Boston, Dallas win to even their playoff series

Associated Press

TORONTO

David Pastrnak scored twice in quick succession, Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists and the Boston Bruins held off the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4 on Wednesday night to tie the first-round series 2-2.

Charlie McAvoy had a goal and an assist, Zdeno Chara and Joakim Nordstrom also scored and Tuukka Rask made 38 saves.

Auston Matthews scored twice for Toronto. Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott also scored and Frederik Andersen stopped 25 shots.

Game 5 is Friday night in Boston.

After the Maple Leafs overcame a 2-0 deficit to tie it early in the second period, Pastrnak put Boston back in front at 3:16 when he redirected a pass from Marchand on a 2-on-1. The Bruins then got a power play when Matthews went off for roughing, and Marchand whipped a backhand pass to a wide-open Pastrnak, who snapped the puck short-side on Andersen for his second goal in 1:35.

Chara made it 5-2 at 5:39 of the third. At 42 years, 30 days, the Boston captain became the second-oldest defenseman in NHL history to score a playoff goal. Chris Chelios holds the record at 45 years, 86 days.

Matthews scored on the power play with 8:08 left, and Dermott made it 5-4 through traffic with 6:33 remaining. Nordstrom scored into an empty net with two seconds to go.

Stars 5, Predators 1

DALLAS

Roope Hintz and Alexander Radulov scored power-play goals on Dallas’ first two shots, and the Stars chased Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne with an early four-goal onslaught.

The Stars evened the best-of-seven series at two games each.

Hintz added his second career playoff goal in the second period, on John Kingberg’s third assist of the game.

Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots. Bishop allowed a couple of soft goals in Game 3 in his home playoff debut with Dallas, when the Predators won their second consecutive game after the Stars won the series opener in Nashville.

Game 5 is Saturday in Nashville.

The Stars were 1 of 13 on the power play in the first three games of the Western Conference playoff series, but went 3 of 4 in the first period of Game 4. It was the first time they scored three power-play goals in one period of a playoff game since moving to Dallas before the 1993-94 season.

Andrew Cogliano and Mats Zuccarello also scored as part of the Stars’ four goals in eight shots against Rinne, before he was replaced by Juuse Saros less than 14 minutes into the game. Rinne, who started his 87th consecutive playoff game for Nashville, had stopped 40 of 42 shots in Game 3.

It was the third goal of the series for Zuccarello.

Dallas led 1-0 when Hintz scored on a pass from Klingberg only 3:42 into the game. The Stars were back on the power play only 90 seconds later, and converted again when Radulov got his second goal of the series .