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BOSTON — The Boston Bruins disagreed with the officials’ decision on a failed coach’s challenge for goalie interference, one that let the game-tying goal stand in their Game 4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.

The Panthers, down 2-0 in the opening period, went on to win the game 3-2, scoring twice in the third to take a 3-1 series lead.

At 3:41 of the third period, Florida’s Sam Bennett scored to tie the game at 2. The goal was immediately challenged by the Boston bench. Replays showed Bennett had cross-checked Bruins forward Charlie Coyle onto goalie Jeremy Swayman before scoring into an open net.

The on-ice officials reviewed the call and determined “there was no goaltender interference on the play.” The official ruling from the NHL Situation Room was that “video review supported the referees’ call on the ice that the shove by Florida’s Sam Bennett on Charlie Coyle and the subsequent contact with Jeremy Swayman did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett’s goal.”

Boston was given a minor penalty for delay of game because of the failed challenge. The Bruins killed that off, but Aleksander Barkov‘s goal at 7:31 of the third period ended up winning it for the Panthers

Rule 69.1 of the NHL rulebook states that: “If a defending player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed.”

Based on that criteria, Coyle and Swayman strongly disagreed with the officials’ decision not to overturn the Bennett goal.

“My momentum hits him so he can’t get over,” Coyle said. “It’s a huge swing. They score, tie the game and get a power play out of it. We saw something different. They saw something different.”

Swayman reiterated several times that Coyle impeded his ability to play the puck.

“The fact is that Coyle was pushed into me. I couldn’t play my position. So that’s that,” he said. “In the moment I didn’t know what exactly happened. I just know I couldn’t play my position. And the review showed that.”

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Sam Bennett evens score with clutch power-play goal

Sam Bennett takes advantage on the power play and nets a huge goal for the Panthers to even the score against the Bruins.

Boston coach Jim Montgomery calmly disagreed with the call in his postgame news conference.

“[The NHL Situation Room in] Toronto ruled that it was a good goal. That the player didn’t interfere with the goal. That’s the explanation I got,” he said. “We thought that Coyle was on top of our goaltender, and if Coyle was able to stand his ground, he could have cleared the puck. That inhibited our goaltender from being able to react to play in the puck.”

Swayman believed that the Bruins wouldn’t challenge the goal if they didn’t see evidence that it should be overturned.

“I know that our guys aren’t going to call a challenge unless they know what’s going to get reversed,” he said. “Again, I just want to stick to facts, and the fact is that my own player was pushed into me by theirs and I couldn’t play my position.”

The Panthers saw it differently.

“So I’ll have an opinion and it would be ‘no’ in that it will have no impact on the play of the game and then the player,” coach Paul Maurice said. “The connection between the two, the contact between the two is not egregious at all, and the play just gets finished more than anything else. That’s in the situation book and it’s in the [NHL hockey rules] reel.”

Bennett said he wasn’t concerned that the goal wouldn’t count.

“I wasn’t surprised. I mean, I think they got the right call,” he said. “[I’m] putting that puck in before Swayman’s going to be able to get over whether Coyle is on him or not, so I think that’s the reason why it stood. And that’s how I saw it, as well.”

Bruins fans booed loudly when Bennett’s name was announced as the goal-scorer, like they did all night when he touched the puck. Boston captain Brad Marchand missed Game 4 because of an upper-body injury, with replay angles showing Bennett deliver a punch to Marchand’s face when the Boston winger tried to check him in Game 3. No penalty was called on the play, and the NHL Department of Player Safety decided not to discipline Bennett.

“It’s just one of those plays where he’s coming to hit me,” Bennett said in discussing the incident for the first time after Game 4. “I’m trying to brace myself. There’s no way I would have had time to think about punching him in the face like everyone.

“But people can have their opinions. I know it definitely wasn’t intentional. I’m bracing myself as he’s coming to hit me. Obviously, he’s a heck of a player and a big part of that team. So it’s unfortunate, but by no means was that an intentional punch in the face.”

The Bruins said there wasn’t any extra frustration that it was Bennett who scored the disputed equalizer.

“I don’t know who scored goals. I don’t look at players, it doesn’t matter,” Swayman said. “It went in, and that’s frustrating enough. So my job is to keep pucks out of the net. So that’s all I care about.”

The Bruins now return to Sunrise, Florida, for Game 5 on Tuesday, facing elimination by the Panthers for a second straight season.

“I couldn’t be more excited to get down there and bring it back to Boston,” Swayman said. “The reality is that we’re going to go to Florida and we’re going to play the same game and we’re going to get it done. And I have no doubt in this group and we have a lot of confidence and a lot of motivation to bring it back to Boston because our fans deserve a lot better, and we’re excited to do that.”

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Oilers’ 5th comeback win in row sets NHL record

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Oilers' 5th comeback win in row sets NHL record

LAS VEGAS — Zach Hyman scored from just above the right circle with 3:02 left to put his team ahead for good, and the Edmonton Oilers rallied yet again this postseason to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the second-round series.

The Oilers, the defending Western Conference champions who came back from 2-0 down, set an NHL record with their fifth consecutive playoff comeback victory.

“We’re a patient group, we’re a veteran team. The guys here have been playing a lot of playoffs throughout the years,” Edmonton defenseman John Klingberg said. “They know what it takes. Just stick to our game, and take it game by game.”

Vegas, which had just seven shots on goal over the final two periods, lost a playoff game in regulation after leading by at least two goals for the first time. The Golden Knights are 47-4 overall in the postseason with that kind of lead.

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, and Corey Perry and Connor Brown scored the other goals. Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid each had two assists. McDavid now has four consecutive postseasons with at least 10 assists for fourth best in league history. Calvin Pickard was barely tested after the first period and finished with 15 shots.

