New York was eliminated in the first round for the first time in their last five trips to the postseason.
The Hurricanes advanced to face the winner of the series between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. The Devils lead 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Saturday night.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
The Associated Press
