May 23, 2021 4 min read

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WASHINGTON – Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak dazzled on offense, Tuukka Rask was rock solid in net and the Boston Bruins are moving on to the second round of the playoffs.

Bergeron scored twice at crucial times after Pastrnak’s highlight-reel goal, Rask made 40 saves and the Bruins eliminated the Washington Capitals in five games with a 3-1 victory Sunday night. Bergeron delivered the dagger with 7:35 left to set up a second-round showdown against either the Pittsburgh Penguins or New York Islanders.

Chants of “TUUKK!” emanated from a large group of black and gold-clad Boston fans who were part of the limited-capacity sellout crowd of 5,333. Those were occasionally interrupted by “We want the Cup!” – the trophy the Bruins last won a decade ago after a 39-year title drought.

They’re 12 wins away, thanks to their best players dominating in Game 5.

Pastrnak made it look easy putting the puck behind his back and through his legs, assisted on Bergeron’s first goal and was part of an effort in front of Rask that kept most of the Capitals’ shots to the outside. Bergeron, who got the “C” when Zdeno Chara left to sign with Washington, beat Ilya Samsonov with a stoppable shot in the second and stunted a comeback bid with an unassisted goal in the third.

The only shot that beat Rask was Conor Sheary hammering home his own rebound 11 seconds into the third period. That ended an even-strength goal drought of 147:44, but wasn’t enough to rally the Capitals, who outshot the Bruins 41-19 and had a would-be goal by Lars Eller with 5:37 remaining waved off for goaltender interference.

Boston won four in a row against Washington after losing the series opener in overtime. After eking out Game 2 in overtime and Game 3 in double overtime, the Bruins capitalized on an aging, banged-up opponent with few answers for their speed and skill.

It’s a third consecutive first-round exit for Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals since they won the Stanley Cup in 2018. This defeat comes after Cup-winning coach Peter Laviolette was brought in for an organization in win-now mode with Ovechkin in the last year of his contract at age 35 and opportunities running out.

While the Bruins joined the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche as the first teams to advance, the Capitals face a litany of questions this offseason about Ovechkin, center Evgeny Kuznetsov and the goaltending position at large.

Colorado 5, St. Louis 2: Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves and Gabriel Landeskog scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as the Colorado Avalanche completed a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues with a 5-2 win in Game 4 of the West Division series.

Nashville 4, Carolina 3, OT: Luke Kunin scored his second goal at 16:10 of the second overtime and the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 to tie the first-round series 2-2.

Kunin broke his stick and went to the bench for another. He then skated up and beat Alex Nedeljkovic from the inside edge of the left circle off a pass from Mikael Granlund.

Goalie Juuse Saros made a franchise-record 58 saves to ensure this series will return to Nashville. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Carolina.

Ryan Johansen and Nick Cousins each scored a goal, and Mattias Ekholm and Mikael Granlund each had two assists.

This was the first time both teams had gone to multiple overtimes in back-to-back games in a series.

Brandon Saad, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin also scored for Colorado, which recorded its first series sweep since beating Vancouver in the 2001 Western Conference quarterfinal round.

The Avalanche outscored the Blues 20-7 and trailed for only 7:12 over the four games. Grubauer stopped 103 of 110 shots over the four games.

“I thought we got a little better as the series went along,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It was a full 60-minute effort. The first three games we had some lapses in our game, some things that I didn’t like. Tonight, I liked a lot.”

Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice for St. Louis, which was swept for the first time since losing to the Los Angeles Kings in the second round in 2012.