Goaltender Tuukka Rask made an astonishing 53 saves to keep the Bruins in the contest before Bergeron's tip-in at 15:19 in the second overtime period earned Boston a third straight win in the series.

Boston now leads the best-of-seven affair 3-0 and have a first opportunity to book a Stanley Cup Finals berth in Game Four at home on Friday.

The top-seeded and favoured Penguins have been second best in the series so far, scoring just two goals in three games with the threat of elimination looming large on the horizon.

Pittsburgh has not been swept out of the playoffs since 1979.

Their latest disappointment was not the result of a lack of effort, with goaltender Tomas Vokoun stopping 38 shots one game after he was pulled early.

David Krejci put the Bruins ahead just 1:42 into the game, whipping the Boston crowd into a frenzy with his NHL-leading ninth goal of the post-season.

Chris Kunitz's snap-shot tied the game at 1-1 in the second and the teams remained deadlocked through the third period and opening overtime session.

The Penguins piled intense pressure on Rask throughout the third period and both overtimes but could not find a decisive breakthrough.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby remains without a point for the series against a Bruins team that has successfully stifled the potent Pittsburgh offense. (Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)

Now that the IRS has admitted toseeking tax-exempt status, Republicans plan to make the agency, which is responsible for carrying out much of President Obama's health care law, the poster child for dysfunctional government, and a giant liability for Democrats.

"This has certainly been a kind of unwelcome vindication for the Tea Party," said Dean Clancey, vice president of public policy at FreedomWorks, which spent more than $19 million in the 2012 election. "We consider this a wonderful teaching opportunity to remind people that the IRS is the main enforcement agency of Obamacare; even more so than [the Health and Human Services Department]."

When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, the mood among conservatives is a lot rosier now compared to what it was in the 2012 election when talking about health care was all but off limits because the Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, had signed his own health care bill into law as governor of Massachusetts.

"The 2012 [election] should have been a referendum on that law, but it couldn't be because of Mitt Romney," said Keli Carender, national grassroots coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots. "With him out of the way, we can go back to focusing on Obamacare."

The IRS's recent troubles have been disastrous for the agency's popularity, just as it prepares to play a larger role in enforcing the Affordable Care Act's universal mandate.

A new Gallup poll found that distrust of the IRS was now approaching lows last seen in the mid 1990s, when the agency endured blowback for its policy of targeting low-income taxpayers for audits and collection of back taxes.

, 62 percent of Americans believe the IRS has too much power compared with the 31 percent who believe that it has just the right amount and the 60 percent who said the IRS abused whatever power it did have.

Democrats are effectively caught between a rock and a hard place. They had no choice but to swiftly condemn the IRS for inappropriately targeting conservative groups, but in doing so, they may have helped Republicans open the door to a second front of attack on the IRS.

Republicans hope that the deeply unpopular agency will become an albatross around the necks of Democratic candidates, especially those in more conservative districts.

"There is no better boogeyman in politics than the IRS," said one Republican strategist. "So the fact that you can put the IRS on a piece of literature or you can talk about them in a television ad, that's a good thing for us."

At a recent press conference, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who has aggressively sought to repeal the health care law, even went so far as to suggest that there might be implications for "access to health care" or "denial of health care."

National Republicans aren't quite going that far, but they have jumped into the fray.

Already the Republican National Congressional Committee has launched a new set of attack ads against Arizona Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber, Georgia Democrat John Barrow and Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson that link the IRS's troubles to its support for the health care law.

For their part, Democrats are doubtful that Republican attempts to take advantage of the political moment will actually work a second time around.

"Republicans just lost a national election on trying to repeal this law and take away patients' rights and they're just doubling down on that failure. The fact that this Republican Congress has put Congressman [Scott] DesJarlais fined for inappropriate behavior with patients in a leadership role on health care tells you all you need to know," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Emily Bittner.

"Republicans are taking their cue from the Bachmann playbook with this attack, but the 2014 election will be a referendum on the dysfunction, obstruction and extremism of the Republican Congress," she added.

Both the Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks say their ultimate goal is to pressure Congress to slow the implementation of the health care law, even if its repeal has become increasingly unlikely.

