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Friday 4 May 2018
Lightning strike quickly, beat Bruins 4-1, lead series 2-1

By JIMMY GOLEN opener at home. to lose track of it and skat-
BOSTON (AP) — Between Game 4 is Friday night. ed away, leaving the Light-
the birth of his first child in "Boston came in and took ning with an easy 2-on-1
Tampa Bay and Game 3 one of our games at home, opportunity.
of the Eastern Conference we had to take one of Palat made it 2-0 just 92
semifinals in Boston, Yanni theirs on the road," Cooper seconds later on a shot
Gourde squeezed in what said. "We did that." that deflected off Bruins
could be his last nap for a After Patrice Bergeron defenseman Torey Krug
while. made it a one-goal game, and into the net. "It's not
The Lightning forward spent Anthony Cirelli scored his good, obviously, but we've
the night with his wife and first career NHL playoff goal come back a lot," said Bru-
newborn daughter in the to give the Lightning a 3-1 ins coach Bruce Cassidy,
hospital on the off-day and lead late in the first. Gourde whose team has won 21
flew to Boston on Wednes- provided an assist, chasing games this season in which
day. He missed the morn- the puck into the zone be- it gave up the first goal.
ing skate, but was waiting fore finding Cirelli in the slot. "So this is nothing new,"
for his teammates at lunch. "The last 24 hours have he said "You've still got 50-
He received quite a greet- been amazing," Gourde some minutes left. There's
ing. said. "Obviously, I wanted going to be a lull from the
"It was like we scored to be there for my wife crowd, but you've got to
a game-winning goal," and, I think, it ended up it get it back. ... The second
coach Jon Cooper said was perfect." and third goals, to me, are
after Ondrej Palat scored Tuukka Rask made 33 saves much worse."
twice and Gourde assisted for Boston. It stayed 3-1 through the
on Tampa Bay's third goal "Playoffs are desperate second period and most of
in a 4-1 victory over Boston hockey," Bruins defense- the third, until the Lightning
that gave the Lightning a man Charlie McAvoy said. picked up a power play in
2-1 lead in the series. "You don't ever go into the final two minutes of the
"It's a team that cares," any games saying 'Oh, we game when Krug tripped
Cooper said. "We were so have the luxury of being Cirelli as he chased after
happy for him." able to lose this one.' That's the puck with an empty net
Palat scored twice in the Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) upends Tampa Bay not how it goes." in front of him.
first 3:19 of the game, and Lightning defenseman Dan Girardi (5) as they chase the puck Palat scored just 1:47 in The Lightning made it 4-1
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped during the first period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey second- after Boston defenseman anyway when Steven
28 shots to help Tampa round playoff series in Boston, Wednesday, May 2, 2018. Matt Grzelcyk settled the Stamkos found the empty
Bay to its second win in a Associated Press puck with his glove in his net on the power play with
row since losing the series own end, then appeared 42 seconds left.q

the top-seeded Rockets. couldn't keep pace with ter that before Utah scored
Houston coach Mike the Jazz in the fourth as another eight straight
D'Antoni said Mitchell was their normally potent of- points, with two 3s from In-
the key to the win even fense went cold. gles, to make it 108-96 with
though he didn't lead the Harden had 32 points and 4 1/2 minutes left.
team in scoring. 11 assists, and Chris Paul Harden ended a 2 ½-min-
"He was breaking us down," added 23 points as Hous- ute Houston scoring
D'Antoni said. "He was get- ton fell to the Jazz for the drought with a 3-pointer
ting in there and was find- first time this season after about a minute later that
ing guys in the corner. He's winning the first five meet- was the start of a 9-3 run
a handful whether he's fin- ings. that got the Rockets within
ishing or not." Jazz coach Quin Snyder 111-105 with 1:46 left. But
The Jazz were behind by was pleased at his team's Rudy Gobert made one
two with eight minutes left balanced scoring effort on of two free throws before
before using a 16-2 run to a night six players finished Exum put it out of reach
pull away. in double figures, and he with a dunk.
After trailing by 25 points raved about the contribu- Utah led by nine before
at halftime of the 110-96 tion of Ingles. Houston used a 16-5 run to
Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles (2) drives to the basket during the loss in the series opener, "Every time Joe has need- go up 71-69 for its first lead
first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff
series against the Houston Rockets, Wednesday, May 2, 2018, the Jazz jumped out to an ed to step up his game, he since it was 6-5 with about
in Houston. early lead in this one and has been able to," Snyder seven minutes left in the
Associated Press led by as many as 19 in the said. "He's committed to third. The Jazz went back
first half. that. He knew tonight he up 86-85 by the end of the
INGLES second decision. "Last game, we came out would need to make some period.
Continued from Page 17 "I just happened to be up completely opposite. To- shots and he was able to After taking just four shots
But he certainly provid- there," he said. "So I said: night, they kind of caught do it." in Game 1 and finishing
ed an emotional boost 'Why come down with it?'" us off-guard," Houston's Houston was down by one with 11 points, Gobert got
to his team with his high- The Jazz squandered a James Harden said. "We entering the fourth but going early Wednesday
light-reel worthy play. He huge early lead before us- adjusted to it in that sec- Utah scored eight straight and had 13 points on 5-of-
smiled broadly when it was ing a big fourth quarter to ond quarter, but we can't points on 3-pointers from 7 shooting by halftime.
brought up postgame, regain control and head get down 19 no matter Dante Exum and Jae But he was mostly quiet
and said he was just trying home for Game 3 on Fri- who we're playing." Crowder before Mitchell's after the break, and fin-
to get the rebound on his day in Utah with a chance Houston regained the lead dunk made it 100-94. ished with 15 points and 14
miss when he made a split- to take a series lead over in the third quarter but Harden made a basket af- rebounds.q