“It gives you a great opportunity,” Hyman said of winning the opener on the road. “You steal one in their rink, and now, you have a chance to take both. We haven’t been in that spot a lot. It’s nice to get the first one out of the way early.”

Mark Stone scored both goals for the Golden Knights to tie Jonathan Marchessault‘s franchise record with 36 for his Vegas career. It also extended his goal-scoring streak to three games. Adin Hill made 24 saves.

Both star-studded top lines delivered in the first period, with Stone scoring twice, the first on a double-minor power play. Edmonton’s top unit cut the deficit in half with 3:34 left when Perry deked Hill for an open net with McDavid and Draisaitl getting assists on the play.

Neither team scored in the second period even though the Oilers outshot Vegas 12-1. The Golden Knights had never been held to fewer than two shots on goal in a regulation playoff period.

Edmonton didn’t waste a chance early in the third, tying the score 57 seconds in when Draisaitl backhanded a shot off the boards and off Hill.

Hyman, who earlier in the shift took a stick to the face from Kaedan Korczak, broke the tie in the closing minutes, and Brown sealed the win 1:16 later.

“We were kind of all over the place in the first 10 minutes,” Perry said in speaking with Sportsnet after the win. “But we found our footing, found our game. We started moving the puck, and making plays. And then, we played well defensively, and kept the puck out of our net.”

Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo did not play because of an illness, allowing Korczak to make his first career postseason start. Vegas also was without Pavel Dorofeyev, who led the team with 35 goals this season, for the second game in a row because of an undisclosed injury. Coach Bruce Cassidy has described him as day to day.

Game 2 is Thursday night in Las Vegas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Canes’ dominant 33-shot effort ‘paid off’ in OT

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Canes' dominant 33-shot effort 'paid off' in OT

WASHINGTON — Jaccob Slavin scored in overtime, Frederik Andersen made 13 saves in his return from injury and the Carolina Hurricanes outlasted the Washington Capitals 2-1 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Tuesday night.

Logan Stankoven started the comeback with his goal midway through the third period off a turnover, beating Logan Thompson after Aliaksei Protas‘ errant pass off Washington teammate Alex Alexeyev‘s right skate put the puck on Jesperi Kotkaniemi‘s stick. After failing to score on a power play late in regulation, Slavin scored 3:06 into OT from just inside the blue line to give Carolina the series lead.

The result capped a dominant effort by the road team, despite the fact that it trailed for most of the game. Carolina finished with 33 shots on net, compared with just 14 for Washington. All told, six Hurricanes had at least three shots on net, including Slavin, who finished with five.

“We were all over it, and we knew we had to just throw everything at the net,” Slavin said. “That mentality paid off there at the end.”

Andersen, who wasn’t tested much, allowed only an early second-period goal to Protas in improving to 4-1 this postseason. Andersen was back after getting knocked out of Game 4 and missing Game 5 of the first round against the New Jersey Devils with an apparent head injury.

“Just trying to take what comes my way and be in that moment all the time and just stay with it,” Andersen said. “You don’t know when that next big save’s going to happen.”

Just a week ago, Andersen had to sit and watch as his teammates defeated the Devils in double overtime of Game 5 to secure the series. A week later, he was back, delivering the kind of quality goaltending Carolina has gotten from him whenever he has been healthy.

“Just really been looking forward to this for a while,” Andersen said. “Happy we could start off on the right foot.”

Carolina remained the only team perfect on the penalty kill this postseason, keeping Washington’s power play off the board twice to improve to 17-of-17. That, along with Kotkaniemi and Stankoven taking advantage of Protas’ mistake and Slavin scoring with Seth Jarvis screening Thompson, was the difference.

“I thought our guys played hard every shift. Right from the start of the game, I liked how we were playing,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Obviously, we were down, but yeah, there’s a certain game plan. And I thought we were on it tonight.”

Game 2 is Thursday night in Washington.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Giants’ 9-run 11th sets Wrigley record, KO’s Cubs

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Giants' 9-run 11th sets Wrigley record, KO's Cubs

CHICAGO — Patrick Bailey hit a tiebreaking single in San Francisco‘s nine-run 11th inning, and the Giants beat the Chicago Cubs 14-5 on Tuesday night.

Bailey drove in Christian Koss with a liner to center against Ryan Pressly (2-2). Jung Hoo Lee had a run-scoring single, and Matt Chapman singled home two more runs in San Francisco’s highest-scoring inning of the season.

The nine runs are the most in an extra inning since the Angels scored nine in the 13th inning on Aug. 16, 2009. It is also the highest-scoring extra inning at Wrigley Field, surpassing the seven-run 10th by the New York Giants on June 18, 1921.

Lee also hit a two-run homer as San Francisco bounced back from an ugly 9-2 loss to Chicago on Monday night. Chapman, who committed two of the Giants’ four errors in the series opener, had three hits and scored twice.

The Cubs trailed 5-3 before rallying in the ninth, handing Justin Verlander another no-decision after he was in position for his first win with the Giants.

Justin Turner bounced a pinch-hit RBI single into right field against Ryan Walker. After Ian Happ struck out swinging for the second out, Kyle Tucker greeted Erik Miller (2-0) with a hard grounder back up the middle, bringing home the tying run.

Verlander pitched five innings of three-run ball. The three-time AL Cy Young Award winner signed a $15 million, one-year contract with the Giants in January.

Verlander, 42, is winless in eight consecutive starts for the first time in his 20 major league seasons.

Miguel Amaya hit a two-run homer for NL Central-leading Chicago, which had won four of five. Dansby Swanson had two hits and scored twice while extending his hitting streak to eight games.

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong robbed Mike Yastrzemski of extra bases with a leaping grab at the wall in the third. Crow-Armstrong also took a hit away from Lee with a sliding catch in the fifth.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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