Blue Jackets hold off Bruins in Game 3, take series lead

COLUMBUS -- Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves, and the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

Boone Jenner and Matt Duchene scored for Columbus, which leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 is here Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Bobrovsky made 15 saves in the third period and said he heard the frequent "Bob" chants.
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Blue Jackets highlights | Complete series coverage]
"We had unbelievable support from our fans," he said. "The atmosphere was crazy. It was fun to play. It's a huge win for us."
Jake DeBrusk scored, and Tuukka Rask made 32 saves for Boston, which has one goal in the past 101:41.
"The secondary saves that he's making are very impressive, but he's going to crack at some point," Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo said of Bobrovsky. "I have a lot of faith that we're going to put pucks behind him pretty soon. Credit to him today, but overall I don't think it's going to last."
Jenner made it 1-0 at 18:37 of the first period with his first goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He took a pass from Riley Nash and cut to the left through the slot around Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton before scoring inside the right post.

"That's the best I've seen him play since I've been here," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said of Jenner, who led Columbus with five shots and had three hits and three blocked shots in 17:36. "At a very important time, obviously."
Duchene made it 2-0 on the power play at 12:42 of the second period, scoring on the rebound of a shot by Nick Foligno.
The goal came with seven seconds remaining in the penalty, and the Blue Jackets kept the puck in the offensive zone for the final 1:27 of the power play.
"That was almost like a 5-on-5 shift, guys falling everywhere, battling," said Duchene, who has five goals in the playoffs, including one in the second overtime that gave Columbus a 3-2 win in Game 2 at Boston on Saturday. "Just shooting pucks and grinding for a goal. All five guys on the ice contributed big time to that goal."

DeBrusk made it 2-1 with 40 seconds left in the period when he stuffed in a shot at the left post. It was called no goal on the ice, but after video review it was determined that the puck crossed the line after the whistle on what was ruled to be a continuous play.
Bruins forward Noel Acciari hit the left post from the high slot at 5:11 of the third period.
The Bruins got their second power play of the game at 11:18 when David Savard tripped Brad Marchand, but 17 seconds later it was negated when Patrice Bergeron tripped Josh Anderson.
"We wanted to stay on the attack and not get on our heels," Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson said. "They're going to have surges. They're a good team, but the guys out their stood on their heads, did a good job, and [Bobrovsky] made some great saves."
Rask was pulled for an extra attacker with 2:13 left, and Bobrovsky made four saves from there, including one on a redirection in front by Bergeron with 1:05 remaining.
"I still think we had enough good looks to win the game," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We hit two posts and a crossbar. [Bobrovsky] stopped a lot of other good ones. Clearly we'd love to get into the slot a little more."

They said it

"We need to respond. They were outhitting us pretty good here, and it felt like it. We need a pushback. The number of hits they had means we had the puck a lot, so that's one of the positives, but we need a pushback." -- Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk on Boston having 28 hits compared to 53 for Columbus
"You're seeing our top guys really work on the defensive side. They want to make a difference. [Artemi Panarin] made some great backchecks today. [Pierre-Luc Dubois] is just competing. It makes a difference. When you see your top line doing it, everyone falls in line, then you've got four lines that continue to chip away, and huge goal by Boone's line again." -- Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno

Need to know

When a best-of-7 series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 owns a series record of 213-103 (.674), including 1-3 in the 2019 first round. … The Bruins are 1-for-10 on the power play in the series after going 7-for-16 in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs. … Jenner was the 14th Columbus player to score in the playoffs. … This is the latest the Blue Jackets have played in a season; they played Game 6 of the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 28, 2014. This also was the first second-round home game in Blue Jackets history. Game 4 will mark the first time they will have hosted four playoff games in a season. Columbus is in its 18th season.

What's next

Game 4 of Eastern Conference Second Round at Nationwide Arena on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS)