RANGERS STOP PENGUINS TO STAY ALIVE
Unhappy with the way they played in two bad losses on the road that pushed them to the brink of elimination, the New York Rangers bounced back with a needed win to keep their season going.
Filip Chytil scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
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.
“We were not happy with what happened in Pittsburgh,” Chytil said. “We just didn’t play the whole season (the) way that we played, just (to) lose games like this in Pittsburgh. So we just had a good meeting, good practice yesterday and we just believed today that we’re gonna win and we’re gonna go back to Pittsburgh.”
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 left in the second period after taking a hard high hit from Trouba in the offensive zone minutes earlier. He did not return. Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby had an upper body injury and his status was being evaluated.
Game 6 is Friday in Pittsburgh.
“We played a good 60 minutes,” Lafreniere said. “We played a really good one when we needed it most.”
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. Lindgren sealed the win with an empty-netter with 16 seconds left.
Panthers 5, Capitals 3: Carter Verhaeghe set a Florida postseason record with a fivepoint night, and host Florida escaped a three-goal deficit to beat Washington and take a 3-2 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series.
Flames 3, Stars 1: Mikael Backlund, Andrew Mangiapane and Trevor Lewis all scored in the third period as host Calgary took a 3-2 series lead.