Fleury makes 29 saves as Wild outruns Blues for series lead | CBC Sports

Fleury, playing in his sixteenth consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, earned his 92nd career playoff victory.

St. Louis lost Torey Krug to a lower-body injury early in the first period. Krug is the third Blues defenseman to be injured in the series.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday afternoon in St. Louis before returning to St. Paul, Minnesota, for Game 5.

The Wild wasted no time in calming the crowd by taking advantage of the Blues’ aggressiveness for two early goals.

St. Louis defenseman Colton Parayko was caught jumping in the offensive zone creating a 2-on-1 break that resulted in Greenway’s goal at 39 seconds.

Zucarello’s 16th career playoff goal gave Wild a 3-0 lead in the second period and Erickson Ek scored his third goal of the series 22 seconds into the third period. Marcus Foligno got his second assist of the game thanks to Erickson Ek’s count.

The Blues picked up some momentum after O’Reilly’s goal at 2:17 of the third, but Fleury made several tough saves to prevent the rally from gaining more traction.

Brodin’s goal with 7:29 remaining caused a significant portion of the packed crowd to head for the exits.

Bruins trim Hurricanes series lead

Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists on Friday night to help the Boston Bruins take their first lead against the visiting Hurricanes all season, and hold it for a 4-2 win over Carolina in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.

Charlie Coyle scored a shorthand goal and added an assist, and David Pastrnak had a power play goal and an assist for Boston, which hopes to even the best-of-seven series when it hosts Game 4 on Sunday. Taylor Hall added a power play goal as the Bruins made it 4-1 early in the third period.

Vincent Trocheck and Jaccob Slavin scored for Carolina, and backup goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made 24 saves in his first career playoff start. He took over in Game 2 after starter Antti Raanta was injured in a collision with Pastrnak.

Trocheck gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead, grabbing a rebound just as he was brought down late in front of the net. But Coyle tied in a give-and-take with Jake DeBrusk with 2:44 remaining in the first.

Five minutes into the second, Marchand battled the puck along the boards and headed for the slot, where he picked up Patrice Bergeron’s wide shot and sailed over Kochetkov, Boston’s first lead over Carolina in 325 minutes. 41 seconds this season.

The Hurricanes committed back-to-back penalties late in the second, and shortly after the 5-on-3 had turned into a one-man lead, Pastrnak hit one from left circle to make it 3-1.

Player out, official start

The Hurricanes lost forward Jordan Martinook in the second quarter when he tangled his legs with Boston’s Taylor Hall. Martinook put his skates back on, but he couldn’t support his right ankle.

He went down the tunnel and the Hurricanes said he wasn’t coming back.

The game was delayed for about seven minutes when a section of glass fell onto an NHL official working in the Bruins’ penalty box.

The game was called with 5:07 left in the second period and medical personnel ran across the ice to tend to the referee, who was not immediately identified. He was carried out on a stretcher and the Boston fans cheered him on.

Glass separated Boston’s penalty area from the stands. The game resumed with a policeman in the stands to maintain a barrier. The Bruins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.