Radulov lifts Canadiens past Rangers in overtime
MONTREAL — Alexander Radulov scored at 18:34 of overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday night in Game 2 of the first-round 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 playoffs since 2015.
Game 3 is Sunday night in New York.
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 playoff goal in Canadiens history, beating Jacques Lemaire’s goal in 1975 with 24 seconds remaining.
Jeff Petry and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, which wasted early leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York.
Montreal had a 45-30 shots advantage in regulation and a 58-38 overall edge.
While goals were scarce in New York’s 2-0 victory in Game 1, there were three in the first period alone Friday.
Only 4:05 in, Lundqvist broke his stick and was helpless as Petry set up in the right circle and scored to the stick side.
Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 remaining during a 4-on-4 situation and the St. Louis Blues beat the Wild to leave Minnesota with a 2-0 lead in the first-round series. Joel Edmundson had the first goal for the Blues after winning Game 1 in overtime, Jake Allen was as steady as ever in the net again with 23 saves and coach Mike Yeo devised another shrewd plan against his former team.