Bruins face early exit

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The Boston Bruins are staring down the barrel of an early playoff exit after slumping to a 3-1 loss at home to the Montreal Canadiens.

The win gives Montreal a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference best-of-seven-game quarter-final series, and they now head to Montreal for games three and four.

Boston were without their captain Zdeno Chara for the contest after the 34-year-old spent Friday in hospital being treated for dehydration.

The influential defenseman did warm up with his team, but was a late omission.

Montreal had goals from Michael Cammalleri, Mathieu Darche and Yannick Weber to thank for the win, while Patrice Bergeron was the lone scorer for the third-seeded Bruins.

Elsewhere, the East's second seeds Philadelphia enjoyed a 5-4 win at home to level their series with Buffalo at 1-1.

Claude Giroux scored a goal and contributed an assist for the Flyers, while Daniel Carcillo, James van Riemsdyk, Danny Briere and Ville Leino also got their names on the scoresheet.

In the Western Conference, third seeds Detroit took a 2-0 lead against Phoenix after hanging on to come away with a 4-3 win at home.

Centre Pavel Datsyuk scored a goal and had three assists for Detroit and when Thomas Holmstrom scored one minute into the second period, the Red Wings were out to a 4-0 lead.

But Phoenix came storming back, and when Shane Doan scored his second goal of the game eight minutes into the final term, the deficit was just a single goal.

Detroit, however, defended stoutly in the final 10 minutes to take a 2-0 lead to Phoenix for games three and four.

And Western Conference seventh seeds, the Los Angeles Kings, levelled their series against second seeded San Jose with a 4-0 win on the road.

Defenseman Drew Doughty was the star for the Kings, scoring twice and setting up his side's other two goals.

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