Playoff Results - Tue, May 06, 2014

Boston @ Montreal 2-4 - Canadiens Lead Series 2-1

P.K. Subban, voted the NHL's best defenseman last season, is putting his stamp all over the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Subban produced his fifth multipoint game of the playoffs with a goal and an assist in the first period Tuesday, and the Canadiens held on for a 4-2 win against the Bruins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series. Subban, the 2013 Norris Trophy winner, leads NHL defensemen with 11 points in this year's playoffs. He extended his point streak to six games (3-8-11) with his third straight multipoint performance. Tomas Plekanec and Dale Weise also scored before Lars Eller hit the empty net with 2.8 seconds remaining, and Carey Price made 26 saves for Montreal. The Canadiens took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series that continues Thursday at Bell Centre (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Subban is the third Canadiens defensemen to have three straight multipoint games in the playoffs, joining Larry Robinson, who accomplished the feat in 1987 and in 1978, when he had a five-game multipoint streak, and J.C. Tremblay in 1971. Subban had one multipoint game in 26 postseason games prior to this year's playoffs. Elias said Subban is the first Canadiens defenseman to have a six-game playoff point streak since Robinson did in Montreal's second-round series against the Quebec Nordiques from April 21-May 2, 1985. Boston coach Claude Julien pulled goalie Tuukka Rask with more than two minutes remaining in the third period, and Andrej Meszaros scored with 2:16 to go to make it a one-goal game. Patrice Bergeron scored for a second straight game; his goal late in the second period got Boston within 3-1. Rask stopped 22 shots. The Bruins overcame two-goal deficits in each of the first two games but were unable to come back after trailing 3-0 on Tuesday. Montreal's special-teams advantage through the first two games in Boston was not a factor in Game 3, when one minor penalty was called against each team. The Canadiens, who scored on four of their first nine power-play opportunities in the series, got their chance with the extra man at 8:44 of the third period. But they were unable to take advantage after Carl Soderberg was called for interfering with Price, whose mask was knocked off by the Bruins forward. Ginette Reno drove the Bell Centre crowd into a frenzy when she performed a stirring a capella rendition of "O Canada." The Canadiens were 2-0 at Bell Centre in their first-round sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning, with Reno performing the Canada national anthem before each home game. The capacity crowd of 21,273 gasped with delight when Subban found Rene Bourque open at the Boston blue line a minute into the game with a stretch pass from behind the Montreal net. Bourque, who missed Montreal's practice Monday because of illness, failed to convert the opportunity. Plekanec gave Montreal a 1-0 lead with his third playoff goal at 10:57. Subban dropped the puck along the right boards to Thomas Vanek, who one-timed a slap pass to the left of the net. Plekanec had Rask at his mercy and lifted a shot into a gaping net. Subban, who scored two power-play goals in the Canadiens' 4-3 double-overtime win in Game 1, was assessed the only penalty called during the first two periods when he was called for roughing at 12:31 for his open-ice hit on Reilly Smith. The Canadiens sustained collateral damage on the hit when Subban collided with Vanek, who went to the dressing room and did not return until the beginning of the second period. Not only did Boston fall to 0-for-6 with the man advantage in the series when it failed to score on the power play, but Subban came out of the penalty box to take a breakaway pass from Eller. The Canadiens defenseman raced in alone on Rask and deked before firing a forehand into the open right side for his third goal in three games. The Bruins had a couple of scoring opportunities before the midway point of the second period. Iginla's shot from the right side rang off the left post, and Soderberg misfired from the edge of the crease moments later with Price down on the ice. Weise increased Montreal's lead to 3-0 with a breakaway goal at 13:52. Canadiens defenseman Mike Weaver blocked a shot, and Daniel Briere fed a long pass up the middle to Weise, who got behind Bruins defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Meszaros. Weise, who scored in overtime to give Montreal a 5-4 win in its opener against the Lightning, went in alone from the Boston blue line and fired a shot between Rask's pads for his second goal of the playoffs. Bergeron, who scored the tying goal Saturday in the Bruins' 5-3 come-from-behind win in Game 2, won a faceoff and set himself up to deflect Torey Krug's point shot past Price for his third goal of the playoffs at 17:48. Canadiens forward Brandon Prust was scratched, with Travis Moen in the lineup for the second time in three games. Defenseman Douglas Murray was paired with Weaver in place of Francis Bouillon in his Montreal playoff debut. Murray got a huge cheer in the first period when his check along the left boards dropped Bergeron to the ice at the Canadiens blue line. Julien used the same lineup as Game 2.

