Monday's NHL playoffs: Marchand’s OT winner evens Bruins-Capitals series at 1-1

Washington — Brad Marchand scored 39 seconds into overtime after teammate Taylor Hall tied the game late in regulation, and the Boston Bruins rallied to beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 Monday night, tying the East Division first-round playoff series at a game apiece.

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Boston.

The Bruins were less than three minutes away from pure desperation mode in the series.

Two penalties early in the third period took Boston out of rhythm as Garnet Hathaway scored his second of the game to give Washington the lead with 12:56 left. Anderson – who made 38 consecutive saves after allowing two goals on the first five Bruins shots – was a rock until Hall whacked a loose puck past him with 2:49 left in regulation.

Boston got first-period goals from Jake DeBrusk and Patrice Bergeron, and 36 saves from Tuukka Rask, who was beaten twice by deflections. Hathaway scored twice and T.J. Oshie redirected a shot in for Washington.

Anderson finished with 44 saves.

More games

►Hurricanes 5, Predators 2: Jordan Staal scored twice and Nino Niederreiter beat Juuse Saros for the go-ahead goal early in the third period, helping Carolina past Nashville in the first game of the first-round playoff series.

Niederreiter hammered the puck past Saros from between the circles at 2:26 of the third, finishing a perfect pass from Martin Necas only moments after Saros had made a terrific stop on Vincent Trocheck.

The Hurricanes host Game 2 on Wednesday night.

Andrei Svechnikov added the clinching empty-netter on a breakaway at 18:13 for Carolina. Teuvo Teravainen also scored a first-period goal. Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 22 saves.

Filip Forsberg and Erik Haula scored for the Predators. Saros finished with 33 saves.

►Avalanche 4, Blues 1: Nathan MacKinnon scored the tiebreaking goal 30 seconds into the third period and wrapped it up with an empty-netter, Philipp Grubauer stopped 22 shots and Colorado beat St. Louis in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Gabriel Landeskog also added a third-period goal by tipping in a blue-line blast from MacKinnon. Cale Makar got things started for the Avalanche with a power-play goal in the first period.

Game 2 is Wednesday.

Jordan Kyrou scored his first postseason goal for a Blues team missing leading scorer David Perron, who’s out due to the NHL’s virus protocols.

Colorado kept Jordan Binnington busy through the first two periods, outshooting the Blues by a 32-16 margin. They finally were able to solve him in the third with MacKinnon leading the way.

Binnington finished with 46 saves.