Playoff Results - Sun, May 11, 2014

Pittsburgh @ NY Rangers 1-3 - Series Tied 3-3
The New York Rangers have trailed 3-1 in a Stanley Cup Playoff series 16 times prior to this year's Eastern Conference Second Round. They have never come back to win the series. Maybe the 17th time will be the charm. Certainly given the way the Pens are playing it will be a certainty. The Rangers forced a Game 7 against the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-1 victory Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves and Martin St. Louis, Carl Hagelin and Derick Brassard provided the goals. After losing Games 2, 3 and 4 by a combined 9-2, the Rangers have kept their season going with back-to-back victories by outscoring the Penguins 8-2 in Games 5 and 6. Game 7 is Tuesday at Consol Energy Center (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS), where the Rangers have won two of three games in this series after winning one of two during the regular season. This is the sixth time in their past nine series the Rangers have gone to Game 7; they have won the past four. The Rangers had once before forced a Game 7 after falling behind 3-1 in a series. That was in 1939, when they lost to the Boston Bruins in triple overtime. They didn't look like a team that would have a chance at coming back in this series after Game 4, when they played their worst game of the postseason. They had 15 shots on goal and lost 4-2 in a listless effort at MSG. However, the Rangers have since been aggressive in setting the pace and playing with high energy. They set the tone early with two goals in Game 5, and did it again, only earlier, in Game 6. St. Louis, playing on Mother's Day four days after his 63-year-old mother, France, passed away because of a heart attack, gave New York a 1-0 lead 3:34 into the game. Center Derek Stepan's rebound attempt went off St. Louis' leg and past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. St. Louis kept the puck and said he was going to give it to his father, Normand. He flew his dad and sister, Isabelle, in from Montreal so they could attend Game 6. Hagelin made it 2-0 less than three minutes later when he beat Fleury (26 saves) with a high backhand from the left circle at 6:25. Penguins forward Brandon Sutter cut the deficit to 2-1 with 3:04 left in the first period, but Brassard scored his fourth goal of the playoffs, all against Pittsburgh, with 4:30 left in the second. The Penguins tried to rally back and came close, until Brassard scored. They turned the momentum in the game shortly after Fleury stoned Rangers forward Chris Kreider at 10:33 of the first period. Kreider was sent in by St. Louis for a mini-breakaway, but Fleury made a pad save on his backhanded shot. Pittsburgh outshot the Rangers 13-3 over the final 9:27 of the first period after getting outshot 11-2 in the first 10:33.

The Penguins sliced the deficit in half when Sutter's wrist shot from the right point hit Rangers defensemen John Moore and Kevin Klein before going into the net. Pittsburgh had a 16-5 edge in shot attempts to close the first period after Fleury's save on Kreider. The key is not to get down early. The team that has scored the first goal in the series is 6-0. What is perhaps more concerning, or at least alarming, for the Penguins is how the Rangers have bottled up and frustrated Sidney Crosby. The Penguins captain had one shot on goal and four attempts at the net in Game 6. He still has one goal this postseason. Crosby appeared to let some of his frustration out late in the second period, when he lifted his stick as it was caught between Rangers center Dominic Moore's legs. That started a scrum at the end of the period that led to a Rangers' power play to start the third. New York didn't convert on the power play and were 0-for-6 in the game after scoring twice on three chances in Game 5, an effort which snapped a 0-for-36 stretch. However, the Penguins again failed to hurt the Rangers' with their power play; they went 0-for-4 and are 1-for-19 in the series. The Rangers will have at least one more chance to do their job this season. They might be able to make some team history too.

Alain Vigneault: "We wanted to give ourselves a chance, and we did that. We have a Game 7."

Marc Staal: "We knew if we played our best game, if we play the way we normally play, we're going to have a chance to come back and win the series. We started that in Game 5, then in Game 6, and now we're in Game 7. I don't have the slightest idea what he's been feeling the last few days, but I can imagine that felt pretty good. We were obviously happy for him. It was a great night. The chances they did get I thought for the most part weren't Grade-A opportunities, especially their top guys. That was big. You start blanking their top guys, they get frustrated. When it's not going well for them that means we're doing our job."
St Louis: "Mother's Day, my dad's here, my sister's here, it's been a tough time for my whole family. To be able to get the lead in the first period, it was a good one."
Lundqvist: "We set the tone right away, and when Marty scores that goal, it was such a beautiful moment. It really got emotional to watch that, and see him and what's he's been through. I think the entire team was feeding on that moment, and the entire building."
Stepan said being on the ice for St. Louis' goal was "one of the cooler things I've been a part of in my professional career."
Matt Niskanen: "Once we got down we really saw how hard we can push. We were really trying to be aggressive. We were pressuring them all over the ice and we got zone time and some chances because of it, and a couple of power plays. We will try to do more of that [in Game 7]."
Craig Adams: "They outplayed us in the first 10 minutes and it cost us"

