COLUMBUS -- Tuukka Rask made 39 saves when the Boston Bruins reached the Eastern Conference Final by defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 in Game 6 of the second round at Nationwide Arena on Monday.

The Bruins won three straight games to win best-of-7 series 4-2 and will host the Carolina Hurricanes at TD Garden in Games 1 and 2.
"We played hard," Rask said after his sixth Stanley Cup Playoff shutout. "We played solid. We closed it out. They had a great push in the second (period), a lot of shots. Then we had some penalty kills in the third there. We defended hard. It always makes my job easier when there's no second chances."
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Blue Jackets Game 6 highlights]
David Krejci had goal and an assist, and Marcus Johansson and David Backes scored for Boston, which is in the conference final for the first time since 2013, when it lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves for the Columbus, which has never played in Game 7 and was eliminated at home for the fourth time in the five seasons it has qualified for the playoffs.

"Just disappointing," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. "I thought we played really well tonight, just didn't get a result. It's frustrating for a game where I really thought, I wasn't planning on sitting here talking to you guys about this. Don't really have much to go on tonight, just one of those games. We had chances, just didn't bury them."
Krejci made it 1-0 at 12:13 of the second period after Jake DeBrusk's shot hit the crossbar and caromed to Krejci, who scored on the rebound from the top of the right face-off circle.
The Bruins accomplished their goal of scoring first and quieting the crowd.
"I hear people saying we're coming into another team's building, we've got to weather the storm," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We want to create the storm. We're not interested in weathering any storm. We wanted to go out there and be aggressive and let them know we're here to play be assertive, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that."

Rask kept the one-goal lead with a save on Brandon Dubinsky's rebound with 4:39 left in the second and stopped Foligno from the slot at 50 seconds of the third during the Blue Jackets' third power play.
Rask then made four saves, including one on a Seth Jones shot at 6:09 that knocked his mask off, during the fourth Columbus power play. Zach Werenski hit the left post at 6:38 on the same man-advantage.
Columbus also hit the crossbar three times in the game: Pierre-Luc Dubois in the first period, and Dean Kukan and Josh Anderson in the second.
"You've got to create your own luck, obviously, but it would have been nice to see at least one of those go in," Foligno said. "I think if one of those goes in it's a whole different ballgame just because of the momentum you create of just getting one past him. We peppered him."
The Blue Jackets entered the game with the best power play in the playoffs (8-for-27, 29.6 percent) but went 0-for-4.

"We had looks the whole series, I thought, on the power play," Jones said. "I thought we had a lot of action in front of the net on him. Tonight we had some slot chances, we had some action around the paint. I had some one-timers from up top that he didn't see some of them. Some he did. It just didn't go through."
Johansson made it 2-0 at 8:58 of the third when Bobrovsky got a piece of his shot from the top of the slot and the puck trickled into the net.
Backes made it 3-0 at 10:39.

They said it

"We are halfway to our goal. You need to relish the plateaus along the way. We are certainly at one of those to be among the final four teams. We've had to sacrifice to win some games against some really good teams. Toronto was a different beast than Columbus was. They each bring their own challenges. We were able to answer both challenges." -- Bruins forward David Backes
"It's tough. Some of the things we've been through, some of the things that are going to happen this summer, I thought inside the room we had a real team chemistry-wise off the ice. It just [stinks]." -- Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones

Need to know

The Bruins had a goal by forward Sean Kuraly overturned at 8:53 of the first period after the Blue Jackets challenged for goaltender interference by Joakim Nordstrom. … Boston has a series record of 14-3 when winning Game 5 after being tied 2-2. … Blue Jackets forward Markus Hannikainen was minus-1 and had a takeaway in his playoff debut after being a healthy scratch for 16 games. He had last played March 24 against the Vancouver Canucks. Hannikainen replaced Alex Wennberg. … Columbus forward Alexandre Texier, who was scratched in Game 5, replaced defenseman Adam Clendening.
What's next
Bruins: Host the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of Eastern Conference Final (TBA)
Blue Jackets: Season over