Penguins win in OT, take 3-0 series lead over Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — 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 first-round playoff series.

Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh, and Marc-Andre 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.

CANADIENS 3, RANGERS 1

NEW YORK — Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist to lead Montreal over New York, giving the Canadiens a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.

Artturi Lehkonen and Shea Weber scored power-play goals for Montreal and Carey Price 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.

BLUES 3, WILD 1

ST. LOUIS — Jaden Schwartz scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Jake Allen made 40 saves to lead St. Louis over Minnesota for a 3-0 lead in the 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 Minnesota, which got 28 saves from Devan Dubnyk.

Schwartz had a power-play goal at 15:19 of the second period to put the Blues one win away 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.