The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rangers, Blues capture series
Canadiens, Wild ousted by teams with worse records.
Mats Zuccarello scored twice in the second period as the host New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in Game 6 on Saturday night to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Derek Stepan scored into an empty net in the final minute and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 27 shots, helping New York get past the first round for the fifth time in six years. The Rangers won three straight after falling behind 2-1 in the series.
The Rangers, who finished fourth in the Metropolitan Division but made the playoffs as a wild card, next will face the winner of the Ottawa-Boston series, which the Senators lead 3-2.
Alexei Emelin scored for Montreal and Carey Price finished with 20 saves. The Canadiens, winners of the Atlantic Division after missing the playoffs last year, were bounced from the
postseason by the Rangers for the second time in four years. St. Louis 4, (at) Minnesota 3 (OT): Magnus Paajarvi scored 9:42 into overtime of Game 5, sending St. Louis into the second round against Nashville. Jake Allen made 34 saves for the Blues, who led 2-0 and 3-1 before the Wild rallied with goals from Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker in the last 10 minutes of regulation.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first goal of the series 7:16 into the game. Alexander Steen followed him 3:15 later for a 2-0 lead. Paul Stastny had a third-period goal in his first appearance of the playoffs.
Allen stopped 174 of the 182 shots he faced in the series against the Wild, who had a franchise-record 106point season, second in the Western Conference. The Blues had 99 points.
“They weren’t the better team,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said, “but they won four games.”
Paajarvi got his first career playoff goal after a giveaway from Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, who stopped 23 shots.
“I think we should be proud, but not satisfied,” Paajarvi said. “We’ve got to play a better game.” Bruins-Senators: The Senators go to Boston for Game 6 today with a second chance to wrap up the series after they lost Friday on home ice, 3-2 in double overtime. The Senators blew a 2-0 lead.
Rookie Sean Kuraly’s goal won it, his second of the game. The Bruins are trying to overcome a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in franchise history.
“We expected a hardfought, long, grinding, grueling series and that’s what we’ve got,” Ottawa defenseman Dion Phaneuf said.
“I don’t know how to explain it any better than they’re pushing, we’re pushing and it goes to double overtime and anything can happen. It’s disappointing, but we’ve got to move on the same way that we moved on from the other couple that we won in overtime,” in Games 2 and 3.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said center David Krejci, who left Game 5 with a lower-body injury after a knee-on-knee hit from Chris Wideman, is day to day.