Carolina's Jackson Blake (53) scores on Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark during Thursday night's Game 3 of their first round Stanley Cup Playoff series in Ottawa. (AP photo)

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jackson Blake broke a tie late in the second period, Frederik Andersen made 21 saves and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.

The top team in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, the Hurricanes can wrap up the series Saturday in Ottawa.

Logan Stankoven also scored for Carolina, and Taylor Hall had two assists.

Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa, and Linus Ullmark stopped 25 shots.

Stankoven opened the scoring at 5:13 of the first period with his third goal of the series. He beat Ullmark with a one-timer from the left side.

Batherson tied it with 3:54 left in the second, taking a pass from Nick Cousins in the slot, moving left and flipping a backhander past Andersen.

Blake countered 1:23 later, putting the puck in the open right side off a feed from defenseman K’Andre Miller.

On Monday night in Game 2 in Raleigh, Jordan Martinook scored in the second overtime in a 3-2 victory. The Hurricanes won the opener 2-0 on Saturday.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

AVS 4, KINGS 2

Cale Makar scored the tiebreaking goal, Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves and the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche moved to the brink of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen scored on fortunate deflections for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche, who went up 3-0 in the series with another narrow win over the persistent Kings.

Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe scored and Anton Forsberg stopped 19 shots for the Kings. They are a loss away from being eliminated in the first round for the fifth consecutive season.

Game 4 is Sunday in Los Angeles. A loss would end the 20-year career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after the season.

Los Angeles scored two goals for the first time in the series, but couldn’t find a tying goal after Kempe scored on a power play with 4:03 to play. Instead, Brock Nelson scored into LA’s empty net with 2:18 left.