It is exactly that politicization that former IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson feared in his testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last year. Everson said that by putting the IRS in charge of executing the health care law, Congress opened the agency up to apolitical "savaging" not unlike what it experienced in the late 1990s when the agency was even more unpopular than it is now.

Now, in light of the current scandal, Everson told ABC News that his fears might have been justified.

"This whole chapter is very disturbing," said Everson, who is a vice chairman at Alliant Group and served as commissioner of the IRS between 2003 and 2007. "I do worry that we'll now be in another period where people are very conservative and they don't feel comfortable doing their jobs as well as they should."

Everson said that if the IRS had any chance of surviving these political headwinds, Obama must appoint a permanent commissioner soon who has enough bipartisan support to mend the agency's relationship with Congress and the public.

"It is incumbent upon the president to get a new confirmed commissioner in there as soon as possible," said Everson. "One who is capable of rallying the troops and has the respect of all parties so they can star to rebuild the agency."

A Pew Research Center study released this week showing that women are now the primary breadwinners in 40 percent of households with children ignited a sharp debate on Fox with two of the network's most prominent women taking on male colleagues. It culminated in an electric on-air exchange Friday among Kelly, Fox contributor Erick Erickson and anchor Lou Dobbs.

The debate also included with the unusual for Fox use of President Barack Obama as a symbol of success.

"What makes you dominant and me submissive and who died and made you scientist-in-chief?" Kelly said to Erickson.

Dobbs had convened a panel with three other men who bemoaned the study's findings Wednesday on the Fox Business Network. Juan Williams said the study showed that "something's gone terribly wrong in American society and it's hurting our children." Pollster Doug Schoen suggested that the social order is being undermined.

Erickson said that in nature, the male is typically dominant. He later wrote that children in a two-parent traditional household will more often than not be more successful than children of single or gay parents.

"We should not kid ourselves or scream so loudly in politically correct outrage to drown the truth," Erickson wrote on his redstate.com blog. "Kids most likely will do best in households where they have a mom at home nurturing them while dad is out bringing home the bacon."

Fox prime-time host Greta Van Susteren blogged in response: "Have these men lost their minds?" She wrote that the next thing they'll have "is a segment to discuss eliminating women's right to vote."

Erickson told Kelly on Friday that it isn't healthy for society when the roles of men and women in the family are interchangeable.

Kelly said plenty of data suggest that children in homes with homosexual parents or working mothers are as healthy and able to thrive in society as children with stay-at-home moms. Kelly, a mother of two, dismissed Erickson's contention that he wasn't judging others.

"I don't like what you wrote one bit," she said. "I think you are judging people. You sound like somebody who is judging but wants to come out and say 'I'm not, I'm not, I'm not but let me judge, judge, judge. And, by the way, it's science and facts, facts, facts.' But this is a list of studies saying your science is wrong and your facts are wrong."

Erickson criticized "politically motivated" studies.

Dobbs, for his part, was interrupted by Kelly when he decried damage done to society by the breakup of marriages and the rise of single-person households.

"Why are you attributing that to women in the workforce?" Kelly said.

Dobbs said, "Let me just finish what I'm saying, if I may, oh dominant one."

"Excuse me?" Kelly replied, her eyebrows rising.

Kelly told the men that 50 and 60 years ago there was a wide belief in society that the children of interracial marriages were inferior.

"They said it was science, and it was fact," she said. "If you were the child of a black father and a white mother or vice versa, you were inferior and you were not set up for success. Tell that to Barack Obama."

Lew told the Senate Banking Committee that he has also asked acting director Daniel Werfel to fix any flaws in management of the IRS to make sure there is no recurrence of the problems.

An inspector general's report released May 15 found that IRS employees had inappropriately targeted conservative political groups.

Lew says he first learned about the inspector general's investigation in March but that he was unaware of the findings until they became public this month.

The fire in the Angeles National Forest surged to 1,000 acres Thursday and sent out big clouds of black smoke amid afternoon temperatures in the high 80s and winds gusting at more than 20 mph.

About 200 homes in the mountain community of Green Valley were evacuated, but the order was canceled about five hours later as temperatures and winds dipped and the fire largely laid down, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.

But there was still no containment of the blaze that had plenty of fuel to consume, and heat was expected to return Friday.

