Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
New York extends series to 6th game
NHL PLAYOFFS RANGERS 5, PENGUINS 3
NEW YORK — Filip Chytil scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the New York Rangers staved off elimination with a 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday night.
Jacob Trouba and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist, and Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin, torched for 10 goals over three periods in the previous two games, had 27 saves.
Jake Guentzel had two goals and Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh, which leads the best of seven series 3-2. Evgeni Malkin had two assists and Louis Domingue finished with 29 saves.
Penguins star Sidney Crosby left with about seven minutes remaining in the second period with an apparent injury and didn’t return.
Game 6 is Friday in Pittsburgh, and a potential deciding Game 7 would be Sunday back at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers got their first power play of the night early in the third period and took advantage as Chytil got a pass from Lafreniere in the right circle, turned around and whipped a shot past Domingue to put the Rangers ahead 4-3 at 2:53.
Pittsburgh pulled Domingue for an extra skater with about 11/ minutes remaining. 2 He returned briefly 20 seconds later during a stoppage in play and left the ice again. Lindgren sealed the win with an empty-netter with 16 seconds left.
With the Penguins leading 1- 0 after 20 minutes, Pittsburgh’s Mike Matheson hit a goalpost 31/ minutes 2 into the second period. Domingue then made saves a minute later on a shot by Artemi Panarin and a tip try by Lindgren. The goalie also stopped a slap shot by Trouba and a follow by Panarin two minutes later.
Letang made it 2-0 at 7:58 as he got a cross- ice pass from Malkin and fired a slap shot past Shesterkin on Pittsburgh’s first shot on goal of the period.
The Rangers then took the lead as they scored on three consecutive shots in a 2:42 span late in the second.
Fox got the Rangers on the scoreboard with 4:49 left as he got the puck inside the blue line, slowly skated up and fired a shot from the top of the right circle past Domingue’s shoulder.
Lafreniere tied it 90 seconds later as he quickly fired a slap shot in front off a centering pass from Kaapo Kakko.
PANTHERS 5, CAPITALS 3
SUNRISE, Fla. — Carter Verhaeghe set a Florida postseason record with a five-point night, and Florida escaped a three-goal deficit to beat Washington and take a 3-2 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots for Florida, which trailed 3-0 in the second period. Verhaeghe had two goals and three assists for the Panthers.
Patric Hornqvist, Claude Giroux and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, and Aleksander Barkov had two assists.
T.J. Oshie scored twice for Washington, which also got a goal from Justin Schultz and two assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ilya Samsonov stopped 33 shots.
Verhaeghe broke the Panthers’ playoff scoring record that Ray Sheppard set on a four-point night back on April 22, 1996 — which remains the last, and only, season in which the Panthers won a playoff series.
They can change that Friday, when Game 6 is played in Washington. Game 7, if necessary, would be back at Florida on Sunday.
Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a lead at 3:04 of the third, after a pair of marvelous plays at both ends. He created a turnover deep in the zone, sent the puck to Barkov and then went into a full sprint for about 100 feet of ice to find a spot to receive the return pass.
Barkov put it on his stick, Verhaeghe put it into the net, and Florida led 4-3. Bobrovsky slammed the door from there, Giroux scored the insurance goal at 15:55.
This was the season of the comeback for Florida, which had an NHL-best 29 come-from-behind wins during the regular season. The Panthers pulled off five wins after trailing by three goals, and rallied in the final moments of Game 4 to force overtime in Washington before winning early in the extra session and tying the series.
Florida’s rally matched the largest in an NHL playoff game since April 19, 2011, when the San Jose Sharks erased a fourgoal deficit to beat the Los Angeles Kings 6-5. There had been three two-goal deficits in these playoffs entering Wednesday, but nobody had successfully dug out of a three-goal hole.
Until now.
Florida’s last 3-2 series lead was a decade ago, the 2012 first round against New Jersey. The Panthers lost Games 6 and 7, the finale at home in double overtime — part of the 26-years-and-counting drought that has dogged this franchise.