Habs take back home advantage

NEW YORK Canadiens coach Claude Julien will happily take the result of his team’s efforts.

“I thought it was a really good road game. It wasn’t mistake-free and no games are,” said Julien after the Canadiens’ 3-1 win over the New York Rangers in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarter-final series on Sunday.

“I thought our guys were really focused from start to finish. I thought we did a good job defensively and offensively, but also our special teams were very good tonight too.”

Montreal leads the best-of-seven set 2-1. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“All the guys did a great job,” said Shea Weber who, along with Artturi Lehkonen, scored power-play goals for the Canadiens. Alexander Radulov added a spectacular even-strength goal late in the third. Carey Price made 20 saves.

Despite a strong 26-save performance from Henrik Lundqvist, New York dropped its second straight in the series, and its sixth straight playoff home game.

PENGUINS 5, BLUE JACKETS 4, OT

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jake Guentzel had a hat trick, including a goal at 13:10 of overtime, to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night and give them a 3-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Bryan Rust added two goals for Pittsburgh, and Marc-Andre Fleury overcame a shaky first period to make 33 saves.

Cam Atkinson had two goals for Columbus, and Zach Werenski and Brandon Dubinsky also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky had 42 saves. BLUES 3, WILD 1

ST. LOUIS — Jaden Schwartz scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Jake Allen made 40 saves to lead St. Louis over Minnesota for a 3-0 lead in the firstround playoff series.

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.