"The growth potential of this fire is great," said Forest Service spokeswoman Sherry Rollman. "It's burning medium to thick brush on steep slopes."

About 500 firefighters struggled to get near the fire that was hard to reach in steep terrain.

Water-dropping aircraft were grounded overnight but set to return after daylight.

Both Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said the fire was threatening their facilities and they were monitoring the blaze for potential problems, though none had been reported.

The lines that were in danger were transmission lines not distribution lines, and major outages were unlikely, LADWP officials said.

The blaze broke out at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday just north of Powerhouse No. 1, a hydroelectric plant near the LA aqueduct that has been operating for nearly a century.

Seven hikers had been reported missing near the fire, but search teams learned that all had left the area safely on their own, sheriff's Lt. Steve Sylvies told the Los Angeles Times.

One structure has burned but it was not immediately clear what it was.

Some brought thank you cards. First-grader Crisily (KRIS'-ih-lee) Dixon was eager to see a gym teacher and for a chance to say goodbye for the school year.

Her grandmother Cheryle Dixon said the girl was not at the Plaza Towers Elementary when the tornado struck, killing seven students. Her father had picked her up an hour earlier when he learned of the severity of the storm.

Dixon says the girl's face "just turned pale" when she saw photos of the damage.

She says Crisily shed a lot of tears. Thursday's event was held at a school that was not damaged.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to appoint longtime adviser Jason Furman to be his new chief White House economist, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Furman, who will replace economist Alan Krueger as chair of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and has advised Obama since his 2008 election campaign.

Furman has been instrumental in formulating administration policies on taxes, the response to the U.S. recession, and efforts to avoid a "fiscal cliff" at the end of last year.

Krueger, who was confirmed as CEA chair in November 2011, is returning to his professor post at Princeton University, from which he has been on leave, the White House confirmed.

"Alan was the driving force behind many of the economic policies that I have proposed that will grow our economy and create middle-class jobs," Obama said in a statement.

"And while we have more work to do, today our economy is improving - thanks, in no small part, to Alan's efforts," he said.

Krueger had to return to the school by this fall in order to maintain his tenure, according to one source.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on Furman.

Furman is currently assistant to the president for economic policy and principal deputy director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), which is run by Gene Sperling, and was an economist in the Clinton administration.

When former NEC head Larry Summers left the administration at the end of 2010, Furman was considered a possible replacement, but the post went to Sperling instead.

"He's as bright and able as any economist I've worked with," Summers said of Furman in an interview. "I think he'll be terrific."

The CEA advises the president on domestic and international economic policy based on data and economic research. The chairman is a cabinet member and requires Senate confirmation.

Former colleagues said Furman would be effective because of his good relationship with the president and White House staff.

"Jason has got analytical chops plus extensive economic experience. The president listens to him," said Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor and former CEA chair under Obama.

"It's hard to find someone with his combination of policy experience and pragmatism along with serious economic and analytic rigor," said Jason Bordoff, a professor at Columbia University and a former White House adviser on energy issues.

"He's strategic. He understands how the White House policy process works, all of which will allow the CEA to be incredibly relevant," he said.

The appointment is likely a sign that budget and tax fights with Congress will continue to play a high profile role in White House economic policy. It could also raise the profile of the CEA within the White House itself.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug moved a step closer to U.S. approval on Wednesday after a panel of medical experts said it is effective and safe at lower doses.

The advisory panel was convened to help the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decide whether to approve the drug, suvorexant, which would be the first in a new class of sedatives that block chemicals in the brain called orexins that help keep people awake. The drugs are designed to help people fall asleep and stay asleep.

On Monday, the FDA's internal reviewers published a report expressing concern about suvorexant's potential to cause next-day sleepiness and impaired driving. They asked the committee to consider whether patients should be started at a lower dose than that recommended by Merck.

Merck proposed that elderly patients start by taking 15 milligrams of the drug and increase that to 30 if necessary. The company recommended non-elderly adults start on 20 milligrams and increase to 40 milligrams if needed.

On Wednesday, the FDA reiterated its opinion that there was little evidence in Merck's data to show that the higher dose was more effective than the lower dose, and considerable evidence to show it was less safe.

