Penguins edge Jackets for lead
PENGUINS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Marc-Andre Fleury stayed sharp in his second consecutive playoff start and the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled away for a 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night in Game 2 of their first-round NHL playoff series.
Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist to help the defending Stanley Cup champions take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the postseason, and Patric Hornqvist pushed in an empty-net goal.
Fleury finished with 39 saves while filling in for the injured Matt Murray and received plenty of help. Pittsburgh blocked 23 shots before they even got to Fleury.
Brandon Saad scored for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots.
Game 3 is Sunday night in Columbus.
Fleury admitted to some jitters when he was suddenly thrust into the lineup with barely 20 minutes to prepare after Murray was a late scratch before Game 1 with a lower-body injury — and responded with a 31-save masterpiece. Murray is out indefinitely, returning Fleury to the spot he held for a decade while becoming the winningest goaltender in franchise history.
His club-record 102nd playoff appearance looked an awful lot like his 101st, when he held the Blue Jackets in check during an early push then waited for NHL’s best offense to find its footing.
The awakening came earlier than in the series opener. Crosby turned Pittsburgh’s first shot of the game into the 50th playoff goal of his career, though he had the easy part: settling the puck at the doorstep then flipping it into a wide-open net. Sheary did the hard part: poke-checking the puck away from Bobrovsky behind the Columbus net and getting it to Guentzel in front. Guentzel then slid it to Crosby and the Penguins were in control.
Saad gave the Blue Jackets a jolt when his wrist shot from the left circle zipped over Fleury’s glove 7 minutes into the second.
The momentum lasted all of 51 seconds, or as along as it took for Crosby and Guentzel to break in 2-on-1. Crosby fed it to Guentzel and the 22-yearold rookie opted not to give it to back to the league’s leading goal scorer and instead sent a shot that Bobrovsky’s outstretched left pad couldn’t reach and suddenly the Penguins were back in front.
Columbus Coach John Tortorella stressed his team — which has only scored more than three goals just twice since St. Patrick’s Day —
needed to find some offense if it wanted to make the third playoff berth in franchise history more than a cameo.
So far that way has been clogged by both Fleury and the guys in black-and-gold in front of him. Columbus’ best chance to draw even came late in the second when Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumolin went off for holding. The Blue Jackets produced a handful of chances only to see Cole or another of the Penguins’ penalty killers drop to their knees to block shots.
CANADIENS 4, RANGERS 3, OT
MONTREAL — Alexander Radulov scored at 18:34 of overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a victory over the New York Rangers in Game 2 of the firstround series.
Radulov jammed the puck in from the edge of the crease after a feed from Max Pacioretty to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1. The victory was the first for a Canadian team in the playoffs since 2015. Game 3 is Sunday night in New York. Trailing 3-2 in the third period, the Canadiens pressed hard and finally scored with 18 seconds left, with goalie Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker. Tomas Plekanec redirected Radulov’s feed past goalie Henrik Lundqvist to force overtime.
Jeff Petry and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, which wasted early leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York.
Montreal had a 45-30 shots advantage in regulation and a 58-38 overall edge.
While goals were scarce in New York’s 2-0 victory in Game 1, there were three in the first period alone Friday.
Only 4:05 in, Lundqvist broke his stick and was helpless as Petry set up in the right circle and scored to the stick side.
Lundqvist answered by stopping Byron on a breakaway, and then Nathan Beaulieu lost the puck at the Rangers’ blue line, allowing Grabner to go in alone and deke Price and score with the backhand at 13:48.
Byron scored at 15:42 when Chris Kreider lost the puck to Brendan Gallagher, who followed in after his shot was stopped to feed it in front.
BLUES 2, WILD 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 remaining during a 4-on-4 situation and the St. Louis Blues beat the Wild to leave Minnesota with a 2-0 lead in the first-round series.
Joel Edmundson had the first goal for the Blues after winning Game 1 in overtime, Jake Allen was as steady as ever in the net again with 23 saves and Coach Mike Yeo devised another shrewd plan against his former team.
Zach Parise scored again for the Wild, on a 5-on-3 late in the second period, but goalie Devan Dubnyk simply hasn’t been as dominant as Allen at the other end. Screened by David Perron, Dubnyk didn’t track Schwartz’s deep shot from the slot. He made 20 saves.