Blues up 2-0 on Kings
Senators, Capitals win opening games
ST. LOUIS — Defenseman Barret Jackman scored his first career playoff goal with 50.4 seconds remaining, lifting the St. Louis Blues to a 2-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings for the second straight time Thursday night.
Jackman, a stay-at-home type who totaled three goals and 12 points in the regular season, joined a rush and scored in transition against Jonathan Quick, last year’s playoff MVP. He beat Quick from just inside the blue line for a 2-0 series lead heading to Los Angeles.
Patrik Berglund’s deflection tied it early in the third period for St. Louis, which was swept by the Kings in the second round last season, while getting outscored 15-6.
Dustin Brown scored for the Kings, who’ll try to rebound in Game 3 Saturday night.
SENATORS 4, CANADIENS 2: In Montreal, Craig Anderson made 48 saves in a spectacular goaltending performance as Ottawa beat Montreal in Game 1 of their playoff series.
Jakob Silfverberg and Marc Methot scored early in the third period to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 2 scheduled tonight at the Bell Centre.
Erik Karlsson and Guillaume Latendresse also scored for the Senators, who were outshot 50-31, but saw Anderson easily win the goaltending duel with Carey Price, who was beaten twice between the pads.
Rene Bourque and Brendan Gallagher replied for Montreal, which set a team record for shots in a regulation-time playoff game.
Montreal center Lars Eller was wheeled off on a stretcher bleeding heavily from the nose and was taken to a hospital with what the team said were head and facial injuries after he was caught with a shoulder to the face on an open-ice hit from Senators defenseman Eric Gryba.
CAPITALS 3, RANGERS 1: In Washington, Alex Ovechkin’s franchise-record 31st career playoff goal got the Capitals started before less-heralded teammates Marcus Johansson and Jason Chimera scored 46 seconds apart as Washington beat New York in Game 1 of their first-round series.
Ovechkin, a two-time MVP who led the NHL with 32 goals this season, crashed the net to score on a power play about seven minutes into the second period to tie the game for the Capitals, the thirdseeded team in the Eastern Conference.
Carl Hagelin had put sixthseeded New York ahead 1-0 in the first period — the only puck that made it past Braden Holtby, who finished with 35 saves.
Game 2 of the best-ofseven series is Saturday in Washington.
RED WINGS 5, DUCKS 4 (OT): In Anaheim, Calif., Gustav Nyquist’s power-play goal at 1:21 of overtime after the Red Wings blew a three-goal lead in the third period gave Detroit a victory over Anaheim to even their playoff series.
Johan Franzen scored two goals and Damien Brunner had his first Stanley Cup playoff goal and two assists for the Red Wings, who survived a third-period collapse with a timely goal from Nyquist.
Bobby Ryan scored the tying goal with 2:22 left in regulation for the Ducks, who also got goals from captain Ryan Getzlaf and Kyle Palmieri while erasing Detroit’s 4-1 lead with a phenomenal surge in the final minutes.
Game 3 is Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Notes
‘MR. HOCKEY’: A fascinating part of Gordie Howe’s life has been turned into a TV movie.
“Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story” premieres Saturday night in the U.S. on the Hallmark Channel.
The focus of the film is on the World Hockey Association’s 1973-74 season, when the then 45-year-old Howe came out of retirement to play for the Houston Aeros with two of his sons, Mark and Marty. Gordie Howe helped Houston win the WHA title and was MVP of the league that later merged with the NHL.
“Marty and I had a lot of input with the script,” Mark Howe said. “My dad couldn’t really help much because he doesn’t remember most of that stuff.”
Howe, who turned 85 last month, has what his son, Dr. Murray Howe, describes as severe short-term memory loss.