The FDA's reviewers pointed to an increase in the risk - especially at the higher doses - of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, impaired driving, and severe sleep disturbances.

Speaking for the FDA, Dr. Ronald Farkas noted cases in which patients had reported sleep paralysis and terrifying hallucinations. He also expressed the agency's concern about the drug's impact on driving.

"What we are trying to prevent is criminal prosecution of patients taking their drug as prescribed," he said.

The FDA's views were echoed by those of several patient advocacy groups.

"Like its predecessors, suvorexant's marginal benefit in extending overnight sleep time by a few minutes is achieved at the expense of prolonged, next-day drowsiness, with potentially fatal consequences," said Dr. Sammy Almashat, a researcher with Public Citizen's Health Research Group who noted that suvorexant stays in the body longer than all but one other sleep drug.

Still, the panel voted 13 to 3, with one abstention, that the drug could be used safely at the 15 and 20 milligram doses. It voted 8-7, with two abstentions, that the drug is not safe at 30 and 40 milligrams.

LOWER DOSE

Merck celebrated the vote, saying in a statement that it was "excited about the potential of suvorexant as a new and different approach to treating insomnia."

The FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its advisory panels but typically does so.

The FDA had asked the panel to consider whether patients should start with a 10 milligram dose, saying data from a smaller trial showed that amount might work for some people. Merck disputed that, saying 10 milligrams would not be effective.

The FDA also asked the panel if Merck should conduct an additional trial to further evaluate a 10 milligram dose. The panel voted against that. Some agreed that 10 milligrams would not be effective. Others agreed in principal with a lower starting dose, but most said a new trial would not add meaningfully to the information already in hand.

"When you have something new you don't know everything you would like to know," said Dr. Christian Guilleminault, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. However, he added: "I'm not sure that doing another study is going to bring us much more."

The FDA's concerns come amid a broader review of the safety of sleeping pills following hundreds of reports of driving accidents involving people taking zolpidem, the active ingredient in Sanofi SA's Ambien.

About 60 million prescriptions for these drugs were written in the United States in 2011, according to healthcare research firm I.M.S. Of those, roughly 40 million contained zolpidem.

In January, the FDA told drugmakers they should lower the recommended dose of zolpidem in women to 5 milligrams from 10 for immediate-release products including Ambien, Edluar and Zolpimist. The agency said doses for extended-release products should also be cut in half.

Dr. Jason Todd, a panel member and staff neurologist at NorthEast Neurology in Concord, North Carolina, said patients are adjusting to the lower dosing recommendations for Ambien.

"Before the recent changes I almost never saw a patient who would take 5 milligrams and stay with it," he said. "Now that 5 milligrams is recommended people are OK with 5 milligrams."

The panel's ultimate recommendation surprised some analysts who had expected, based on the FDA's review, that the meeting would be more contentious.

"Based on the overall discussion today and the voting of the panel, we believe that the probability of FDA approval for suvorexant has gone up meaningfully," Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst at ISI Group, said in a research note.

Having said that, he said: "We admit that predicting a final FDA decision is difficult."

(Reporting by Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Alden Bentley, Leslie Adler and Edmund Klamann)

The premier electric drive event of the year will bring together business, technology, policy, media and academic leaders to provide in-depth understanding and insight into the latest developments and what's ahead for the electric drive industry.

Leading sponsors, including Toyota Motor Sales, Duke Energy Corporation, American Honda Motor Co., Phoenix International - A John Deere Company, and Nissan North America will be on hand to show and talk about their newest products and technologies.

This event will feature industry and government leaders addressing the key electric drive issues of the day, from new markets, critical policy developments and technology breakthroughs throughout the supply chain. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Dr. David Danielson, Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for the U.S. Department of Energy will kick off the opening plenary on Tuesday. The conference program is then packed with industry leaders from companies such as Tesla, Ford, Qualcomm, GM, NRG Energy, Dow Chemical and many more. A Ride, Drive & Charge event will be underway throughout the event, letting attendees take a ride or get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle and learn first-hand how easy it is to charge a plug-in car.

A full list of current exhibitors and Ride, Drive & Charge flyer is attached and acan be found on the conference site.

