Bruins secure third in East with OT win against Islanders

BOSTON --The Boston Bruins secured third place in the MassMutual East Division with a 3-2 overtime win against the fourth-place New York Islanders at TD Garden on Monday.

Taylor Hall scored his second goal of the game at 2:53 of overtime for Boston (33-15-7), which has 73 points with one game remaining and will face the Washington Capitals in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Tuukka Rask made 16 saves for the Bruins, who are 6-1-1 in their past eight games and bounced back from the lone regulation loss in the stretch (5-4 to the New York Rangers on Saturday).
"I liked our game tonight," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I thought we were good in all areas. Certainly, pockets could be better, but I thought in general we played a sound game, solid game. Much better defensively throughout. … It never got away from us. I thought we kept pushing. We wanted to win the game, wanted to play well, and hopefully stay healthy."
The Islanders (32-17-7) finished fourth in the East with 71 points and will play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves but did not play in the third period for precautionary reasons after he sustained "a little strain," according to coach Barry Trotz. Ilya Sorokin made 10 saves.
Trotz said he thought the game will help prepare New York for the playoffs.
"It's not always going to go your way, so you've got to battle through the situation," he said. "I thought we did and we got stabilized, and I thought our second and third periods were pretty darn good."
Hall won it for the Bruins when he slid the puck between the skates of Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy in the left face-off circle and scored on a backhand.
He gave Boston a 1-0 lead during a 5-on-3 power play at 19:21 of the first period.
Hall finished the regular season with eight goals in 16 games for the Bruins after he was traded by the Buffalo Sabres on April 12. Hall scored two goals in 37 games for the Sabres.
"It's obviously been a really good transition for me," Hall said. "I always felt like, even when I wasn't on this team, I felt like that was a style of play that I could come and play well in and perform well, and I feel like I've had a positive impact and it's important for me, just personally, to try and maintain that impact in the playoffs."

Oliver Wahlstrom scored a 4-on-3 goal at 1:38 of the second period to tie it 1-1.
Brad Marchand gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead on a redirection of David Krejci's pass at 6:15, but Mathew Barzal tied it 2-2 with a wrist shot from between the circles at 8:31 of the second.

Barzal scored a goal in each of his last two games of the regular season and four in his last six.
"I mean, it's just nice to get on the board and put a couple in the back of the net. It's always good for the confidence," Barzal said. "But I thought tonight, especially, I found my game competitively, and I think so did our team. So it was a good game to get us prepped for the playoffs."
Needing a regulation win to stay alive in the race for third place, the Islanders pulled Sorokin for an extra attacker at 18:19 of the third period but did not score.
NOTES: The Bruins outshot the Islanders 18-4 in the first period. … New York forward Anthony Beauvillier finished the regular season with a seven-game point streak (five goals, three assists). … Bruins forward Ondrej Kase returned after missing 52 games with an upper-body injury but did not play in the third period because of an upper-body injury. Cassidy said Kase, who had two shots on goal in 6:49 of ice time, will be reevaluated Tuesday. … Boston forward Chris Wagner had two shots on goal in 12:53 after missing five games with an undisclosed injury.