BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — David Pastrnak scored on a breakaway 9:14 into overtime, and the Boston Bruins avoided elimination with a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.
Catching Buffalo on a line change, Hampus Lindholm fed a pass up the right boards to find Pastrnak in stride just as he crossed the blue line. Driving in alone on net a step ahead of Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson, Pastrnak faked cutting across the front and nearly lost his balance before slipping the puck inside the right post.
The series shifts back to Boston for Game 6 on Thursday night, with Buffalo still seeking to clinch its first playoff series victory since eliminating the New York Rangers in six games of a 2007 second-round series. The Sabres are in the playoffs for only the third time since, and after snapping an NHL record 14-season playoff drought this year.
Elias Lindholm also scored for Boston which overcame a 1-0 deficit. Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots, including foiling Jason Zucker set up in front 3:30 into the extra period.
Rasmus Dahlin scored for Buffalo and Alex Lyon stopped 27 shots.
WILD 4, STARS 2
DALLAS ((AP) — Matt Boldy scored the tiebreaking power-play goal in the final minute of the second period, after having one taken away late in the first, and Minnesota beat DallasQ for a 3-2 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.
Kirill Kaprizov scored an empty-net goal with two minutes left and had two assists, while Mats Zuccarello scored in his return from a three-game absence with an upper-body injury for the Wild. Michael McCarron also had a third-period goal.
The Wild go home for Game 6 on Thursday with a chance to advance to the second round for the first time since 2015. They have lost their last nine playoff series, including to Dallas in 2016 and 2023
OILERS 4, DUCKS 1
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Leon Draisaitl scored a pair of goals and Evan Bouchard chipped in with three assists as Edmonton staved off elimination by beating Anaheim.
The Oilers now trail the best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series 3-2 with game 6 on Thursday night in Anaheim.
Vasily Podkolzin and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers who had previously allowed six separate leads to slip away in the first four games of the series.
Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had a pair of assists. Edmonton is now 18-3 when scoring first in a game when facing elimination.
Alex Killorn scored for the Ducks.
Connor Ingram made 29 stops for Edmonton, while Ville Husso recorded 10 saves for Anaheim after coming in to relieve Lukas Dostal, who allowed three goals on nine shots.
