Playoffs - Mon, 07 May - Results

Boston v Toronto 5-2 - Game 3 - Toronto Maple Leafs fans showed up for a party. Instead, they were treated to a blast from the past. Former Maple Leafs goaltender Tuukka Rask played superbly in a 45-save effort and future Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr put on a stick-handling clinic as the Boston Bruins defeated Toronto 5-2 at Air Canada Centre to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series. Game 4 is Wednesday in Toronto. David Krejci paced the Bruins with a goal and two assists while Nathan Horton, Daniel Paille, Rich Peverley and Adam McQuaid also scored. Phil Kessel, with his second goal in as many games, and defenseman Jake Gardiner scored for Toronto. While Jagr, 41, has clearly slowed down, and that was quite evident in Toronto's Game 2 victory Saturday in Boston, he is still a magician with the puck and able to control the pace of the game when he is allowed to roam freely in the offensive zone. Try as they might to get the puck back from him, the Maple Leafs were rarely successful. Skating alongside Peverley and Chris Kelly, Jagr had one assist in the game and was noticeable every shift. Jagr was acquired from the Dallas Stars at the NHL Trade Deadline and is the only player on either team who was alive when Toronto and Boston last hooked up in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 1974. In 18 shifts (14:53 ice time), he managed six shots on goal. For Toronto, it was the first time the Maple Leafs have hosted a playoff game since May 4, 2004. The energy in Air Canada Centre was electric and the Maple Leafs responded by pumping 47 shots at Rask, whom they drafted in the first round (No. 21) in 2005. Rask was traded to the Bruins on June 24, 2006 for the long-departed Andrew Raycroft. For the Maple Leafs, too many giveaways were the difference between winning and losing. In particular, an attempted pass by Kessel to defenseman Dion Phaneuf at the Maple Leafs' blue line while the team was on the power play allowed Paille to intercept the puck, skate in and make it 4-1 for Boston with a shorthanded goal. Although Kessel made up for his gaffe with a goal 47 seconds into the third period, the Maple Leafs were never really a serious threat to get back to even. It took nine years, but Maple Leafs die-hards finally got to see their beloved team in a playoff game at home. They will wait until Wednesday to see if the Maple Leafs can actually win a postseason game for them.
Washington v NY Rangers 3-4 - Game 3 - The New York Rangers rediscovered their offense Monday night and found their way back into the series. Desperately needing a victory in Game 3, the Rangers got goals from Brian Boyle, Derick Brassard, Arron Asham and Derek Stepan to beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3, at Madison Square Garden. Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves and the Rangers pulled to within 2-1 of the Capitals in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Game 4 is Wednesday at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN, RDS2). The Rangers scored one goal over 128 minutes in Games 1 and 2 at Verizon Center. Capitals goalie Braden Holtby entered the game with a shutout streak of 111:16 and New York's power play was 0-for-7 with 10 shots on goal. But the Rangers beat Holtby four times, including twice in the third period, and cashed in on one of their six power plays to win Game 3. Lundqvist made it possible with several point-blank saves to keep the Rangers in the game despite the fact that they were getting outplayed during long swaths of 5-on-5 time, especially over the final 11-plus minutes of the second period. The Rangers also had to kill off a late penalty on Brad Richards, who was called for slashing Alex Ovechkin at center ice with 1:54 to play. It turned into a 6-on-4 when Holtby left the net with roughly 90 seconds to play, but the Capitals never got a shot on goal as Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi closed off the lanes with blocked shots to preserve the potentially series-changing win with arguably their best penalty kill of the series. The Rangers scored all four of their goals by not being cute at all. They scored because they went to the net, something they talked about doing after getting shutout in Game 2 in large part because the Capitals kept them away from Holtby. Stepan scored the winning goal from the slot with 6:25 left by redirecting Rick Nash's pass from below the right circle. The play started at the far point, where McDonagh was able to keep the puck alive and in the zone. He fed it down to Mats Zuccarello, who found Nash on the other side. Stepan went to the slot and Nash found his stick to give the Rangers the go-ahead goal. Asham's goal, his first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, was also a result of a strong play at the left point by defenseman John Moore, who pinched to keep the puck in. Taylor Pyatt shoved it down the wall to Brassard, who from behind the goal line found Asham darting through the slot with a picture-perfect tape-to-tape pass. Asham didn't have to do much to get it past Holtby at the 2:53 mark of the third period. The Capitals tied the game less than five minutes after Asham scored because they used their defense to get a shot through. Matt Hendricks beat Boyle