Playoff Results - Thu, Apr 17, 2014

Philadelphia @ NY Rangers 1-4 - If New York Rangers forward Brad Richards had it his way, the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs would not have happened. If he has more games like the one he had Thursday to start the 2014 playoffs, no one will be talking about last year. Richards scored the game-winning goal and assisted on two others, all in the third period, when the Rangers defeated the Cryers 4-1 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Madison Square Garden. It came after he spent the final two games of the playoffs last year as a healthy scratch. Derek Stepan, Mats Zuccarello and Carl Hagelin each had a goal for the Rangers, who took the lead in the best-of-7 series with Game 2 on Sunday (noon ET; NBC, TSN, RDS). The Rangers scored two power-play goals in a 47-second span of the third period to break a 1-1 tie. It was the Flyers' ninth straight loss at Madison Square Garden, dating to Feb. 20, 2011. Andrew MacDonald scored and Ray Emery made 32 saves for Philadelphia, which was outshot 13-1 in the third, 36-15 in the game. The game turned at 7:35 of the third period when Flyers rookie forward Jason Akeson, in his first Stanley Cup Playoff game, was assessed a double minor for high sticking Carl Hagelin. The Cryers fans whined about the call, but it was a perfect call. Richards was in the right place to score off Martin St. Louis' rebound at 8:22, then moments later made a beautiful fake shot/pass from above the right circle to Stepan alone off the post on the left side of the Philadelphia zone, and Stepan slammed it in at 9:09. Hagelin closed the scoring when he knocked in the rebound of a Richards shot at 15:52. Though Richards didn't want to talk about any redemption he might have felt, his teammates were happy he was back to resembling the player who won the Conn Smythe Trophy with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. As much as Richards provided on the ice, his 94 games of playoff experience are just as important. After the Rangers took the lead, their defense shut down any Flyers comeback, as did three Philadelphia penalties. One of the penalties was taken by Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux. The third-leading scorer in the NHL in the regular season was held without a shot for the fifth time this season, but it was the second time he went without a shot or a point. The Flyers' top line of Giroux, Scott Hartnell and Jakub Voracek combined for two shots, both by Hartnell. Some of that was a product of strong play by New York forwards Brian Boyle, Dominic Moore and Derek Dorsett. The Rangers dominated in puck possession and offensive chances through two periods, but Emery, in his first playoff start since April 24, 2011, as a member of the Anaheim Ducks, kept Philadelphia in it. Emery played because Steve Mason is sidelined by an upper-body injury he sustained Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Mason is questionable to play in Game 2; he arrived prior to puck drop Thursday but was not available to play. Rookie Calvin Heeter was the backup. The Flyers had one shot in the first 7:28 but made it count when MacDonald scored. Hartnell knocked down McDonagh behind the New York net and got the loose puck in the right corner. Hartnell sent a pass to MacDonald at the left point, and his shot hit off the stick of St. Louis and fluttered high past Lundqvist. It was MacDonald's first playoff goal. The Rangers tied the game at 10:53 on Zuccarello's goal. Benoit Pouliot won a puck battle with Braydon Coburn in front of the Philadelphia net and backhanded to a trailing Zuccarello. His shot hit off teammate Derick Brassard and Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who were battling in front of the goal. The puck dropped in the crease and Zuccarello poked it in. The Flyers felt they had a chance to win the game until the Akeson penalty.
Chicago @ St Louis 3-4 3OT - Ken Hitchcock thought his Blues finally moved past the lingering debris from their late-season slump in the third period Thursday night and started playing the brand of hockey that allowed them to rack up 111 points through 76 games in the regular season. Little did Hitchcock know that it would take the Blues another 40-plus minutes to get a win. Alexander Steen scored 26 seconds into triple overtime at Scottrade Center to give the Blues a 4-3 victory against the Blackhawks and a 1-0 lead in their Western Conference First Round series. It was the longest playoff overtime game in Blues history and the first to extend into triple overtime. The Blues lost their final six games of the regular season to fall out of first place in the Central Division and into this first-round matchup with the Blackhawks, but they have a chance to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series by winning in Game 2 on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, RDS).
"We needed it for confidence," said Blues goalie Ryan Miller, who made 39 saves, including 35 in a row after the first period. "I think we needed it to show that stretch we had to finish the season is behind us. The guys needed this, but we have to understand they're a very talented team. It took us a hard-fought game to squeeze out a victory. They've got a ton of talent and they've got the experience of winning."
Blues forward Steve Ott, who was moved onto the top line with Steen and center David Backes for Game 1, helped set up the game-winning goal. Ott got the puck from Backes, who won it behind the net with a strong forecheck, and left a drop pass in the slot for Steen. The Swedish forward cut through the right circle and from a few feet out beat Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford over his blocker.