Chicago @ Minnesota 0-4 - Hawks Lead Series 2-1
Xcel Energy Center worked its magic again Tuesday night, giving the Minnesota Wild life in another Stanley Cup Playoff series. Erik Haula and Mikael Granlund scored goals early in the third period for the home team, playing before a franchise record crowd of 19, 416, to help fashion a 4-0 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 3 of this Western Conference Second Round matchup. Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov made 19 saves for the shutout. Zach Parise added a power-play goal with 2:35 remaining for Minnesota's first man-advantage goal in this series, and Granlund scored an empty-net goal with 77 seconds left to end Chicago's run of six straight playoff victories, dating back to the first round against the St. Louis Blues. Minnesota hosts Game 4 on Friday (9:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN, RDS) with hopes of evening this best-of-7 series at two victories apiece. The Wild erased a 2-0 series deficit against the favored Colorado Avalanche in the first round by winning the three games here before winning Game 7 at Pepsi Center. After being stifled for two periods Tuesday, Minnesota found the goal, and the lead, it was desperate to get. From there, things went according to plan for the Wild. Chicago lost the first road game of a Stanley Cup Playoffs series for the ninth straight time, dating back to the 2010 Western Conference Final against the San Jose Sharks. Chicago has gone on to win seven of those nine series. On the opening goal, Matt Moulson keyed a 3-on-2 rush across the blue line, getting the puck to Justin Fontaine inside the blue line. Fontaine then saucered a pass in the direction of Haula speeding down the left-hand side, but the puck bounced before reaching Haula, forcing him to bunt it home on the half-volley at 1:41. It was Fontaine's first point of the postseason. More importantly, it gave the Wild their first lead in the series and a much-needed boost of confidence. Not even three minutes later, Minnesota doubled its lead on a beautiful individual effort by Granlund, who cut into the slot past the checking efforts of both Chicago defensemen and ladled a backhander past the glove hand of Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford at 4:18. Minnesota's goals came on back-to-back shots against Crawford, who had allowed one goal in the previous five periods. Crawford stopped 14 of 17 shots Tuesday. Minnesota had managed three goals in the first two games and has struggled for offense, especially in the first half of games against the Blackhawks. Through three games of this series, Minnesota has yet to score in the first or second periods. Bryzgalov made his biggest series of saves in the second period, stopping a blast by Niklas Hjalmarsson from the point and then sealing the ice in his butterfly to keep it in front of him while various Blackhawks poked at the uncovered puck in a spirited goalmouth scrum. Minnesota wanted a fast start to build on the momentum built on home ice during the previous round, but it was not in the cards early. The Blackhawks were able to turn the neutral zone into a quagmire until the Wild's third-period outburst. The teams now have two days to digest what happened Tuesday, to realize this series is on the brink of becoming a best-of-3 if Minnesota can find another win at friendly Xcel Energy Center, a place at which the Wild have won four straight playoff games and five of six.

Parise: said of the fans, who roared at deafening levels every time Minnesota was able to establish a beachhead in the Chicago zone. "They just keep on outdoing themselves. They really pushed us on."

Granlund: "It's kind of like the same situation but we're playing against a different team. This is a new challenge. … Now it is a series again. That first goal was huge for us. It opened up the game a lot. We were playing against a really good team and the first goal is really big in these games."
Keith: "They got one early and they got the momentum and they just kept going from there. It just comes down to at the end of the day, we hung around a couple periods where we were kind of waiting to see what would happen. We didn't have that killer instinct that we're going to need."
Haula: "[I'm] just driving to the net. I knew [Fontaine] looked, so I just kept going. It was a great play. We knew it was going to be like that. They are a great team over there. We just had to stick with it for 60 minutes."
Crawford: "No one said it was going to be easy. They are a tough team. They play hard and they showed us they have some skill."
Bryzgalov: who recorded his fourth career playoff shutout but first since 2006. "Today was a tremendous team effort. We played nice hockey. We tried to avoid big mistakes, tried to not let them play where they play best."
Toews: "To us it doesn't matter. We knew we have to play better than we did [Tuesday]. We're still looking for that type of game we know how to play; we just haven't brought it yet. It has nothing to do with being the first game on the road. Obviously, we won two games on the road [in the first round], but I don't think we're happy with the way we played [Tuesday] either. I think tonight we realized we have to bring it on Friday."