Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins - 8/19/20 NHL Picks and Prediction

Justin Williams opened the scoring for Carolina with the lone goal of the opening period before Jordan Martinook doubled Carolina’s edge with the only goal of the second period. The 2-0 lead held into the 3rd period where Jake DeBrusk got the Bruins on the board 7:26 into the final frame and Connor Clifton tied the game at one just after the midway point of the 3rd. Brad Marchand gave Boston a 3-2 lead just 1:30 later and DeBrusk pushed the lead to 4-2 with just under six minutes to go in the 3rd. Teuvo Teravainen made things interesting by cutting the deficit to 4-3 late in the 3rd, but that’s as close as the ‘Canes would get as Boston slammed the door shut the rest of the way, holding on to take a 3-1 series lead.

Jaroslav Halak got the win in goal for Boston after stopping 16 of 19 shots faced in the win while James Reimer ended up with the loss for Carolina after giving up four goals on 33 shots faced in defeat.

Carolina is 1-5 in their last 6 playoff games as an underdog and 7-3 in their last 10 games overall while the over is 7-1 in their last 8 Wednesday games. Boston is 19-8 in their last 27 games overall and 40-16 in their last 56 games following a win while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record. Carolina is 7-20 in the last 27 meetings between these two teams and the under is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings between these two teams.

The plus money with Carolina is tempting given that the Hurricanes now have their backs against the wall and that Carolina almost made a comeback at the end of game four. The problem is that the comeback fell short and Boston has the veteran presence to carry that momentum forward and the Bruins also have plenty of experience in these closeout game situations. I’ll lay the juice with Boston to win this one and close out the series.