Bruins roll into final after sweep

Rask notches shutout with 24-save effort

Tuukka Rask posted his seventh career playoff shutout, and the visiting Boston Bruins swept the Carolina Hurricanes out of the Eastern Conference final, winning, 4-0, Thursday night to reach their third Stanley Cup final in the past nine years.

Rask made 24 saves in his second consecutive seriesclinching shutout. Patrice Bergeron scored two goals, David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists and Brad Marchand added an emptynetter. Both Bergeron and Pastrnak scored on secondperiod power plays.

The Bruins won their seventh consecutive postseason game — their longest playoff winning streak in nearly half a century — to return to the Cup final after winning it in 2011 and losing to Chicago two years later.

On its longest postseason win streak since reeling off nine in a row in 1972, Boston earned a break before taking on the West winner. San Jose leads its series with St. Louis, 2-1, heading into Game 4 Friday night.

The Bruins won this one without captain Zdeno Chara, who was scratched with an unspecified injury and is day to day, ending the hulking defenseman’s run of 98 consecutive playoff games for the 42-year-old veteran that dated to 2011.

Chara joined his teammates on the ice for the postseries handshake line with Carolina.

Curtis McElhinney made 19 saves for the Hurricanes, whose first playoff appearance since 2009 ended precisely the same way their previous postseason trip did — by being swept in the East final.

Carolina swept the New York Islanders in Round 2. Not that the extra rest time helped the Hurricanes, or anyone else in these playoffs: No team that swept its opponent has won its next series. After outscoring them, 17-5, in four games, Boston no doubt wants to halt that trend in the final.

Special teams drove this series, with the Bruins scoring seven power-play goals in four games while the Hurricanes had five during their entire 15-game postseason run.

Boston had at least one power-play goal in every game while Carolina failed to score on its last 13 chances with the man advantage.

Rask — who blanked Columbus, 3-0, in the decisive sixth game of the previous series — didn’t face a shot on goal for roughly the first half of the third, and only seven the entire period.

McElhinney made his second consecutive start in place of Petr Mrazek after the Hurricanes lost the first two games of the series in Boston,