on a faceoff to the left of Lundqvist. Joel Ward quickly came into the circle and was able to slide the puck back to Jack Hillen, whose shot hit off Jay Beagle in front and dipped past Lundqvist at the 7:19 mark. Washington took a 1-0 lead on a deflection goal from Nicklas Backstrom early in the first period and tied the game at 2-2 late in the second when Mike Green blistered a wrist shot past Lundqvist from the left circle. However, the Capitals went 0-for-3 on the power play and got a taste of their own forecheck medicine in the third period, when the Rangers activated their 'D'. Boyle and Brassard were two of the Rangers most important contributors Monday. Not only did Boyle produce a goal 12:50 into the first period, the Rangers first goal since Carl Hagelin scored with 3:16 left in the first period of Game 1, he also dished out an assist, gave the Rangers more than three minutes on the power play (as opposed to the 15 seconds he played on the power play in Game 2) and won 14 of 21 faceoffs (67 percent). Brassard scored a power-play goal 1:23 into the second period and had the primary assists on the goals by Boyle and Asham. He also won five of nine faceoffs and was solid in the defensive zone.
Anaheim v Detroit 2-3 - Game 4 - It became a night of redemption for a couple of Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, and this Western Conference Quarterfinal Series is now even because of it. Damien Brunner scored 15:10 into overtime to give the Red Wings a 3-2 victory Monday night against the Anaheim Ducks. He atoned for a bad gaffe in Game 3, a turnover in his own zone that led a critical goal in Anaheim's 4-0 victory, by putting home the rebound of a Gustav Nyquist shot to tie the series at two games apiece. Game 5 is Wednesday back in Anaheim. The Red Wings had dominated possession in the third period and much of the extra session before rookie center Joakim Andersson led Nyquist a little too far with a pass that split the Anaheim defensemen. As Nyquist raced after the bouncing puck, Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller hesitated and then tried to poke it away at the last second. Hiller stopped Nyquist from putting the puck in the net, but defenseman Bryan Allen slid into the goalie, and Brunner was there to put in the rebound. Brunner, a 27-year-old from Switzerland in his first year in the NHL after the Red Wings signed him as a free agent in the summer, actually played the least of any of Detroit's 18 skaters at 11:16, and less than all of the Ducks save for one. Brunner wasn't the only Red Wings player with minimal Stanley Cup Playoffs experience who made amends on this night. Detroit's Brendan Smith had a mix-up with defense partner Kyle Quincey in the first period and that led to the opening goal of the game by Anaheim's Matt Beleskey. Smith got that one back at 1:18 of the third period. He scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal to even the score at 1-1. His shot from the top of the offensive zone hit multiple players en route to the net, the last being Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who was trying to keep Andersson away from his goaltender. David Steckel reclaimed the lead for Anaheim at 10:40 of the third. After a Kyle Palmieri shot, Detroit defenseman Brian Lashoff fell into goaltender Jimmy Howard, and Steckel had plenty of net to work with on the rebound. Beleskey's goal was the second of the series. The Ducks have also received two goals from Nick Bonino and one each from Steckel, Emerson Etem and Kyle Palmieri, that's seven of the team's 13 in this postseason from "depth" forwards. Steckel's goal came after the fourth line had been broken up and put back together again. Boudreau was constantly shuffling his forward lines from near the end of the second period on as Detroit claimed more and more of the possession as the game wore on. Pavel Datsyuk scored his first goal of the series at 13:27 of the third to tie the game again. Datsyuk carried the puck into the offensive zone on the left wing and snapped a shot under the crossbar. Before that goal, the Red Wings had only one point at even strength (and three total) from Datsyuk and captain Henrik Zetterberg. It was the second time in the contest the Red Wings erased a lead and set up Brunner to be the hero in overtime, just like his linemate Nyquist was in Game 2. Hiller only needed to make 23 saves for a shutout in Game 3, but he had more work in Game 4 and ended up with twice as many. The Swiss netminder made 27 saves in first 40 minutes alone, though there still weren't a lot of top-level chances for him to thwart. The Wings had more sustained pressure in the third and overtime, and they made it count with the three goals. Anaheim took a 2-1 lead in this series based largely on special-teams play. The Ducks scored twice on the power play in a 3-1 victory in Game 1, and had two extra-man markers and a shorthanded tally in a 4-0 triumph in Game 3. Detroit had the better of the special teams in a 5-4 overtime win in Game 2, scoring its final three goals with the man advantage. While the first three games of the series looked more like regular-season contests because of all the power plays on both sides, Game 4 was an even-strength affair. There were only four penalties assessed in this contest, and neither team was able to capitalize.
