Bruins To Face Hurricanes In First Round Of Stanley Cup Playoffs

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- With the round robin portion of the NHL's restart now over, the Boston Bruins know their first-round playoff opponent will be the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Bruins landed a date with the Hurricanes after losing on Sunday to the Capitals, thereby locking the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins into the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. After going 44-14-12 in the regular season, the Bruins went 0-3-0 in round-robin play, three games during which they never even held a lead.

The Hurricanes earned their place in the first round after dispatching the New York Rangers with a three-game sweep in their qualifying series. The Hurricanes outscored New York 11-4 in that brief series.

Prior to the NHL season going on pause due to coronavirus in March, the Bruins and Hurricanes played just once. That game -- which was played Dec. 3 in Boston -- was won by the Bruins, 2-0. The game was tied 0-0 through the first 55:55, but Charlie Coyle and David Krejci scored late for Boston.

James Reimer -- who has a sketchy playoff history against Boston -- allowed both of those goals, while Jaroslav Halak stopped 24 Carolina shots for the shutout.

This will mark the second consecutive year that the Bruins and Hurricanes have met in the playoffs. The two teams squared off last year in the Eastern Conference finals, with the Bruins sweeping away the Hurricanes in four games.

Tuukka Rask stopped 109 of the Canes' 114 shots that series, good enough for a 4-0 record, a .956 save percentage, and a 1.25 GAA. He accentuated that series with a 24-save shutout on the road in Carolina. The Hurricanes entered that series scoring 3.1 goals per game in the playoffs, prior to being held to five total goals in the four-game series loss.

That playoff series marked the first time the teams had met in the playoffs since 2009, when the Hurricanes upset the Bruins, who were the No. 1 seed in the East that year.

The Hurricanes went 38-25-5 during the 2019-20 regular season, which had them in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.

Sebastian Aho turned in a dynamite performance against the Rangers last week, tallying eight points (3-5-8) in the three games. Andrei Svechnikov tied for the team lead with his three goals, while Sami Vatanen was second on the team with three assists. The goaltending tandem of Reimer and Petr Mrazek combined to allow just four goals on 88 shots.

Aho was also the team's regular-season leader in both goals (38) and points (66). Teuvo Teravainen led the team in regular-season assists with 48.

Reimer was famously in net for Toronto during Game 7 of the first-round playoff series back in 2013, when he allowed three goals in the final 11 minutes before giving up the series-winning goal in overtime. Mrazek is likely to be Carolina's starter, though he has his own bit of playoff trouble. Last year for Carolina, he went 5-5 with an .894 save percentage and a 2.73 GAA. After he allowed 10 goals in the first two games against Boston, he lost the starting job. That came after Mrazek suffered an injury in the previous round.

Here's what the two teams have for a schedule so far (all times ET):

Game 1: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 8 p.m.
Game 2: Thursday, Aug. 13, 8 p.m.
Game 3: Saturday, Aug. 15, 12 p.m.
Game 4: Monday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m.
Game 5: Wednesday, Aug. 19, Time TBD
Game 6: Thursday, Aug. 20, Time TBD
Game 7: Sunday, Aug. 12, Time TBD

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