Canadiens top Rangers, take series lead
Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist to lead Montreal to a 3-1 victory over the Rangers on Sunday night in New York, giving the Canadiens a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Artturi Lehkonen and Weber scored power-play for Montreal and Carey stopped 20 shots.
Radulov, who got the overtime winner in Game 2 on Friday night after Tomas Plekanec tied it with 18 seconds left in regulation, has two goals and three assists in the past two games.
Brady Skjei spoiled Price’s shutout bid with 2:56 remaining for his first career playoff goal.
Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, coming off a playoff career-high 54 saves in Game 2, stopped 26 shots in this one. Game 4 is Tuesday night. With Montreal leading 1-0, the Rangers’ Mats Zuccarello was whistled for a double-minor for high-sticking 4:07 into the third.
The Canadiens took advantage 3½ minutes later with their second power-play goal of the game. Weber got a pass from Alex Galchenyuk in the left circle and fired it past a sprawled Lundqvist at 7:42.
Radulov made it 3-0 with some nice stickhandling, and dumping the puck past Lundqvist with 4:25 left. BLUES 3, WILD 1 >> At St. Louis, Jaden Schwartz scored the goahead goal in the second period and Jake Allen made 40 saves to lead St. Louis to a win over Minnesota and a 3-0 lead in their first-round 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 which got 28 saves Devan Dubnyk.
Schwartz had a power-play goal at 15:19 of the second period to put the Blues one win away Shea goals Price Minnesota, from from the second round. He scored with 2:27 left in the third period of Game 2 to give St. Louis the 2-1 win. PENGUINS 5, BLUE JACKETS 4, OT >> Jake Guentzel had a hat trick, including a goal at 13:10 of overtime, to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night and give them a 3-0 lead in their firstround playoff series.
Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh, and MarcAndre Fleury overcame a shaky first period to make 33 saves. Guentzel is the first Pittsburgh to rookie to get a playoff hat trick.
The defending champion Penguins will go for the sweep in Columbus on Tuesday night.
Cam Atkinson had two goals for Columbus, and Zach Werenski and Brandon Dubinsky also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky had 42 saves.
After only scoring two goals combined in the first two games of the series, Columbus scored three goals in just over six minutes of the first period.
But the Penguins regained their composure and pushed back hard during the second period to tie the score at 3-3.
At 5:21, Rust got his second goal of the series when he tipped Brian Dumoulin’s shot through Bobrovsky’s pads. Then, with Werenski flat on the ice bleeding profusely from a puck to the face, Malkin tied the score at 13:25. Werenski returned in the third period with a full facemask and a significant cut and bruise under his right eye.
The teams traded goals in the third period before Guentzel beat Bobrovsky for the winner.
With Dubinsky in the box for cross-checking, Guentzel got his second goal of the game 11:48 into the third period to give the Penguins the 4-3 lead.
Dubinsky made amends, though, jumping on a rebound and banging it past Fleury at 15:11 to tie the score and force OT.
Eleven seconds into the game, Dubinsky put a shot on Fleury’s pads and Atkinson was in the right place to score on the rebound, pumping up a sold-out Nationwide Arena crowd hungry for some playoff prosperity.
Pittsburgh answered three minutes later. Guentzel played the ricochet off the back boards to the left of the net and beat Bobrovsky from a severe angle.
Atkinson got his second goal at 5:02 of the first when he picked Sidney Crosby’s pocket at the right circle and beat Fleury with a backhand. Sixty-eight seconds later during a power play, Werenski’s wrister from the top of the left circle clanged off the bar and into the top of the net to put Columbus up 3-1.
NOTES: Columbus was penalized twice for having too many men on the ice . ... Pittsburgh C Nick Bonino took a puck in the face in the first period and immediately left the ice. He returned later in the period . ... F Sonny Milano was recalled from Cleveland of the American Hockey League to replace Matt Calvert, who was suspended a game for breaking his stick on Pittsburgh’s Tom Kuhnhackl on Friday night.