St Louis v Los Angeles 3-4 - Game 4 - The stars finally came out to play for the Los Angeles Kings, bright enough to shine that Stanley Cup champion mettle. Justin Williams and Anze Kopitar scored 76 seconds apart in the third period to give the Kings a 4-3 win Monday night in Game 4 of this Western Conference Quarterfinal series. L.A. has evened the series at 2-2 going into Game 5 on Wednesday in St. Louis, and it might as well pack along that defending champion mojo in its duffel bag. The Kings erased a 2-0 deficit in the first period and trailed 3-2 in the third. It was the first time they were down by two goals in a Stanley Cup Playoff game and won since April 18, 2001, against the Detroit Red Wings. The difference this time around was evident in a calm Kings locker room. The teams matched the goal total from the previous three games in a drastic personality change. Kopitar, David Backes, Jeff Carter and Dustin Penner finally found the scoresheet in the postseason. Kopitar snapped a career-high 19-game goal-scoring drought with a tap-in to reward great work in the corner by Dustin Brown at 7:14. Williams tipped Mike Richards' shot from the left side that went in on the far side past Brian Elliott at 8:30. The confetti fell from the rafters for the first time since the team raised the Cup last June. The top line of Williams, Kopitar and Brown, plus Carter, combined for 15 of L.A.'s 29 shots. St. Louis didn't take advantage of plenty on the night. T.J. Oshie, who had no goals in 16 previous postseason games, scored twice to give St. Louis a 3-2 lead going into the third period. He pounced on a rebound from the right side at 5:46 of the second after Vladimir Sobotka took the shot on a rush. Elliott backstopped St. Louis superbly in a second period that was played mostly in the Blues' end. He made a right-to-left leg stop on Kopitar and another when Richards partially fanned, but still put it on net. Then the third period arrived and St. Louis seemed helpless. L.A. forged a 2-2 tie going into the first intermission on two good-looking odd-man rushes. Penner tapped in Jarret Stoll's pass to finish a 3-on-1 to tie it 2-2 at 14:30. Jordan Leopold got caught pinching and Stoll easily chipped it past him with only Kevin Shattenkirk back to defend. Carter, the NHL's fourth-leading scorer, finally appeared in the series when he completed a 2-on-1 during 4-on-4 play with Richards, who delivered a soft saucer pass over Oshie that Carter grabbed and backhanded at 9:43. Given the nature of the series, the Blues' 2-0 edge in the first five minutes, the first two-goal lead of the series, felt like 5-0. Backes ripped the puck into an open net 72 seconds in after Jay Bouwmeester's shot went wide left and bounced out the other side to fool Jonathan Quick. Oshie scored 3:20 later. He tipped Shattenkirk's point shot to end the Blues' 0-for-12 power play skid. The Kings didn't face many deficits in their Cup run, but they are a tight enough team to withstand such adversity. The last won a playoff game when trailing after two periods on April 22, 2012 against the Vancouver Canucks. St. Louis inserted Vladimir Tarasenko for the first time in the postseason. He played 5:51 minutes on the fourth line and didn't record a shot. Los Angeles again went with seven defensemen.