Blues take 3-0 lead on Wild

Canadiens, Radulov grab 2-1 series edge over Rangers.

Jaden Schwartz scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Jake Allen made 40 saves to lead the host St. Louis Blues to a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday for a 3-0 lead in their firstround playoff series.

Allen has been the star of the first three games. He’s stopped 114 of the 117 shots he’s faced for a .974 save percentage and 0.91 goals-against-average against a Wild team that ranked second in the NHL in scoring during the regular season.

“He’s been unbelievable, a big reason why we got these three wins, and it gives us a lot of confidence,” Schwartz said of Allen.

“He’s in the zone and he’s really backstopping us right now. He’s making some big, timely saves, which gives us a lot of momentum.”

Colton Parayko also scored for the Blues and Alexander Steen added an empty-netter for St. Louis, which will try to sweep the series Wednesday night in St. Louis.

Charlie Coyle scored for Minnesota, which got 28 saves from Devan Dubnyk.

“We’ve played three pretty good hockey games and we’ve just to keep playing hard,” Dubnyk said. “Putting pucks to the net and trying to get some bounces and see if we can turn the momentum.”

Canadiens 3, (at) Rangers 1: Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist as Montreal took a 2-1 lead in its first-round playoff series.

Artturi Lehkonen and Shea Weber scored power-play goals for Montreal and Carey Price stopped 20 shots.

Radulov, who got the overtime winner in Game 2 on Friday night after Tomas Plekanec tied it with 18 seconds left in regulation, has two goals and three assists in the past two games.

Penguins5,(at)BlueJackets 4 (OT): Jake Guentzel had a hat trick, including a goal at 13:10 of overtime, as Pittsburgh took a 3-0 lead in its first-round playoff series.

Bryan Rust added two goals for Pittsburgh, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves. Guentzel is the first Pittsburgh to rookie to get a playoff hat trick.

The defending champion Penguins will go for the sweep in Columbus on Tuesday night.

JEFF ROBERSON / ASSOCIATED PRESS The Blues’ Alexander Steen scores into an empty net Sunday as the Wild’s Ryan Suter tries unsuccessfully to block the shot with his stick.