Captain Zdeno Chara and David Krejci scored in the contest's first 63 seconds as the Boston Bruins cruised to a 5-1 home triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday to secure a 3-0 advantage in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Nathan Horton and Daniel Paille tallied just 72 ticks apart in the second period and Chara added a late power-play goal for third-seeded Boston. The Bruins also owned a 3-0 edge in last year's series before the Flyers responded by winning the next four games.

Fast forward back to the present, Boston will look to complete the sweep when the teams reconvene at TD Garden in Game 4 on Friday.

After making a career-high 52 saves in Monday's Game 2 victory, Vezina Trophy finalist Tim Thomas turned aside 37 shots in this one.

Chara opened the scoring just 30 seconds into the contest. Brad Marchand's centering feed found the hulking blue-liner, who quickly unleashed a blast past Brian Boucher. The tally marked the fastest goal in the franchise's playoff history since Brad Park scored against the Chicago Blackhawks in 1978.

Krejci doubled the advantage just 33 seconds later as he accepted a centering feed from Milan Lucic and snapped a shot past Boucher for his fifth tally of the postseason.

Goals by Paille and Horton sent Boucher to the showers - marking the sixth time in 10 postseason games that coach Peter Laviolette changed goaltenders. Rookie Sergei Bobrovsky made seven stops after relieving Boucher, who permitted four goals on 20 shots for second-seeded Philadelphia.

Defenseman Andrej Meszaros put the Flyers on the scoreboard with 3:34 left in the second period after depositing Darroll Powe's centering feed past Thomas for his second tally of the postseason.