Craig Smith of Madison, WI scored his second career Stanley Cup Playoff overtime winner on Wednesday in game three of the East Division semi-final. He had an unassisted marker at the 5:48 mark of the second overtime period as the Boston Bruins defeated the Washington Capitals 3-2 at the Toronto Dominion Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. With the win, the Bruins took a two games to one series lead.
Smith was the beneficiary after Capitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov misplayed the puck in the 86th minute of the contest. Despite the fact that five games in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs have gone to overtime, this was the first game in the Playoffs that have gone to double overtime.
The Bruins and Capitals series has been very tightly contested to date. The first two games of the series also went to overtime. Washington won game one on Saturday by a score of 3-2, and Boston rebounded with a 4-3 win in game two to tie the series. When Brad Marchand of Halifax, Nova Scotia scored 39 seconds into overtime on Monday, he set the record for the fastest playoff overtime winner in Bruins franchise history. Marchand broke the record previously set by the great Bobby Orr, who scored 40 seconds into overtime in game four of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals, a 4-3 Boston win over the St. Louis Blues. Orr scored leaping through the air, and won the Stanley Cup for Boston, in one of the most iconic NHL goals ever.
Smith led the Bruins in scoring with two points, as he had one goal and one assist. The other Bruins goal scorers were Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall of Calgary, Alberta.
The first playoff overtime winner for Smith came with the Nashville Predators. He scored at the five minute mark of the first overtime period on April 13, 2019 in a 2-1 Predators win over the Dallas Stars in game two of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Stars ended up winning the series four games to two.
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