Brock Nelson scored two goals as the New York Islanders beat the Boston Bruins 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the NHL Stanley Cup playoff semi-finals.
Kyle Palmieri scored his seventh goal of the playoffs as the Islanders polished off their best-of-seven series four games to two.
The Islanders lined up a semi-final meeting with the Lightning for the second consecutive season. The Lighting beat the Carolina Hurricanes in five games to advance.
Josh Bailey and Jean-Gabriel Pageau had two assists apiece for the Islanders and Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves.
Brad Marchand scored twice, and Tuukka Rask made 23 saves for the Bruins, who have lost in the second round for two straight seasons after reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2019.
Travis Zajac gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 8:52 of the first period on the rebound of Noah Dobson’s shot from the point.
Marchand knotted the score at 1-1 on the power play with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle at 17:36 after the Bruins failed to score on a 14-second two-man advantage.
Palmieri nearly gave the Islanders the lead in the final second of the first period, but his turnaround shot in the left circle hit the crossbar.
Nelson worked his way around defenseman Matt Grzelcyk and scored on the rush with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 2-1 at 5:20 of the second.
Varlamov maintained the advantage with a pad save on a shot from Charlie Coyle and Nelson scored his second of the game on a backhand to make it 3-1 at 12:39.
Palmieri stole the puck from Grzelcyk in front of the net and beat Rask to give the Islanders a 4-1 lead before the second period ended.
Marchand cut the deficit to 4-2 with a power play goal at 5:38 of the third. Cal Clutterbuck and Ryan Pulock scored empty-net goals in the final minute for the 6-2 final.