BOSTON (AP) Ondrej Palat scored twice in the first 3:19 of the game, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Wednesday night to open a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots for Tampa Bay, which has won two straight since losing the series opener at home.

Anthony Cirelli scored his first career NHL playoff goal - with an assist from Yanni Gourde, whose wife gave birth on Tuesday - giving Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead late in the first.

Patrice Bergeron scored his fourth goal of the playoffs for Boston, and Tuukka Rask made 33 saves.

Game 4 is Friday night.

Palat scored just 1:47 in after Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk settled the puck with his glove in his own end, then appeared to lose track of it and skated away, leaving the Lightning with an easy 2-on-1 opportunity.

Palat made it 2-0 just 92 seconds later on a shot that deflected off Bruins defenseman Torey Krug and into the net.

It stayed that way until the Lightning picked up a power play in the final two minutes when Krug tripped Cirelli as he chased after the puck with an empty net in front of him.

The Lightning made it 4-1 anyway when Steven Stamkos found the empty net on the power play with 42 seconds left.

NOTES: Former Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez was the honorary fan banner captain, waving a Bruins flag before the game. He was also showed several times on the scoreboard trying to get the fans fired up. ... Brad Marchand picked up a second-period slashing penalty and had to be forcibly steered to the penalty box by a linesman while he argued the call. ... The Lightning won for just the 10th time in 54 visits to TD Garden. Tampa Bay is 13-9 all-time in Game 3s and 7-5 in Game 3s on the road.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Connor Hellebuyck made 47 saves and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Friday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal between the NHL's top teams in the regular season.

Not only did the teams top the standings, this series is the first between clubs with the most combined points ever before a conference finals after Nashville (117) edged Winnipeg (114) for the Presidents' Trophy.

Both the Jets and Predators brought a Vezina Trophy finalist into this series, and the 24-year-old Hellebuyck outdueled veteran Pekka Rinne, who was pulled after the second period after giving up three goals on 16 shots. Hellebuyck, who made his NHL postseason debut in the first round where he finished off Minnesota with back-to-back shutouts, picked up in Nashville where he left off a week ago.

Hellebuyck stretched his shutout streak to 163 minutes before Nashville finally scored.

Mark Scheifele scored two goals, including an empty-netter as the Jets were outshot 48-19. Brandon Tanev and Paul Stastny also scored to help the Jets - the NHL's best home team - steal home-ice advantage.

Kevin Fiala scored for Nashville, which had won 11 of its last 14 playoff games.

The Predators had the sparkling pregame show with the retractable screen dropping from the ceiling and country star Dierks Bentley singing the U.S. anthem, and a couple catfish hit the ice before the puck drop to boot. Then they pelted Hellebuyck with 15 of the first 19 shots.

Then the Jets scored the game's first goal for a sixth straight playoff game. Tanev's wrister beat Rinne's outstretched right skate at 14:51 of the first.

Nashville finished the period with 20 shots, a franchise postseason record for a period, with Hellebuyck continuing his shutout streak started with consecutive shutouts to finish off Minnesota in the first round.

The Predators kept shooting away with Hellebuyck making every save, and the Jets proved very opportunistic. Stastny scored off a rebound of Patrik Laine's shot at 9:01 of the second on Winnipeg's ninth shot for a 2-0 lead.

Filip Forsberg, Nashville's postseason scoring leader, hit the post on the power play with 3:31 left. The Jets killed off the penalty, and Scheifele beat Rinne with a long shot with 2:09 left in the second for a 3-0 lead that silenced the sold-out crowd.

Fiala at least helped Nashville avoid being shutout with his wrister 1:23 into the third . Even pulling backup goalie Juuse Saros with more than 2 minutes left helped.

NOTES: Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis went to the locker room after being clipped on the cheek by the skate of Jets Ben Chiarot early in the third. ... Austin Watson, who had seven points in the first round for Nashville, did not return after playing 4:09 of the first period.

