Nash goal helps Rangers tie series

Rick Nash scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and the Rangers held on to defeat the Canadiens 2-1 on Tuesday night in New York to even the Eastern Conference playoff series at 2-2.

Jesper Fest gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead in the first period, but the Canadiens tied it on a goal by Torrey Mitchell late in the period.

Henrik Lundqvist had 21 saves for the Rangers.

The Predators are at a point they’ve never been before, and now they have a chance to keep their first-round series from going back to Chicago.

They can thank a 20-year-old playing the fourth postseason game of his career for putting them in that position.

Kevin Fiala scored on a backhander 16:44 into overtime, and the Predators rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to push the Blackhawks to the brink of elimination with a 3-2 victory early Tuesday morning in Game 3 of the first-round series in Nashville, Tenn.

“That’s good for him, a young kid in a big situation like that,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said of Fiala scoring his second career playoff goal. “I thought he handled it well.”

The Predators have never won the first three games of any playoff series, and they got here by outscoring the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed 9-2. Even with the Hawks finally ending their scoring drought in this series, it wasn’t enough as Filip Forsberg scored twice in the third period to force overtime.

Blues forward Paul Stastny skated for the first time in a month Tuesday after missing the last 13 games with a lower-body injury.

Coach Mike Yeo said Stastny is day to day. The Blues are up 3-0 in their first-round series against the Wild, with Game 4 on Wednesday night in St. Louis.

Stastny left a March 21 game against the Avalanche after being hit in the foot by a Vladimir Tarasenko shot. He has 18 goals and 22 assists in 66 games.

On Tuesday, Stastny worked on a line with Vladimir Sobotka and Zach Sanford in Alexander Steen’s normal spot. Steen hasn’t been practicing, but Yeo will play Wednesday.

Stastny also worked with the No. 1 power-play unit.