"Steener is not going to miss it from the ladies' tee there," said Hitchcock, the Blues' coach. "He's not going to miss that."
Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said the Blackhawks made some technical mistakes that led to the goal. He wouldn't go into detail, but defenseman Johnny Oduya didn't go after the puck with Backes behind the net, defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson was caught on the wrong post when Ott got the puck and Steen was open because forward Brandon Saad didn't follow him as he cut through the circle and toward the slot.
"It stings right now, obviously," said Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, who scored on a breakaway late in the first period to give Chicago a 3-2 lead. "I think the big thing for us is we've gotta realize that it's only one game and we obviously have a quick turnaround playing an afternoon game coming up, but that's the best part about it. We'll get back at it, try to figure out what we can do better, and hopefully come back in Game 2."
The game extended into overtime because Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz scored his first career goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 1:45 left in regulation to tie the score at 3-3. Schwartz first forced a turnover in the corner with a hard pinch down the left-wing wall. He immediately cut to the net, where center Derek Roy found him for a quick shot through Crawford's legs. Crawford stopped the Blues' first 13 shots in the third period before Schwartz beat him. The Blackhawks had held the 3-2 lead since 18:24 of the first period, when Kane beat Miller on his breakaway.
"We never stopped working. We never stopped believing," Schwartz said. "We kept rolling the lines. We had chances. There was never a doubt. It was a big goal. To stand here and say I knew I was going to score, I'd be lying, but I wanted to do everything I could and it was definitely nice."
Kane thought the Blackhawks were at times guilty of playing to protect a lead in the third period instead of trying to build on it. They went 0-for-2 on the power play in the first 10 minutes of the period.
"They're pressing, they're pinching, they're aggressive," Quenneville said. "They're gambling and they had some opportunities. We almost got through it."
Chicago outshot the Blues 14-10 in the first overtime, but Miller got some help from center Maxim Lapierre to keep the game going. Lapierre was shoved by Saad and wound up deep in the crease and behind Miller, but also in perfect position to stop Chicago forward Kris Versteeg's shot with 1:51 remaining.
"Lappy bailed me out," Miller said. "I got caught following [Jonathan] Toews on the play, that's how these games go. You get lucky in a few situations and you've got to battle through the rest and it's nice to come out of this with a win."

Crawford made back-to-back saves on St. Louis forward Chris Porter with just over seven minutes left in the first overtime. The Blues later killed off a Blackhawks' power play after center Vladimir Sobotka was called for a delay of game penalty after shooting the puck over the glass. Chicago got another power play in the second overtime after Blues forward Ryan Reaves was called for delay of game seconds after he crunched Toews into the boards with a hard hit. Toews was slow to get up and was bloody, but he was back on the ice during the power play. However, St. Louis killed off that one as well. Miller later came up big by stopping Chicago forward Patrick Sharp on a breakaway with 2:40 left in the second OT.
"He's quick with that little chip glove, so I just tried to stay close to him and he didn't get it up," Miller said. "Fortunately for me."
Prior to Schwartz's goal, all the scoring took place in the first period. Kane, Oduya and defenseman Brent Seabrook scored for Chicago; forwards Adam Cracknell and Vladimir Tarasenko provided St. Louis' early offense. Cracknell gave the Blues a 1-0 lead 4:40 into the game, but Oduya and Seabrook scored back-to-back goals 3:25 apart to give Chicago a 2-1 lead with 5:21 left in the period. The Blues used some exceptional puck movement to tie the game 73 seconds after Seabrook scored. Tarasenko got his first career playoff goal with a shot from the left circle, but the other four Blues on the ice touched the puck before he scored. The Blackhawks regained the lead when Kane scored on a blue-line-in breakaway 2:32 later, but the Blues eventually found their game, which had been M.I.A. for nearly two weeks, and played on until they rediscovered what winning feels like.
"Win, lose or draw, what happened in the third period is we finally saw our team," Hitchcock said. "We saw our continuity come back. Regardless what happened, to be able to see our team look like that in the third period was a good sign for us."
Minnesota @ Colorado 4-5 OT - Paul Stastny scored at 7:27 of overtime Thursday at Pepsi Center to give the Avalanche a 5-4 come-from-behind win against the Wild in Game 1 of their Western Conference First Round series. The Avalanche sent the game to overtime when Stastny scored with 13.4 seconds to play in regulation during a 6-on-5 skating situation. Stastny beat Wild goalie Ilya Bryzgalov from the base of the right circle off a rebound of defenseman Erik Johnson’s shot from the left circle. "EJ shoots it from one side to the right of Bryzgalov, and [Bryzgalov] poked it out to me, and I tried to get a quick release," Stastny said of the tying goal, which came on his first shot of the game.
The winning goal came from near the same spot but at the other end of the rink. Tyson Barrie passed to Nathan MacKinnon, who drew a Wild defenseman to him before dishing the puck to Stastny for his third assist.
