Mrazek helps give Detroit series lead
Calgary chases Canucks’ Lack early in 3- 1win
The Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom, left, celebrates with teammate Brooks Orpik scoring the winning goal.
Petr Mrazek made 22 saves for his first postseason shutout, and Pavel Datsyuk, Riley Sheahan and Luke Glendening scored for Detroit in a 3- 0 victory over the Tampa Lightning on Tuesday night that gave the Red Wings a 2- 1 lead in their playoff series.
The 23- year- old Mrazek was coach Mike Babcock’s choice to start in this series instead of Jimmy Howard, and the youngster has acquitted himself well in his postseason debut.
He made 44 saves in a 32 victory in the opener, and although he was pulled after two periods in a 5- 1 loss the following game, Mrazek bounced back nicely at home in Game 3.
After being outshot badly in the first two games at Tampa Bay, the Red Wings were able to contain the high- scoring Lightning on Tuesday in a tightly contested matchup.
“I thought we were way better,” Babcock said. “I thought we skated and looked like a real hockey team.”
Detroit forward Justin Abdelkader returned from a hand injury and played for the first time since April 4. He assisted on Sheahan’s power- play goal in the third period.
The Red Wings opened the scoring with 11: 14 left in the first when Tomas Tatar’s shot from the point appeared to deflect off Datsyuk’s right leg and past goalie Ben Bishop for the 36- year- old center’s 41st career playoff goal.
“They got an extremely fortunate bounce on the first goal,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s the only bounce they got. They didn’t need any more. We didn’t get bounces.”
The Red Wings didn’t allow many chances from in close, and Mrazek did a nice job controlling rebounds for the most part.
“We could have made it a little harder on him,” Tampa Bay’s Brian Boyle said. “He did make some really good saves though, had some really good saves.”
Flames 3, Canucks 1: Jiri Hudler had a goal and an assist and host Calgary earned a win over Vancouver.
Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau scored his first playoff goal and 18- year- old rookie Sam Bennett had his second in as many games.
Dennis Wideman
had a pair of assists for the Flames, who split the first two games of the series in Vancouver before back- toback wins at home.
Canucks goalie Eddie Lack was pulled after giving up three goals on seven shots in the first period. Ryan Miller turned away the 15 he faced in relief.
Calgary leads the Western Conference series 3- 1.
Capitals 2, Islanders 1: Nicklas Backstrom scored 11: 09 into overtime to lift visiting Washington to a victory, and even its firstround playoff series against New York.
Alex Ovechkin also scored and assisted on the decisive goal, which came off a faceoff to the right of the Islanders net. Backstrom dug the puck out in the right corner and worked his way up the boards.
He snapped a shot near the blue line that went through a crowd and sneaked inside the far post.
“It’s just one game, but we’re happy about this one,” Backstrom said. “We kept battling.”
Casey Cizikas scored for the Islanders as the series shifts to Washington for Game 5 on Thursday.