Playoff Results - Sun, May 04, 2014

Minnesota @ Chicago 1-4 - Chicago Lead Series 2-0

Blackhawks left wing Bryan Bickell is beginning to heat up at the most opportune time. Bickell extended his point streak to five games Sunday afternoon when he scored a goal and had two assists to lead the Blackhawks to a 4-1 victory against the Wild in Game 2 of their Western Conference Second Round series at United Center. The win gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series that now shifts to Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, for Game 3 on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; TSN, CNBC, RDS2). The Wild are 3-0 on home ice in the playoffs, outscoring the opposition 8-3. Bickell, who had nine goals and 17 points in 23 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring, has found his offensive groove once again alongside center Jonathan Toews and right wing Marian Hossa. The trio accounted for two goals, seven points and a plus-8 rating in Game 2. Brandon Saad scored two goals, including one into an empty net with 1:23 remaining in the third, and Toews scored his fourth of the playoffs. Hossa finished with three assists. Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford made 18 saves to extend his win streak to a career-best six straight. Wild goalie Ilya Bryzgalov made 18 stops and is now 1-4-1 in the 2014 playoffs. Crawford, who made 13 saves in the second period, ranks second with a 1.87 goals-against average and third with a .936 save percentage in eight playoff games. He is tops among all postseason goalies with 249 saves. Bickell's goal off a quick transition and off a rising wrist shot from the right circle at 17:15 of the third gave the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead. The 2004 second-round pick (No. 41) has four goals and seven points in the past five games, all Chicago victories. Not only did Toews' line produce offensively, but they again shut down Minnesota's top trio of Mikael Granlund centering Zach Parise and Jason Pominville. Minnesota overcame four one-goal deficits in Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche in their Western Conference First Round series before finally earning a 5-4 overtime win. Still, the Wild would for once like to play with a lead instead of battling from behind, and that's one area they'll look to correct on home ice. Saad scored his first goal of the postseason off a wrist shot from between the circles with 56 seconds left in the second period to give the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead. Bickell earned his second assist of the game when he sent a pass to Saad, who skated between the circles before firing a shot that deflected off Parise's stick and into the top left corner of the net. Saad's goal came two seconds after a hooking penalty to Wild forward Justin Fontaine had expired. It was his second career postseason goal. The Wild began mounting a third-period comeback similar to the one they staged in Game 1, when they scored two straight to pull even before dropping a 5-2 decision. The visitors made it 2-1 two minutes into the third when Cody McCormick took a pass from Clayton Stoner and quickly fired a shot past Crawford from the slot. It was McCormick's first point of the playoffs. Erik Haula made the play happen with great speed down the right wing before turning in the right circle and finding Stoner. Bryzgalov was called upon to make a few big saves to keep his team within striking distance with just more than eight minutes left in third. He stopped Patrick Kane off a 2-on-1 before denying Ben Smith on the rebound. The victory extended Chicago's playoff winning streak to six straight at United Center. The Blackhawks have won 16 of their past 18 playoff games on home ice dating back to 2013, and they are unbeaten in five home games in the 2014 playoffs. Toews extended his point streak to six games in the first when he gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 11:02. The play started when Bickell lined a perfect lead pass to Hossa from his own end to give his teammate a breakaway. Hossa had his attempt denied by the Bryzgalov's right skate, but the puck bounced into the air to Toews, who beat Wild forward Mikko Koivu at the Minnesota blue line and knocked it home at the right post. Toews has four goals and seven points during his streak. Minnesota's checking line of Haula centering Nino Niederreiter and Fontaine might have been the team's most effective unit, generating four shots while keeping Kane off the score sheet, snapping his four-game point streak.

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Joel Quenneville: (of Bickell)"His play all year long was ordinary until the end of the year when he was trending, looking like he was going to play in the playoffs. In the playoffs [last season], we gave him a lot more responsibility, and he just seemed to grab it. Now he's playing exactly the same way, and we're happy with the contribution we're getting from him, but I thought he and that line had a special game [Sunday]." (of Saad)"It was nice to see him score, but the way he was playing, we'll take it whether he has production or not. He really added a lot of elements to our team game with his speed, with that line being effective. It was a timely goal and nice to get the extra one in the end. He had the puck a lot, backed off the defense, but the finish was nice to see." Quenneville has also been pleased with the way Toews and his linemates have played defensively. "You're looking for matchups, but you're comfortable with them against anybody. You like top players against top players, especially when they're capable of generating and you're comfortable with them defensively. They give you that reassurance that you're comfortable with the matchup anywhere."

Toews: "We're still taking it one game at a time. I think you go into every game planning to win. Sometimes that goes your way, sometimes it doesn't. We're going to have a challenge, a real challenge playing on the road these next couple of games, so we'll focus on the next one. It's going to have to be the best game that we've had all series for sure."

Crawford: "Our defensemen, I think, have been most consistent throughout the playoffs. They were making plays. There were a couple of rebounds that I let loose, and they were able to clear them away."