"That overtime one, all five guys end up touching it. Barrie tracks a couple of guys and once he gives it to MacKinnon, I saw their defense diving in at him," Stastny said. "I was trying to yell at him because I knew I was open. When you get the puck, you want a quick release because you know the goalie's not going to be ready. It was fortunate to squeeze in."
Nine of the past 10 playoff games between the Avalanche and Wild have been decided by one goal. Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be played Saturday (9:30 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN, NBCSN, FS-N, ALT) at Pepsi Center.
"Once again, it shows character in this dressing room," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "Once again, there's no quitting in here. We all wanted this so bad and we worked so hard to get home-ice advantage and we weren't going to let this one slide. Paulie was able to put two in, that was huge. He played well and he's got high expectations for himself. He puts a lot of pressure on himself and certainly he wants to be that guy and certainly tonight he was. He's been one of our best players all season.”
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov for the extra attacker with 3:01 remaining in regulation, but had actually considered the move earlier.
“We almost did it at four minutes," Roy said. "It went through our minds. At one point they had their third pairing on the ice, and it was, ‘Should we take a shot at it?’ But I thought it was really pushing it, but at the same time you have to go with your gut feeling. This is what the playoffs are, sometimes you have to see things, and I thought that’s what we did as a team.”
Johnson kept the Avalanche within striking distance with 1:32 left in the third period when he chased down a puck heading for the empty net. Minnesota forward Erik Haula had backhanded the puck from the Wild zone, but Johnson managed to knock it away inches from the goal line, also dislodging the net on the play.
"Originally, I didn't think it was going to go in," Johnson said. "I didn't think it had enough speed. When it landed it picked up speed. I kind of slowed down a little bit and I just got there at the end before it went over the goal line. I inadvertently knocked the net off, which actually helped. I would have gotten out of the way, but the net came off. I think any time you come back like that in a playoff game, luck's on your side a little bit. I thought we played a good game towards the end. We'll take it, but we realize we have a lot more to give and they outplayed us. What a comeback. That's the kind of stuff you dream about when you're a kid, winning playoff games like that. You have to give credit to the Wild; they outplayed us tonight."
Stastny praised Johnson for setting up his heroics.“It's three inches from losing the game. If that doesn't happen, that hustle out of EJ, we're not here in this moment,"
Wild coach Mike Yeo said he was a little puzzled that Johnson wasn't penalized for knocking the net off because Mikko Koivu was whistled for delay of game early in the second period for dislodging the Avalanche net. Colorado didn't score on the ensuing power play.
"We got called for a penalty earlier in the game on something that was sort of similar. I didn't get an explanation (for Johnson's play)."
The Wild outshot the Avalanche 12-6 in the second period, when they scored three times to build a 4-2 lead.
"It's really disappointing," said Wild left wing Zach Parise, who had two assists. "We're in the driver's seat. We're in a really good position going into the third and really throughout the third we were in a good position. We made some mistakes, and it was in our net and that's the game. Our mistakes unfortunately cost us and got them back into the game."
Yeo called the outcome "clearly a disappointment" and said his team didn't play with enough aggression after the Avalanche pulled with 4-3 on a Jamie McGinn goal at 7:13 of the third period. "We're all disappointed. Normally, we're a team that plays with a little more confidence in those situations. Not that we weren't confident, but we weren't aggressive enough. I know we can be a lot better."
Wild defenseman Ryan Suter broke a 1-1 tie at 11:05 of the second period on a power-play goal when he moved in from the blue line and put a screen shot past Varlamov, who made 29 saves. Minnesota was 1-for-2 with the man advantage. The Avalanche responded to make it 2-2 when O'Reilly scored during a 4-on-4 situation, one of the few times Colorado was able to use its speed. Barrie brought the puck up from his end and passed to MacKinnon above the left circle. MacKinnon slipped the puck to O'Reilly, who hammered the puck by Bryzgalov with a shot from above the left hash marks. Minnesota countered with goals from Haula and Brodziak that came 2:04 apart. Haula took a pass from Jonas Brodin and cut inside Colorado's Brad Malone on the left side. He moved to the front of the net and slid the puck between Varlamov's pads at 16:08. Brodziak scored from the slot with 1:48 left in the second after taking a pass from Matt Cooke along the end boards after Nino Niederreiter beat Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda to the puck. Hejda checked Niederreiter as Johnson followed the play. But Cooke gained possession and passed to a wide-open Brodziak, who fired a shot by Varlamov's right shoulder. The Avalanche struck first on a goal by Landeskog at 13:14 of the opening period, but the Wild tied it 1-1 at 15:20 when rookie Charlie Coyle swept the puck by Varlamov from the bottom of the right circle. Bryzgalov made 26 saves. Colorado was 0-for-4 on the power play. Minnesota killed off all 11 Colorado power plays in five regular-season games between the teams, four of which the Avalanche won.

