NHL playoffs: Rangers knock out Canadiens, Blues eliminate Wild in overtime
NEW YORK— Mats Zuccarello scored two goals in an 11:05 span in the second period to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens, taking their first-round series in six games.
The Rangers will meet the winner of the Boston-Ottawa series.
Derek Stepan added an emptynetter for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves.
Alexei Emelin scored Montreal’s lone goal. Carey Price made 20 saves.
Trailing 1-0 at the start of the second period, it only took 2:26 for New York to draw even on Zuccarello’s powerplay goal. Zuccarello’s shot from the left faceoff dot appeared to sneak through Price’s body. After the puck went in, Price first turned to look in the net, and then looked at his glove.
The goal was the second of the series for Zuccarello, and New York’s first on 15 power plays over the course of the six games.
Zuccarello put New York ahead at 13:31 with his second of the game. The right winger out-positioned Jordie Benn alongside Price at the near post, and redirected a Kevin Hayes centring feed.
Lundqvist made the slim lead hold up. His most important save came late in regulation when he made a pad stop on Tomas Plekanec with a little more than minute remaining.
Perhaps the most galling aspect of the series for Montreal was that it led 2-1 after the first three games, and had a lead in Game 6.
Blues 4, Wild 3 (OT): With goalie Jake Allen as their guide and coach Mike Yeo on their side, though, the St. Louis Blues sure had the right formula for beating Minnesota .
Magnus Paajarvi scored at the 9:42 mark in overtime, giving the Blues a 4-3 victory on Saturday in Game 5 of their playoff series to eliminate the Wild in the first round following the best season in franchise history.
“They know us. We know them,” said Allen, who stopped 174 of the 182 shots he faced. “They got the best of us two years ago, and we came out on top this year. I’m sure we’re going to have many future series.”
The Blues advanced to play Nashville in the second round, with Game 1 against the Predators at home in St. Louis.
Despite a clear edge in shots on goal and faceoff draws and a dominant penalty kill unit throughout the series, the Wild were left wondering what more they had to do to get more pucks past Allen.
“They weren’t the better team,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said, “but they won four games.”