Apr 15, 2019 4 min read

Rookie forward Warren Foegele had two goals and an assist, Petr Mrazek earned his fourth career postseason shutout and the Carolina Hurricanes won their first home playoff game in a decade, routing the Washington Capitals 5-0 Monday night.

Dougie Hamilton also scored two goals, Brock McGinn had a late goal and an assist and Jaccob Slavin had two assists as the rapid-fire Hurricanes outshot Washington 45-18 to cut the defending Stanley Cup champions’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Playing with just 10 forwards after losing two to injuries in the first period, Carolina effectively rolled with three lines the rest of the way and fed off an amped-up crowd releasing 10 years of pent-up frustration with every hit.

Mrazek finished with 18 saves in his fifth career playoff victory – the last four have been shutouts.

Braden Holtby stopped 40 shots for Washington, which had its six-game postseason winning streak snapped. The Capitals were shut out in the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

They won all four regular-season meetings with their longtime division rivals – first in the old Southeast, now in the Metropolitan – before winning the first two games of this series on home ice.

The first postseason game in Raleigh since 2009 – when Carolina was swept by Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference final – was a physical, borderline violent affair, headlined by Alex Ovechkin’s first career playoff fight, one that sent Hurricanes rookie Andrei Svechnikov’s head crashing onto the ice and knocked him out of the game.

Svechnikov was one of two Carolina forwards to sustain upper-body injuries in the first 10 minutes – physical winger Micheal Ferland was hurt about 2 minutes earlier – and that left the Hurricanes’ bench short for the final 2½ periods.

Toronto 3, Boston 2: Auston Matthews scored his first goal of the playoffs and set up another as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal.

Andreas Johnsson, also with a goal and an assist, and Trevor Moore provided the rest of the offense for Toronto. Frederik Andersen made 34 saves.

David Krejci and Charlie Coyle scored for Boston. Tuukka Rask stopped 31 shots in front of a crowd of 19,611.

The Maple Leafs won the series opener 4-1 last Wednesday in Boston before losing by the same score Saturday. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Toronto.

Less than an hour before puck drop, the Maple Leafs learned center Nazem Kadri had been suspended for the rest of the series for his vicious cross-check to the head of Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk in the third period of Game 2.

Flyers hire Vigneault: The Philadelphia Flyers have hired Alain Vigneault as head coach, hoping the veteran can help lead them to their first Stanley Cup since 1975.

Vigneault has led the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final and takes over a Flyers team that missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher made his first big move since he was hired in November after Ron Hextall was fired. Fletcher fired coach Dave Hakstol a month later and replaced him with interim coach Scott Gordon. There was no immediate word if Gordon would stay in the organization.

Vigneault gets a chance to lead a third team to the Stanley Cup Final.

“The history they have established and the passionate fan base has made this a first-class franchise. I am excited to work with Chuck, the talented group of players, and the prospects coming up through the system in order to return Philadelphia to the top of the NHL landscape,” Vigneault said.

The Flyers went 37-37-8 for 82 points this season and haven’t reached the second round of the playoffs since 2012. Gordon was 25-22-4 over 51 games. The Flyers last played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2010.