In-form Pens extend lead over Flyers in play-off series
PHILADELPHIA: Sidney Crosby scored his fifth goal of the series and became the Pittsburgh Penguins’ career postseason points leader in a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
The Penguins lead the first-round playoff series 3-1 as its shifts to Pittsburgh for Game Five.
Matt Murray stopped 26 shots for his second shut-out of the series and the twotime defending Stanley Cup champions Penguins are a win away from playing in the second round for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons.
Crosby scored in the second period for a 4-0 lead and passed Pittsburgh owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux for most playoff points with 173. Crosby and the Penguins followed a 7-0 Game One win and a 5-1 Game Three victory with another dominant outing.
Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang each scored to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead in the second and chase Flyers goalie Brian Elliott. Riley Sheahan made it 5-0 late in the third.
In San Jose, Tomas Hertl scored the tie-breaking goal 9:09 minutes into the third period, Martin Jones was spectacular in goal yet again, and San Jose Sharks completed a first-round sweep with a 2-1 victory.
Hertl scored just 1:16 minutes after the Ducks finally got a puck past Jones when he deflected a point shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic past John Gibson. San Jose then held on to advance to the second round against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
Fourth-line winger Marcus Sorensen scored for the third straight game to open the scoring for San Jose and Jones did most of the rest of the work with 30 saves.
Andrew Cogliano scored the lone goal for the Ducks, who were outscored 16-4 in the series and swept for the first time since 1999 against Detroit. Gibson finished with 22 saves.
In Newwark, Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, set up another and knocked New Jersey’s top defenceman out of the game with a big hit, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat New Jesey 3-1 to move within a game of making the Devils’ first trip to the play-offs in six years a short one.
JT Miller also scored and had two assists, and Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped three breakaways in making 27 saves as the Lightning bounced back from a loss in Game Three to tale a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
Tampa Bay can wrap up the best-of-seven series in Game Five at home tomorrow.
Kyle Palmieri scored on a 5-on-3 advantage for the Devils. Cory Schneider made 34 saves.
New Jersey’s Sami Vatanen was knocked out of the game on the hit by Kucherov late in the first. No penalty was called but Kucherov appeared to jump before hitting Vatanen in the shoulder and head area.
In Denver, Filip Forsberg scored another creative goal, Pekka Rinne rebounded from a rocky performance with 31 saves, and Nashville edged Colorado 3-2 take a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
Colton Sissons and Craig Smith also added goals for the Predators, who can close out the best-of-seven series today when it shifts back to Nashville for Game Five.
Rinne was solid early after being pulled from the last game. Cruising along and up 3-0, the Vezina Trophy finalist allowed Gabriel Landeskog’s 5-on-3 power-play goal in the third and another on Alexander Kerfoot’s tap-in off a rebound.
Colin Wilson nearly tied with about two minutes left when his shot appeared to hit the post. The Avalanche pulled back-up goalie Andrew Hammond late, but couldn’t get the tying goal.