Boucher excels as Flyers grab series lead

Brian Boucher stopped 35 shots as the Flyers new starting goalie helping Philadelphia grab a first-round playoff series lead with a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night. Danny Briere and Nikolay Zherdev keyed the victory by scoring second-period goals as Philadelphia bounced back with two straight wins after a 1-0 series-opening loss Thursday. Game 4 is at Buffalo on Wednesday. Jeff Carter and Kimmo Timonen, with an empty-netter, also scored as the Flyers improved to 6-0-2 in their past eight visits to Buffalo, including the regular season. Drew Stafford and Nathan Gerbe scored in a game the Sabres never led. Buffalo has lost consecutive games for the first time since ending a three-game skid Feb. 23. Bruins 4 Canadiens 2 In Montreal, David Krejci and Nathan Horton scored first-period goals to lead Boston over the Montreal Canadiens as the Bruins won on the road after dropping the first two games of their first-round series at home. Tim Thomas stopped 34 shots for Boston and Rich Peverley scored in the second. Chris Kelly scored into an empty net with 25.6 seconds remaining. Bruins captain Zdeno Chara returned to the lineup after missing Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to Montreal after he was hospitalized overnight for dehydration. Andrei Kostitsyn , who also missed Game 2, scored the Canadiens’ first goal with Boston holding a 3-0 lead 7:03 into the middle period. Tomas Plekanec drew Montreal within one early in the third. Penguins 3 Lightning 2 In Tampa, Florida, Tyler Kennedy put Pittsburgh ahead early in the third period and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots, helping the Penguins hold off the Tampa Bay Lightning. Maxime Talbot and Arron Asham also scored for the Penguins, who took a 2-1 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference best-of-seven playoff series and regained home-ice advantage. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Tampa. Pittsburgh rebounded from a 5-1 home loss in Game 2 despite giving up two more power-play goals to Martin St. Louis . The Lightning star erased a 2-0 deficit by striking late in the opening period, then again early in the third to give Tampa Bay hope of taking control of the series. But Kennedy answered with the go-ahead goal just 31 seconds later. Red Wings 4 Coyotes 2 In Phoenix, Ruslan Salei and Drew Miller had goals 44 seconds apart to open the game, and the Detroit Red Wings scored early in each period to push Phoenix to the brink of elimination with a win over the Coyotes. Detroit leveled the Coyotes in its last playoff game in the desert, eliminating them with a 6-1 win in Game 7 of last year’s first round. The Red Wings put the lights out on Phoenix’s whiteout this time with the two goals in the opening 2:41, another by Valtteri Filppula nearly as quickly in the second period and Johan Franzen’s score 45 seconds into the third. Detroit can complete the sweep Wednesday in Phoenix after struggling to get past the Coyotes last season. David Schlemko and Ray Whitney scored for the Coyotes.