UP NEXT

Game 2 is Sunday night in Nashville.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots for his third shutout of the playoffs, and the Vegas Golden Knights went on to beat the San Jose Sharks 7-0 Thursday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Cody Eakin, Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault scored 1:31 apart early in the first period to get Vegas going. Alex Tuch, Shea Theodore, Colin Miller and James Neal also scored, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson each had three assists, and Marchessault and David Perron added two each.

Fleury, who improved to 5-0 in the playoffs, got his 13th career shutout in the playoffs - and second straight. He also blanked Los Angeles 1-0 in Game 4 of the first round.

The Golden Knights, the first team from the opening round to advance, showed no sign of rust after having nine days off since their first-round sweep over the Kings. From the opening puck drop, Vegas skated fast, its passes were crisp, and the players were in synch with one another. It has now outscored its opposition 14-3 in five games.

San Jose, which swept Anaheim in the first round, looked out of sorts by the time Vegas put its first three in the net just 6:02 into the game, and the Shakrs lost their cool early in the third period, when Evander Kane was ejected for cross-checking Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the face after a whistle.

Martin Jones, who stopped 128 of 132 shots in the first round against the Ducks, was pulled a little more than three minutes into the second period after allowing five goals on 13 shots. Backup goalie Aaron Dell came in and finished with 19 saves.

It was the Sharks' worst loss in playoff history. Detroit blanked San Jose 6-0 in the 1995 Western Conference semifinals.

Eakin started the scoring barrage when he deflected Brayden McNabb's wrist shot from the point past Jones 4:31 into the game. Before the public-address announcer could trumpet the game's first goal, Haula finished Tuch's rush to the net 26 seconds later with a sniper past Jones to double Vegas' lead.

Marchessault made it 3-0 when he fired a shot from inside the circle past Jones, notching his first career playoff goal. Tuch capped the scoring in the opening period when he sliced through four defenders, made a swift move to his forehand for a wrist shot that beat Jones for a power-play goal.

Jones' night ended 3:28 into the second when Smith threaded a pass to Theodore, who promptly tipped it into the twine to give Vegas a 5-0 lead.

While Kane was called for a game misconduct, Joe Pavelski went off at the same time for slashing, giving Vegas a 5-3 edge on the ice. The Golden Knights took full advantage, as Miller's one-timer blazed past Dell to make it 6-0 at 4:32 of the third.

Neal, who had a goal overturned in the second period, extended the lead to 7-0 when he took Perron's pass and wrapped it around past Dell on the power play at 8:09.

NOTES: Vegas' four goals in the first period marked the fifth time this season it netted four in one period. ... It was the third time this season the Sharks allowed four goals in a period. ... No. 1 UFC featherweight contender Brian Ortega, who fill fight champion Max Holloway for the title on July 7, was in attendance.

BOSTON (AP) Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk scored 1:19 apart in the second period, and then the Toronto Maple Leafs killed off a 5-on-3 and three more power plays in a row to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 in Game 5 on Saturday night and avoid playoff elimination.

Connor Brown and Andreas Johnsson each scored his first career playoff goal in the first period, and the Maple Leafs took a 4-1 lead to chase Tuukka Rask in the second. Toronto also led 4-1 in Game 7 of the teams' 2013 playoff series before the Bruins won in overtime en route to their second Stanley Cup final berth in two years.

This time, Boston cut the deficit to one goal but the Leafs held on.

Frederik Andersen stopped 42 shots for Toronto, which returns home for Game 6 on Monday. Game 7 would be back in Boston on Wednesday, if necessary.

Jake DeBrusk and Sean Kuraly scored for the Bruins. Patrice Bergeron returned to the ice after missing one game with an undisclosed injury but not to the scoresheet; his line, which had 20 points in the first two games, was held without a goal or assist.

Rask was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots before skipping off to the locker room when he was pulled with 8:05 left in the second. Anton Khudobin, making his first career playoff appearance, stopped all eight shots he saw the rest of the way.

Toronto lost the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Boston by a combined score of 12-4, then won the third game at home before dropping the fourth to fall to the brink of elimination. The Maple Leafs also fell behind 3-1 in 2013 before back-to-back victories that forced a seventh game.