About EDTA:The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) is the trade association promoting battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric drive technologies and infrastructure. EDTA conducts public policy advocacy, education, industry networking, and conferences. EDTA'sincludes vehicle and equipment manufacturers, energy companies, technology developers, component suppliers, and others. For more information about EDTA and its members, visit.For information about owning and operating electric vehicles, please visit.

Exhibitors:

Ride, Drive & Charge Participants

SOURCE Electric Drive Transportation Association

Back at Fenway Park as a manager for the first time since being let go by the Boston Red Sox in 2011, he was calm and occasionally funny while wearing the cap of the Cleveland Indians.

After all, he's back in baseball.

"Being in a dugout or clubhouse, there's no place I'm more comfortable," Francona said Thursday night as he sat in the opposite dugout from where he spent eight seasons as Boston's manager. "Part of the reason I'm OK with this is I'm really proud of coming here with this hat on, this uniform.

"And that takes nothing away from the eight years I was here. It makes it easier for me to look back on some of the fonder memories and now you start new ones in another place."

In his first season as their manager in 2004, the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. Three years later, they won another. And four years after that he was let go following a September collapse that cost the Red Sox a playoff berth.

"I wish the ending would have been different," Francona said before Thursday night's opener of a four-game series.

He spent last season as an ESPN analyst then was hired to replace Manny Acta, who lost 94 games.

The Indians started Thursday in first place in the AL Central.

"I wasn't going to Cleveland to go to pasture," Francona said. "Every game means the same to me here in Cleveland as it ever did here (in Boston). Our goals are exactly the same to win the game we're playing. But I like where I'm at and maybe for me, where I'm at in my life and baseball, this is a really good place."

There's less media and fan scrutiny. And there are fewer big-name players than he had in Boston where he managed Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Josh Beckett.

After Francona spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes, Ortiz walked into the dugout with a big smile and embraced his former manager.

Francona said he hadn't had much time to think how emotional the night would be.

"Everybody kept saying, 'well, are you going to be emotional?' You don't know," he said. "We played a late game (Wednesday) night. We got in about 5 (a.m.), got up at 8. It's been a busy day and, for people that know me, I really don't think that far ahead. I know I've been accused of that in the games, but I just kind of take it as it comes."

After the first inning, a video tribute on the center field scoreboard showed former Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills, now Francona's third-base coach, former Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash, now Francona's bullpen coach, and former Red Sox players Justin Masterson, Mike Aviles and Rich Hill, all with the Indians.

It ended with several scenes of Francona in the dugout and on the field as Boston's manager, one of them in which he hugged Martinez.

He received a standing ovation and remained in his dugout. He waved his left hand and patted his heart with his right hand.

Francona said he hadn't spent time thinking how the fans might react.

"These are some of the best fans in the world," he said. "If you like baseball, this is a good place to be and I got to be a part of that. I feel very fortunate."

Francona actually managed as a Fenway visitor while with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997-2000, going 4-4. This season, the Red Sox swept the Indians in a three-game series at Cleveland from April 16-18.

Francona had been back at Fenway several times last year. He returned with ESPN and for the 100th anniversary celebration of the park on April 20.

Among the bigger cheers that day was the chant of "Tito!" that greeted him. He had been angered by a newspaper article revealing details about personal troubles during the 2011 season and said he would not attend but then relented.

"He did a lot to really put Red Sox baseball back on top of the world," Masterson said. "Everyone here loved him. Everyone on our team loves him. And everyone in Cleveland loves him. He's just an incredible guy."

On Thursday, he visited with clubhouse attendants and Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick. He spoke with his good friend John Farrell, who took over as Boston manager after Bobby Valentine was fired following a last-place finish in which the team went 69-93.

Aviles ended up in Cleveland after being traded by Toronto. The Blue Jays had obtained him to allow Boston to hire Farrell, who had been their manager.

"It is a great opportunity to play for Tito again," Aviles said. "You couldn't ask for a better manager."

Francona said he hasn't changed much since he managed the Red Sox, although the year off refreshed him.

But his goal remains the same, no matter which dugout he manages from just win.

"Every game I've ever been here I've never rooted against the Red Sox," he said. "Now I will be."