Canadiens, Oilers even series; Penguins go 2-0 up
>> MONTREAL: Alexander Radulov scored after 18 minutes into the overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday night in Game Two of their NHL first-round playoff series.
Radulov jammed the puck in from the edge of the crease after a feed from Max Pacioretty to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1. The victory was the first for a Canadian team in the play-offs since 2015.
Game Three is in New York tomorrow morning (Thai time).
Trailing 3-2 in the third period, the Canadiens pressed hard and finally scored with 18 seconds left, with goalie Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker. Tomas Plekanec redirected Radulov’s feed past goalie Henrik Lundqvist to force overtime. The goal was the latest tying play-off goal in Canadiens history, beating Jacques Lemaire’s goal in 1975 with 24 seconds remaining.
Jeff Petry and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, who wasted early leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York.
In Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Marc-Andre Fleury stayed sharp in his second straight play-off start and the Penguins pulled away to beat Columbus 4-1 in Game Two.
Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist to help the defending Stanley Cup champions take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the postseason, and Patric Hornqvist pushed in an empty-net goal.
Fleury finished with 39 saves while filling in for the injured Matt Murray, and received plenty of help. Pittsburgh blocked 23 shots before they even got to Fleury.
Brandon Saad scored for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots.
Game Three is in Columbus tomorrow morning.
Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 minutes remaining during a 4-on-4 situation and St Louis beat Minnesota 2-1 to take a 2-0 series lead.
Joel Edmundson had the first goal for the Blues after winning Game One in overtime, Jake Allen made 23 saves, and coach Mike Yeo devised another shrewd plan against his former team.
Zach Parise scored again for the Wild, on a 5-on-3 late in the second period, but goalie Devan Dubnyk simply hasn’t been as dominant as Allen at the other end. Screened by David Perron, Dubnyk didn’t track Schwartz’s deep shot from the slot. He made 20 saves.
Game Three is tomorrow morning in St Louis.
In Edmonton, Connor McDavid and Zack Kassian scored short-handed goals to help the Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks 2-0, levelling their first-round series at one game apiece.
Cam Talbot stopped all 16 shots he faced for his first career play-off shut-out and Edmonton’s first postseason win since 2006. The Oilers missed the play-offs in each of the last 10 years.
Kassian scored early in the second period and McDavid doubled the lead midway through the third period.
It was a dominant performance by the Oilers and particularly by Kassian, a fourthline winger who drove the net effectively and delivered bone-jarring hits on the Sharks’ Brenden Dillon and Logan Couture. By the end of the second period, the Rogers Place fans were chanting “Kass-eeann! Kass-ee-ann!”
Game Three is in San Jose tomorrow morning.