Hurricanes defeat Bruins 5-2, take 2-0 series advantage
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Boston Bruins, 5-2, taking a 2-0 lead in the opening round best-of-seven series.
Carolina's Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter led the way, finishing with two goals apiece in the victory.
The Hurricanes took control of the game early, gaining a three-goal advantage in the second period, and never looked back.
Just over the midway point of the first period, Jesper Fast opened the game's scoring, followed by Aho's first of the game minutes later.
Leading 2-0 heading into the second period, Aho's second goal of the night, a powerplay goal, put Carolina ahead by three just 1:10 into the period. Boston's Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins late in the period to cut the deficit to just two goals. However, with under two minutes left in the second, Carolina regained its three-goal advantage when Niederreiter potted his first goal of the night.
With Carolina still leading 4-1, Bergeron gave the Bruins life again with his second goal, making it 4-2 Hurricanes 12:21 into the third period. Carolina held onto the lead and capped off the Game 2 victory with an empty-netter from Niederreiter.
Despite outshooting the Hurricanes, 38-34, the Bruins could not capitalize on their chances. They also couldn't take advantage of Carolina losing starting goaltender Antti Raanta, who left the game early in the first period after a collision with Bruins' forward David Pastrnak.
Backup goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov filled in nicely for the injured Raanta, turning away 30 of 32 shots faced to claim the win in net for Carolina.
The Hurricanes look to take a 3-0 series lead when they travel to Boston to take on the Bruins in Game 3 on Friday at 7 p.m.
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