Los Angeles @ San Jose 3-6 - This Western Conference First Round series was expected to be a toss-up before it began, but the Sharks made Game 1 decidedly not in the opening 40 minutes. The Sharks opened this series with five consecutive goals in a dominant display and beat the Kings 6-3 in on Thursday night at SAP Center.
"The third period was not good, but we could not have played a better first two periods," Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic said.
Six players scored goals for the Sharks, including someone from each of the four forward lines. The Sharks carried the play in the first two periods as the Kings struggled with turnovers and missed passes in the neutral zone. San Jose looked faster and turned transition opportunities into goals. The Kings are known for limiting their opponents' scoring chances, but the Sharks laid siege to goaltender Jonathan Quick, who was removed after allowing five goals in two periods.
"I think the intensity of both teams is going to make holes here and there. That's what we wanted to do," Sharks forward James Sheppard said. "It wasn't completely wide open, but it was hard and fast-paced. We were lucky enough to be a lot faster in some situations. We were happy with the start we had."
After being thoroughly dominated in the first two periods, the Kings rallied with three goals in the third and will try carry that play into Game 2 in this building Sunday night (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS, FS-W, CSN-CA).
"I think we weren't ready to start," Kings captain Dustin Brown said. "Sloppy play. Turnovers. Bad changes. Odd-man rushes. We probably gave up more odd-man rushes in the first period than we have in the past I don't know. When you give a team like that opportunities on the odd-man they're going to make you pay, and that's what they did. It was more of the same in the second."
Joe Thornton put the Sharks in front 3:06 into the opening period. Brent Burns chased down the puck in the left corner to negate an icing call, and eventually turned and skated it behind the net. Burns one-handed a pass with Kings defenseman Robyn Regehr marking him to the slot, and Thornton deflected Joe Pavelski's low backhanded attempt near the edge of the crease past Quick. San Jose struck twice in the final minute before the first intermission. Both goals came on transition plays and on fortunate bounces. Sheppard muffed a one-timer from Tommy Wingels on a 3-on-2 break, but the puck trickled right to rookie Tomas Hertl near the left post for a tap-in at 19:08. Hertl, scoring his first playoff goal in his first NHL playoff game, has continued a unique pattern. He scored his fist NHL goal in his first NHL game (back in October) and then netted a hat trick in his third outing. He could probably have achieved a whole lot more this season had he not required knee surgery following a bad hit from Dustin Brown of the Kings that was career threatening.
The Sharks caught the Kings off guard again when Sheppard intercepted the puck at the San Jose blue line and ignited a 2-on-1 the other way. Matthew Nieto whiffed on a one-timer from Patrick Marleau, but he regrouped and slid a pass back to Marleau for a goal with 3.2 seconds left in the period and a 3-0 lead at the break.
"First period, [we were] chasing the puck," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "You're not going to beat a team like that chasing the puck around the ice."
Raffi Torres, who missed the last 17 games of the regular season with an injury, made it 4-0 at 12:57 of the second period. Vlasic retrieved the puck from the San Jose end of the ice while both teams changed players, but the Kings were slow to pressure him as he skated into the Los Angeles zone. Vlasic's shot rang off the post behind Quick, and Torres was able to corral the loose puck in the high slot and snap one past the goaltender. Like Torres, Hertl also missed a huge chunk of the season with an injury. The Sharks rookie was injured on a hit by Brown in December.

"It's great," Vlasic said. "You need that to go far. To win the Cup, you need depth and we showed that tonight."
Vlasic made it 5-0 on the power play with 3:31 remaining in the period. San Jose's Jason Demers thwarted a potential shorthanded breakaway by Mike Richards at one end; on the return rush, Hertl set up a trailing Vlasic on a 4-on-3 at the other end for a shot through Quick's legs. Rookie Martin Jones replaced Quick to start the third period, and the Kings spent much of the period peppering Sharks goalie Antti Niemi. A pair of young defensemen put shots through screens early in the third period. Jake Muzzin's shot from the left side beat Niemi at 2:01 after a drop pass from Anze Kopitar. Slava Voynov cut the lead to 5-2 at 6:55 when he knocked down a clearing attempt by Niemi and shrugged off a check from Sheppard before snapping in a shot from the right circle. Jeff Carter's shot from the left wing went off Trevor Lewis and past Niemi with 6:01 remaining the third, and this blowout was suddenly a two-goal game at 5-3, but Burns hit the empty net from near his own blue line with 54.7 seconds to seal the victory.
"I don't know that there's going to be any more 5-0 games and if there is, we're going to have to have a little more composure than we did in the third period," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "But I have a sneaky suspicion we don't have to worry about it too much. If we do, then great, we'll deal with it when it comes."