Canadiens continue dominance of Bruins

Alex Kovalev scored a power-play goal 2:30 into overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night in Montreal, and a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.

Kovalev drove a slap shot past Tim Thomas from the left side as Montreal took advantage of consecutive penalties to Boston’s Shawn Thornton and Jeremy Reich.

Thornton got a double-minor for high sticking with 2:17 left in the third when the Bruins forward’s stick came up and struck Montreal’s Tom Kostopoulos in the face, drawing blood and an automatic – and ill-timed – 4 minutes in penalties.

The Canadiens were unable to score on that advantage but broke through after Reich was sent off for tripping Andrei Markov with 12 seconds remaining in Thornton’s second minor.

Montreal has won 13 in a row against Boston, which claimed just one point – a shootout loss – out of a possible 16 in losing eight regular-season games against the Canadiens this season.

Roman Hamrlik scored late in the first and Canadiens rookie Sergei Kostitsyn scored his second goal in as many playoff games 1:30 into the middle period to put Montreal up 2-0.

The Bruins tied it at 2 midway through the third on David Krejci’s first playoff goal after Peter Schaefer drew Boston within 2-1 earlier in the period.

Red Wings 4, Predators 2: At Detroit, Kris Draper’s tiebreaking goal went off an opponent, Nick Lidstrom scored when one of his teammates could’ve been called for a penalty and the Red Wings beat Nashville Predators to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.

Detroit’s Dominik Hasek made 25 saves and Dan Ellis had 34 for the Predators in the second playoff game of his career.

Stars 5, Ducks 2: At Anaheim, Calif., Mike Modano and Brad Richards scored 55 seconds apart in the third period to lift Dallas to a victory over the Ducks and give them a 2-0 series lead over the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Modano scored on a slap shot from the blue line during a power play at 5:47. Shortly afterward, Richards wristed a shot from the right circle between Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s pads.