This time, they're hoping they can get that far.

Leading 4-1 midway through the game, they then gave Boston four straight power plays - putting four players in the penalty box at one point - but killed each one off. Kuraly made it a two-goal game with about three minutes left in the second and Noel Acciari made it 4-3 six minutes into the third.

Notes: Bergeron's absence from Game 4 was a surprise, and his upper body injury remains a mystery. He skated on the off-day Friday and again on Saturday morning and was then cleared to play. ... Grzelcyk had his first playoff point, and Acciari recorded his first playoff assist. ... Khudobin made his NHL debut in 2010 but has been a backup since then and never saw the ice in a playoff game. ... The game ended with fisticuffs in the corner. Bozak and Boston's David Backes were in the middle.

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NEWARK, N.J. (AP) A feisty Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, set up another and knocked New Jersey's top defenseman out of the game with a big hit, and the Tampa Bay Lightning moved within a game of making the Devils' first trip to the playoffs in six years a short one with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night.

J.T. Miller also scored and had two assists, and Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped three breakaways in making 27 saves as the Lightning bounced back from a loss in Game 3 to tale a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.

Tampa Bay can wrap up the best-of-seven series in Game 5 at home on Saturday.

Kyle Palmieri scored on a 5-on-3 advantage for the Devils, who are back in the playoffs for the first time since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. It was the only time they beat Vasilevskiy, whose 44 wins in the regular season shared the league lead with Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck. Cory Schneider made 34 saves for New Nersey in starting his second straight game.

This game might have been the roughest of the series, especially in the first period when the Lightning took a 2-1 lead in a session with a lot of scrums.

The play everyone is going to talk about and the NHL probably will look at is Kucherov's hit on Sami Vatanen late in the first. No penalty was called but the league's No. 3 scorer appeared to jump before hitting Vatanen in the shoulder and head area. Devils coach coach John Hynes screamed at the officials after the play.

Vatanen did not return.

The Lightning were leading 2-1 at that point and the score didn't change until Kucherov's empty net goal with 1:08 to play iced the game.

Kucherov broke a 1-all tie with 4:58 left in the period. Defenseman Brayden Coburn sent a pass from the left boards that hit off Devils' defenseman Damon Severson. Kucherov collected the loose puck right in front and put it high into the net for his third goal of the series.

The Lightning had tied it at 11:30 on a great rush. Steven Stamkos fed Kucherov entering the zone and he found Miller on the left side for a shot over Schneider's shoulder.

Cory Conacher appeared to give Tampa Bay the lead with 7:39 left in the period, but a review found the Lightning were offside.

For the first time in the series, the Devils scored first with Palmieri converting from the left circle with the Lightning playing two men short at 8:23 of the first.

Alex Killorn got the first penalty at 7:47 with a hook and 25 seconds later Cedric Paquette tripped Taylor Hall. Eleven seconds later, New Jersey had its second 5-on-3 goal in two games.

Vasilevskiy kept Tampa Bay in the game over the next few minutes, stopping a breakaway by Travis Zajac with Paquette still in the penalty box and a semi-breakaway by Blake Coleman with 9:05 left in the period. He also stopped Patrick Maroon on a second-period break.

NOTES: Lightning D Ryan McDonagh appeared in his 100th NHL playoff game. ... This is the first time Schneider has had consecutive starts since Jan. 22-23. ... There were no lineup changes for Game 4. ... Vatanen has been leading the Devils in time on ice in the series, averaging 23:23. ... Tampa Bay was 5 of 9 on the power play in the first three games. They were 0 for 5 in Game 4.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Brian Boyle scored in the fifth round of the shootout to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.

Boyle beat Nashville goalie Juuse Saros with a quick wrist shot from the slot on the blocker side.

New Jersey's Taylor Hall and Nashville's Kyle Turris each scored in the fourth round of the tiebreaker after none of the first six shooters could solve the opposing goalie.