Mike Yeo: (struggles of top unit) "The pressure is always there. There's more pressure when you're trailing. [The Blackhawks] get that first goal, and that's when the pressure starts to creep in." Yeo acknowledged, however, that his team has certainly had its opportunities. "We weren't that far off; again, I know we can play better. That game was hanging for us. It's a 1-0 game, and we got a couple empty nets, and we can't find a way to put it in. It's hard when you're chasing. We've been chasing for three games now."

Matt Moulson: "I think as a team we were sloppy at the start, not getting pucks in, and they get pucks in and get in on the forecheck and are pretty good. So that was the problem at the start of the game. We'll need to be better."

NY Rangers @ Pittsburgh 0-3 - Series Tied 1-1
It wasn't the ideal way to start the game for the Pittsburgh Penguins and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, but the end result was worth it. The Penguins killed off three power plays in the first seven minutes of the game, and Fleury stopped all 22 shots he faced to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-0 win against the New York Rangers in Game 2 of this Eastern Conference Second Round series. The shutout was Fleury's first of the playoffs and seventh in his postseason career, the most in team history. It also was his 50th playoff win. Fleury is one of 17 goalies in history to win 50 or more Stanley Cup Playoff games. Kris Letang had the winning goal and two assists, Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, and Jussi Jokinen scored for the Penguins, who tied the best-of-7 series 1-1. Game 3 will be Monday in New York (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS). Henrik Lundqvist stopped 32 shots for the Rangers. New York's sputtering power play went 0-for-4 for the second straight game. The Rangers also went the final 11:38 of the game without a shot on goal. It's the first time the Rangers have been shut out in the playoffs in exactly one year. They lost 1-0 in overtime to the Washington Capitals in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on May 4, 2013. The Rangers had three opportunities in first 7:04 of the game to take the lead but their power play instead extended its run of futility to 29 consecutive unsuccessful power plays, dating to Game 2 of their first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers. They had one shot on goal with Chris Kunitz in the penalty box 40 seconds in for goalie interference; one shot with Matt Niskanen off for roughing at 3:36; and no shots with Malkin off for boarding at 7:04. While the Penguins survived the early test from the Rangers, New York never fully recovered. Letang finally broke the ice with a goal at 10:26 of the second period. Malkin carried the puck into the Rangers end on the left side and sent a pass across to Letang. The Pittsburgh defenseman got into the right circle and tried to center a pass to Chris Kunitz down low, but the puck went off the stick of sliding Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi and past Lundqvist. The goal was Letang's 15th in the playoffs, tying him with Larry Murphy, a member of the Hockey Hall of fame, for the most postseason goals by a defenseman in team history. Fleury continued to shine while preserving the lead. He made 10 saves in the second; three of those came on the Rangers' lone power play of the period, including a point-blank stop on a chance in close off a faceoff by Brad Richards. Lundqvist was just as good at the other end, stopping Kunitz on a breakaway after he jumped out of the penalty box, then getting his right pad on a Sidney Crosby chance on the post after a long diagonal pass through the zone by Brian Gibbons. Jokinen's power-play goal with 3:30 remaining, off the rebound of a shot by James Neal, put the game away. The goal extended Jokinen's scoring streak to six games; he has three goals and three assists in that span. Malkin closed the game with an empty-net goal with 53.5 seconds remaining. Although the Penguins were happy with the win, they know there isn't a whole lot time to celebrate. Both teams flew back to New York on Sunday night to do what they could to rest up for Game 3 on Monday. It will be the Rangers' second set of back-to-back games of the postseason, after playing Games 6 and 7 of the first round on consecutive nights. It will be the sixth game in nine nights for the Rangers.
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Dan Bylsma: "You feel like you're behind the 8-ball when you have six minutes of killing in the first 12 minutes of the game. I thought our killers did a great job, answered the bell, did an extremely god job. They had [two] shots on three of those penalty kills. They did an outstanding job and we gained momentum from there."

Alain Vigneault: "Power play had some good looks. Could have given us some momentum but we didn't finish. Power play ultimately is my responsibility. I have to find the right trigger potions to make it work and I'll spend the night trying to figure it out. Vigneault wasn't accepting fatigue for the way his team played in Game 2. "Did my goaltender look tired? He was on top of his game. He wasn't tired. I don't think anybody else should be tired. He's played every minute of these playoffs, so if he's not tired no one else should be."
While the Penguins' penalty killing helped, Fleury also was impressive. "He played outstanding," Letang said. "I think he's been playing really good since the beginning of the playoffs. He kept us in the game, made some big saves at key moments. He was our best penalty killer out there."
Fleury: (didn't feel any extra pressure while Lundqvist was matching him save for save for most of the game). "I just tried to stop the next one. Just tried to keep us in the game. We were playing so well. It wasn't the busiest night but just tried to keep it there. Just enjoy [Sunday]. We got the win, get back at it [Monday] morning. [Monday] is another big game."
Lundqvist: "You just have to tell yourself it's good. There's no other way. It's been fun to be out there. Obviously it's a lot of hockey, but you just tell yourself it's a great opportunity to play the first home game in Round 2."