Rookie wins it for Rangers
Kevin Hayes scored at 3:14 of overtime to give the New York Rangers a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night and a 3-1 edge in the Eastern Conference firstround series at Pittsburgh.
Game 5 will be in New York on Friday night.
In overtime, Martin St. Louis started a goal-mouth scramble when he threw the puck in front on a wraparound attempt. The puck pinballed to Carl Hagelin and went across the crease for Hayes to flip it past fallen goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The point was Hayes’ first in the postseason.
“It will be a memorable one, for sure,” Hayes said. “I thought two of our guys worked hard and got the puck to the net and it just kind of ended up on my stick.”
Pittsburgh’s Patric Hornqvist opened the scoring at 2:22 of the first period. Derick Brassard tied it at 1 with 2:45 left in the second period with his third goal of the series.
Fleury and New York’s Henrik Lundqvist each made 22 saves.
St. Louis 6, at Minnesota 1: Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and the revived Blues sent Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk to an early exit and thoroughly dominated the Wild to even the series at 2-2.
Kevin Shattenkirk had three assists and Jake Allen made 17 saves to help the Blues end a nine-game postseason road losing streak that lasted more than three years.
Patrik Berglund had a goal and an assist, and David Backes and Paul Stastny scored for the first time in the series. So did fourth-line right wing Ryan Reaves, whose one-timer from the point got past Dubnyk’s glove to give the Blues the early lead. By the middle of the first period, they had a 3-0 lead after being shut out in Game 3.
at Ottawa 1, Montreal 0: Mike Hoffman scored midway through the third period and the Senators avoided elimination.
Craig Anderson made 28 saves to help the Senators cut Montreal’s lead to 3-1 in the Eastern Conference series.
Only four teams have come back to win when trailing 3-0 in a series: Toronto in 1942, the New York Islanders in 1975, Philadelphia in 2010 and the Kings last season.
Carey Price stopped 31 shots for the Canadiens.