Sami Vatanen and Boyle had the goals in regulation for New Jersey, winners of two of three. The Devils moved past idle Columbus into the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Keith Kinkaid made 34 saves through overtime and denied four of Nashville's five attempts in the shootout.

Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Johansen had the goals for Nashville, which snapped its franchise-high 10-game winning streak. Saros finished with 25 saves.

With the Predators trailing 2-1 late, Johansen tied it with 1:06 remaining in the third when he put home the rebound of Ryan Ellis' shot from the right side.

Ekholm scored the game's first goal at 1:17 of the opening period.

Carrying the puck on the right side, Ekholm cut to the left and beat Kinkaid with a wrist shot high to the short side. It was the Swedish defenseman's 10th of the season, the first time he has reached double digits in his career.

Vatanen tied it at 7:13 of the first with a slap shot from the right point through traffic that beat Saros on the stick side. Vatanen has four points in his last four games.

New Jersey made it 2-1 at 11:24 of the second. Just one second after Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban's slashing penalty expired, Boyle redirected Damon Severson's slap shot from above the left circle past Saros for his 13th of the season. Boyle has a goal in two of his last three games.

In overtime, Saros stopped a point-blank chance by Michael Grabner at 1:12.

NOTES: Nashville D Roman Josi returned to the lineup after missing four games with an upper-body injury. ... Prior to the game, Josi and Boyle, a cancer survivor, took part in a ceremonial faceoff as part of the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. ... Devils D Will Butcher had one assist, extending his point-scoring streak to three games. ... New Jersey is 25-0-2 when leading after two periods this season.

UP NEXT

Devils: At Vegas on Wednesday night.

Predators: Host Winnipeg on Tuesday night.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Austin Watson scored a short-handed goal late in the second period and the Nashville Predators beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 on Thursday night to extend their franchise-record winning streak to 10 games.

The Predators also matched Colorado for the longest winning streak in the NHL this season. The victory kept Nashville's edge at six points ahead of Winnipeg and Vegas for the Western Conference lead.

Pekka Rinne made 31 saves to improve to 18-1-1 over his last 20 games.

Craig Smith, Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson each scored. Filip Forsberg had two assists for Nashville, which honored David Poile before the game for becoming career wins leader among NHL general managers with his 1,320th victory last week.

Rickard Rakell scored twice in the third period for the Ducks, who snapped a three-game winning streak. Rakell's second goal at 16:35 pulled the Ducks within 3-2 before Arvidsson scored over goalie John Gibson's glove with 1:46 left.

The Predators swept the three-game season series against the Ducks, the same team they beat for the Western Conference championship last year.

The puck didn't drop until after a pre-game ceremony for Poile, who got the record March 1 in Nashville's 4-2 victory at Edmonton. That win pushed him past Glen Sather (1,319). NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was on hand for the festivities Thursday.

The Predators didn't miss a beat after the delay as Smith scored at 5:26 of the first period with a wrister that beat Gibson glove-side. Then Forsberg found Johansen at the edge of the crease with a pass, and Johansen redirected it for his 10th goal at 15:10.

The Ducks went on the power play late in the second period, and the Predators quickly turned that into a 3-0 lead. Colton Sissons skated up and took a shot, then Watson scored off the rebound with 1:18 left for his third short-handed goal this season - tied for second in the NHL.

Ducks center Ryan Kesler and Johansen fought on the ensuing faceoff.

Anaheim opened the third taking the first few shots. Arvidsson hit a post for Nashville, then the Ducks came back the other way with Rakell scoring on a pass from Corey Perry at 6:04 of the period. Rakell made it 3-2 with his 30th goal of the season.

Notes: Nashville improved to 30-2-3 when leading after two periods. ... Smith has 21 goals this season, three away from matching his career best. ... Ryan Hartman has four points (two goals, two assists) in six games since Nashville picked up him in a trade from Chicago. ... Forsberg has five points (two goals, three assists) in his last five regular-season games against Anaheim. ... Rakell has a five-game point streak (seven goals and two assists).

UP NEXT

Ducks: Visit Dallas on Friday night.

Predators: Host Devils on Saturday night.

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