Washington soars behind goalie’s stops

WASHINGTON — Fans’ cheers brought Ilya Samsonov close to tears on the way to his first NHL playoff victory.

Chants of “Sammy! Sammy!” followed one of many important saves he made in Washington’s 6-1 rout of Florida in Game 3 on Saturday. Samsonov rebounded after allowing an early goal and the Capitals bounced back from a blowout loss in Game 2 to take a lead in the series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers.

Samsonov made 29 saves in his first start this postseason, taking over for Vitek Vanecek and giving teammates and Coach Peter Laviolette exactly what they hoped for out of a goaltender whose play ranges from stellar to suspect. From big saves in tight on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov to the stop on Sam Reinhart that ignited the chants, this was the best of Samsonov at the most opportune time.

“I am ready all the time,” he said. “Sometimes you start playoffs, sometimes another goalie, but you need to get ready for every game. I understand if you want to win, you need to win 16 games.”

The Capitals would take two more this round to start. Game 4 is Monday in Washington.

Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play and assisted on T.J. Oshie’s power-play goal. Marcus Johansson, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Garnet Hathaway also scored and John Carlson contributed an empty-netter for the Capitals, who shook off a 5-1 loss in Game 2 and an early deficit in Game 3 behind the play of their new starting goaltender and a stingy effort that stymied the NHL’s best regular-season offense.

PENGUINS 7, RANGERS 4

PITTSBURGH — Danton Heinen’s first playoff goal in three years just past the midway point of the third period broke a tie to lift Pittsburgh to a victory over New York to take a 2-1 lead in their firstround Eastern Conference series.

Pittsburgh blew a three-goal first-period lead but recovered behind the play of third-string goaltender Louis Domingue and Heinen, who jumped on a loose puck near the New York goal line and flicked a shot by Alexandar Georgiev 11:02 into the third.

Evan Rodrigues had two goals and assisted on another for the Penguins, who won despite any member of the top line of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust not recording a point until Guentzel’s empty-netter with 2:14 to play sealed it. Jeff Carter also scored twice for the Penguins while Brock McGinn started the scoring on a wild night with his first goal of the playoffs.

AVALANCHE 7, PREDATORS 3

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gabriel Landeskog scored twice in the second period, and top-seeded Colorado beat Nashville for a commanding 3-0 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.

Landeskog also had two assists. Nazem Kadri and Devon Toews each added a goal and an assist, and Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon scored a power-play goal apiece as Colorado went 4 for 5 on the man advantage to push Nashville to the brink of elimination. Cale Makar had three assists.

Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper was hurt with a minute left in the first period. Pavel Francouz replaced him and made 20 saves in his seventh playoff appearance of his career.

STARS 4, FLAMES 2

DALLAS — Joe Pavelski scored twice and got the game-winner on the first power-play goal in the series as Dallas took a 2-1 lead in the first-round Western Conference playoff series.

The Stars were 0 for 10 with an extra skater, though one of those power plays had been for only 4 seconds earlier in Game 3, before Pavelski’s tiebreaking goal with 9:55 left made it 3-2.

Radek Faksa scored the first goal for Dallas, and Roope Hintz added an empty-net tally just before the final buzzer. Miro Heiskanen had two assists.