Penalties

1st Period
09:00 PIT	Jussi Jokinen  Roughing against  Chris Kreider
11:20 NYR	Chris Kreider  Roughing against  Jussi Jokinen
2nd Period
04:49 PIT	Beau Bennett  Too many men/ice - bench
05:55 NYR	Chris Kreider  Interference on goalkeeper against  Marc-Andre Fleury
08:42 PIT	Beau Bennett  Interference against  Martin St. Louis
13:05 NYR	Mats Zuccarello  Tripping against  Rob Scuderi
20:00 NYR	Brian Boyle  Cross checking against  Sidney Crosby
20:00 PIT	Sidney Crosby  Cross checking against  Marc Staal
20:00 PIT	Chris Kunitz  Roughing against  Dominic Moore
3rd Period
02:40 PIT	James Neal  Tripping against  Dominic Moore
03:37 NYR	Mats Zuccarello  Hooking against  Kris Letang
11:36 PIT	Beau Bennett  Hi-sticking against  Derick Brassard
19:50 PIT	James Neal  Misconduct (10 min) against  Henrik Lundqvist
20:00 PIT	Kris Letang  Roughing against  Kevin Klein
20:00 NYR	Kevin Klein  Slashing against  Kris Letang

Minnesota @ Chicago 1-2 - Hawks Lead Series 3-2
Edge-of-the-crease goals from Bryan Bickell and captain Jonathan Toews allowed the Chicago Blackhawks to hold serve Sunday night in a wild Western Conference Second Round series against the Minnesota Wild, claiming a 2-1 victory in Game 5 at United Center. Chicago did that to a T on each of its goals in Game 5. As a result, the home team has won each of the five games in this series, and Chicago improved to 6-0 at home this postseason. The Blackhawks lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 and can make their second straight trip to the Western Conference Final with a victory in Game 6 on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center (9 p.m. ET; CNBC, TSN, RDS). Minnesota faced a 3-2 series deficit in the first round against the Colorado Avalanche, but found a way to wiggle free, winning Game 6 at home before erasing four one-goal deficits in Game 7 en route to an overtime victory. Now, the Wild will have to follow that same path if they hope to upset the Blackhawks. Chicago scored the winning goal 4:33 into the third period with a working man's goal, the kind that defined its run to the title last spring and also the kind of goal conspicuously absent during Minnesota's dominance in the past two games. The play started with an aggressive forecheck by Toews, who put a big hit on Wild forward Mikael Granlund. Eventually, Hossa got the puck behind the goal line and caused some havoc before Patrick Sharp took a shot. Then Hossa took a shot. Then mayhem ensued with Toews emerging from it with the loose puck, slamming it home, barely beating the lunge from Minnesota goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov and a stick-save attempt by defenseman Nate Prosser. This game was the first time those three forwards had been together in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they presented a matchup headache for the Wild, who, as the visiting team, had to declare their skaters first after each stoppage. The goal by Toews provided Chicago's first lead in 149 minutes and 19 seconds in this series. Despite a few scares in the third period, the Blackhawks made it stand for the rest of the game behind the play of Crawford, who stopped 27 shots. Bryzgalov made 26 saves for the Wild. It also followed the blueprint the Blackhawks used to score the tying goal and allowed them to become the first team in this series to win after allowing the first goal. In fact, Chicago is the first team in the second round to claim victory after allowing the first goal. It had not happened in the first 19 games of this round. Basically, the Blackhawks realized pretty is not going to be in fashion against the blue-collar Wild. It was time to get down and dirty. On the play in question, Patrick Kane fired a shot at Bryzgalov, hoping traffic in front would screen the Minnesota goalie. Instead, Bickell was able to tip the puck down and past Bryzgalov. Bickell was right at the top of the crease when he made contact with the shot. That goal came with Jonas Brodin in the penalty box for hooking Peter Regin on a clear scoring chance. Regin was a surprise addition to the Chicago lineup, forced in after Brandon Bollig was suspended and Jeremy Morin was deemed ineffective. Erik Haula scored Minnesota's goal with a combination of jaw-dropping speed and admirable work ethic. He blew past Kane and defenseman Duncan Keith before snapping off a shot that was stopped by Crawford. Haula got his own rebound and shot again. This time Crawford saved with his extended leg pad, but the puck bounced up in the air and into the net before defenseman Brent Seabrook could bat it away with his stick at 16:33 of the first. The momentum, however, began to change in the second when Chicago again found its offensive stride in a dominant second period, which saw Minnesota allow a series-high 15 shots. In their 4-0 win in Game 3, the Wild allowed 19 shots for the game. Yet, it only produced the tying goal. Chicago had to dig even deeper, and get even dirtier, to get the win which would provide control of the series.

Corey Crawford: "We are not going to get good chances all game. We have to work hard, get to the net, get pucks and bodies to the net and get those dirty goals. I mean, we have speed and skill, but that is not going to get you chances all the time; you have to mix it up and go hard to the net."

Marian Hossa (of Game 6): "We definitely would like to finish it there. We know how hard it is to play in their building and we know we have to be better than we were in the last three games."
Mike Yeo: "It [stinks] to lose a game like this, and obviously when you lose, you're frustrated, you're mad. But I think there's been enough in this series where we should feel confident still. That said, we also recognize that we'd better be ready."
Toews: "That's the way we wanted to play and the way we have been looking to play the past few games. It was just an ugly goal. As a line, we were playing well and we were just trying to find a way to score and just got an ugly one on the side [of the net]. It felt good that we could hold on."
Joel Quenneville: "Especially against that team, it's tough to manufacture 5-on-5. The power-play goal, [it's] get one of those at the net, shot mentality, big presence, and we got a break. You're not going to score pretty goals. That's what ignited our second period. That's the recipe for success going forward. That's how you're going to score. The second period was our best of the series"
Zach Parise: "We started out the game like we wanted to, got the first goal and had a pretty good first period. But they've got good players. You have to expect them to muster some chances."