Blue Jackets have Lightning on ropes
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Blue Jackets extended their postseason mastery of the Tampa Bay Lightning, beating the NHL’s best team 3-1 on Sunday night and moving to within a game of sweeping the first-round playoff series.
Matt Duchene, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Cam Atkinson scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky fended off a desperate third-period charge to finish with 30 saves for Columbus, which took a 3-0 lead in the bestof-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal. The Blue Jackets will try to win a playoff series for the first time in franchise history in Game 4 at home Tuesday night.
Without their top scorer, the suspended Nikita Kucherov, and injured defenseman Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay, which won a league-best 62 games in the regular season, could not find any momentum until late in the final period, and then Bobrovsky rose to the challenge. Ondrej Palat scored for the Lightning.
JETS 6, BLUES 3
Kyle Connor scored twice, and Patrik Laine had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won at St. Louis to climb back into its Western Conference first-round playoff series.
The Jets dropped the first two games by one goal but got back on track, with Kevin Hayes, Brandon Tanev and Dustin Byfuglien also scoring. Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves.
Game 4 of the best-ofseven series is Tuesday night at St. Louis.
ISLANDERS 4, PENGUINS 1
Jordan Eberle scored for the third consecutive game, and Robin Lehner stopped 25 shots as visiting New York stunned Pittsburgh to take a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.
Brock Nelson added his second goal of the playoffs, Leo Komarov scored the first postseason goal of his career and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders, who have pushed the star-laden Penguins to the brink of elimination.
Garrett Wilson scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal — a first-period deflection past Lehner that gave Pittsburgh just its second lead of the series.
Matt Murray finished with 32 saves for the Penguins, who need a victory in Game 4 on Tuesday night to avoid being swept for the first time since the 2013 Eastern Conference finals against Boston.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6 SHARKS 3
Mark Stone had three goals and two assists, and Vegas beat visiting San Jose to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Paul Stastny collected two goals and three assists as the Golden Knightrs captured another highscoring matchup with the Sharks.