Stanley Cup Playoffs: Bruins, Sharks, Coyotes Win OT Thrillers; Rangers Dominate Senators

The Stanley Cup Playoffs continued on Thursday with the opening contests of four conference quarterfinal-round best-of-seven series.


EASTERN CONFERENCE:


At Boston:


Chris Kelly scored the only goal of the game 78 seconds into overtime as the Boston Bruins defeated the visiting Washington Capitals 1-0 in the opening contest of their first-round series.  Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas stopped all 17 shots while his Washington counterpart Braden Holtby, a third-stringer making his playoff debut due to injuries, had an outstanding game stopping 29 of 30 Boston shots surrendering the Chris Kelly OT tally.


At New York:


Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik, Brian Boyle, and Brad Richards each scored a goal while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 30 of 32 shots as the New York Rangers (top seed in the Eastern Conference) held off the visiting Ottawa Senators 4-2 in game one of their conference quarterfinal-round series.


WESTERN CONFERENCE:


At St. Louis:


Martin Havlat scored the game winner (his second goal of the game, his first being a second-period power-play tally) at 3:34 of the second overtime period to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-2 road victory over the St. Louis Blues in the opening contest of their conference quarterfinal series.  Patrik Berglund scored both of the Blues' goals in the third period (one of them on the power play), only to see Andrew Desjardins score the equalizer at 14:44 of the third period to force overtime.


At Glendale, Arizona:


Martin Hanzel scored the game-winning goal at 9:29 of overtime as the Phoenix Coyotes defeated the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in game one of their opening-round series.  Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith stopped 43 of 45 Chicago shots.