Playoff Results - Sun, May 25, 2014

Montreal @ NY Rangers 2-3 OT - Rangers Lead Series 3-1
New York Rangers right wing Martin St. Louis parked himself in the right circle, exactly where he parks himself before and after every practice to work on his shot. The area might as well be called his office. There he was Sunday night, in overtime of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final, waiting for the puck, a chance to be the hero with a shot that would shorten the distance between the Rangers and the Stanley Cup Final to one win. He got the puck and delivered, putting the Rangers closer to their first trip to the Cup Final in 20 years. St. Louis lifted New York to a 3-2 overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden with the winner 6:02 into the extra session on a shot from the right circle that snuggly fit below the crossbar and above goalie Dustin Tokarski's glove. The Rangers leads the best-of-7 series 3-1 heading into Game 5 on Tuesday at Bell Centre (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, RDS), where they are 2-0 in the series and have outscored Montreal 10-3. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves, including arguably his most important of the night on Montreal forward Alex Galchenyuk with 3:15 remaining in regulation. The puck hit Lundqvist in the right shoulder and clanged off the crossbar, falling in front of the goal line. The win was the 41st of Lundqvist's career in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tying him with Mike Richter for the most in franchise history. He did, just as the Rangers did enough on special teams despite giving Montreal eight power-play opportunities. Carl Hagelin scored a shorthanded goal off a breakaway in the first period. Derick Brassard scored on an even-strength breakaway in the second. P.K. Subban's power-play goal early in the third period tied the game at 2-2, Francis Bouillon scored for Montreal in his first game since May 3 and Tokarski made 26 saves. The Canadiens blamed their struggling power play for the loss Sunday. They were 1-for-8, including a failed opportunity early in overtime. They also gave up the shorthanded breakaway goal to Hagelin 7:18 into the first period. The Rangers credited their surging penalty kill for the win. They were guilty of six offensive-zone penalties, including a holding the stick infraction on Benoit Pouliot 30 seconds into overtime, but the Rangers allowed eight shots on goal while shorthanded. They blocked seven shots and had four shorthanded shots on goal. Subban's goal, which appeared to deflect in off of Brendan Gallagher, snapped New York's streak of 27 straight successful kills. There was no complaining about the calls either. There were three for high sticking, two for tripping and one each for interference, cross checking and holding the stick. Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said the penalty kill in overtime gave the Rangers momentum that led to St. Louis' winner. Montreal had multiple chances to clear the zone, but twice Rangers center Brad Richards kept the puck in at the left point. It eventually chipped to Hagelin, who said he saw St. Louis open in the right circle out of the corner of his eye, and he was surprised that nobody was near him. St. Louis had time to walk in on Tokarski to set up his shot. As he did, Staal said everyone on the Rangers bench stood up. St. Louis has scored twice in three games on Tokarski, but the rookie goalie has had his number on several other occasions, stopping point-blank shots from the right circle.

Alain Vigneault: "The goal [St. Louis] scored is exactly what you see him practice every time he's on the ice, like a hundred pucks. He's trying to put it right there. He made, obviously, a great shot on that goal. It was us. It was us. They were penalties. Can't do that."

Lundqvist said of Galchenyuk's shot: "Got a little lucky there. It hit my stick and then the crossbar. I wasn't sure if I got enough of the shot."
Brian Gionta: "This series isn't over. By no means are we counting ourselves out. It's a tough loss. It's a bitter loss. But at the end of the day we're still in this series."
Michel Therrien: "We had the opportunity on the power play and we didn't take advantage of it.Yes, we scored a goal. It was a timely goal. But we gave up one, and that was the [difference] in the game. Our power play has to be better."
Hagelin: "It's pretty good to be even on the PK on a night like this. Right when I got it, I just saw their 'D' in front of me and I saw him chilling there on the right side. He walked in and ripped it top cheese."
Staal: "We just kind of had a feeling that it was going to go in. The puck slides over to him and he's got all that time, so you're anticipating it. He makes no mistake, goes bar down. That's a beautiful shot."
St Louis: "I tried to trust what I saw. Obviously I've gone to that side quite a bit the last few games and he's made some good saves on me. Sometimes you just have to keep trusting what you see and I was fortunate to get it by him."
Tokarski: "But he beat me. It's not a great feeling right now, but we need to get it out of our system and get back to work [Monday]. We have to win a hockey game."