Playoff Results - Tue, May 13, 2014

NY Rangers @ Pittsburgh 2-1 - Pens Threw Series Away 3-4

When the New York Rangers trudged off the ice at Madison Square Garden after losing Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series to the Pittsburgh Penguins, they were a group that looked out of gas and ready to start their offseason. Three games later the rejuvenated Rangers are heading to the Eastern Conference Final. Brad Richards scored the winning goal in the second period, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 35 saves and the Rangers beat the Penguins 2-1 in Game 7 on Tuesday at Consol Energy Center. Brian Boyle had a first-period goal for the Rangers, who advanced to the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three years. They'll face the Boston Bruins or Montreal Canadiens, who play their Game 7 on Wednesday, with a chance to go to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1994. That the Rangers still are playing is something few who watched Game 4 thought would be possible. What they made happen was team history; the Rangers won a best-of-7 series for the first time after trailing 3-1. The only time in 16 previous tries that New York forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-1 was the 1939 semifinals against the Boston Bruins. It also was the second Game 7 road win in Rangers history. The first came exactly one year ago, when they beat the Washington Capitals 5-0 in the first round of the 2013 playoffs. They were able to do that in part because of Lundqvist, who was at his best in the third period when the Penguins made their final push. They put 13 shots on net but Lundqvist was up to the challenge. His biggest saves came with 5:16 left when he stopped James Neal's shot from the slot, and after a Kris Letang shot was blocked in front, Lundqvist got his right pad on a Paul Martin backhand from the slot. The win was Lundqvist's League-record fifth straight Game 7 victory. In six career Game 7 starts, he is 5-1 with a 1.00 goals-against average and .961 save percentage. Richards also has proven himself to a Game 7 standout. He's now 7-0 in Game 7s, with two goals and three assists in those games. The game was tied midway through the second period when Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen was called for tripping at 6:45. Midway through the power play the Penguins got a shorthanded chance but Brian Gibbons' shot attempt missed the net and Jussi Jokinen overskated the puck. Rangers forward Chris Kreider turned the play other way, with the puck eventually getting to McDonagh at the right point in the Penguins' end. He sent a pass across the zone to Derek Stepan, who tried to send it through the slot to Martin St. Louis. The puck hit a stick and went below the goal line, but St. Louis flicked it back into the slot to Richards, who buried it at 7:56 for his fourth of the postseason. The Penguins had tied the game at 4:15 of the second on Jokinen's seventh goal, but for the third straight game the Penguins were held to one goal. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, who led the NHL in scoring in the regular season, finished the series with one goal and two assists; he had no points in the final three games. Crosby finished the postseason with one goal in 13 playoff games. Boyle deflated the sellout crowd and put the Rangers ahead 5:25 into the game when he finished a nice passing play by the Rangers' fourth line by flicking a feed from Dominic Moore between the pads of Marc-Andre Fleury. Now they can sit back and wait for the Bruins or Canadiens and continue a run that looked impossible a few days ago.

Ryan McDonagh: "I think the biggest thing was we weren't even giving ourselves a chance after we lost three in a row. We weren't battling, we weren't competing on pucks, we weren't using our skating ability and our speed. That's what's been successful for us during the year. We wanted to prove it to ourselves individually that each one of us could play better, and prove it as a group to the rest of the world and to ourselves as a group that we can play good hockey here and make something special happen."

Alain Vigneault: "When they took their game to another level in the third period, our goaltender took his game to another level. He was able to stop a barrage of opportunities. He was the difference in [Game 7]."

Dan Bylsma: "We had enough to go up 3-1 in the series. We were not able to get enough in [Games] 5 and 6 and [in Game 7] in terms of goals."

Sidney Crosby: "Obviously I would have looked to score more and contribute more. Wasn't a lack of effort or competing or anything like that. I love to tear it up every series but that's not always the case. ... It's tough losing as it is. When you're not able to contribute that makes it tougher."

Penalties

1st Period
16:37 NYR	Chris Kreider  Holding against  Sidney Crosby
17:27 PIT	James Neal  Holding against  Marc Staal
2nd Period
06:45 PIT	Matt Niskanen  Tripping against  Derick Brassard
3rd Period
14:43 PIT	Evgeni Malkin  Slashing against  Ryan McDonagh
14:43 NYR	Ryan McDonagh  Roughing against  Evgeni Malkin

Chicago @ Minnesota 2-1 OT - Hawks Won Series 4-2

The Blackhawks finally found a way to defeat the Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Their reward: A second straight trip to the Western Conference Final. Patrick Kane scored 9:44 into overtime after a funny deflection off the glass behind the Minnesota net, giving the Blackhawks a 2-1 victory in Game 6 of this Western Conference Second Round series on Tuesday night. Chicago won the series 4-2 and has won 14 straight games when a series was tied 2-2 since the 2009 playoffs. Chicago will play the winner of the other Western Conference Second Round series between the Anaheim Sucks and the Los Angeles Kings. Anaheim leads that best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 is Wednesday night at Staples Center (9:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN, RDS). If the Sucks win, the series will start in Anaheim. If the Kings rally to win, the series will open in Chicago. Chicago and Los Angeles met in the Western Conference final last spring. Chicago won that series in five games, then beat the Boston Bruins in six games for the organization's second Cup since 2010. On the winning goal, defenseman Brent Seabrook rimmed the puck into the Minnesota zone, hoping to start a Chicago possession. Instead, the puck hit a seam in the protective glass and unexpectedly popped into the slot. Minnesota defenseman Ryan Suter was able to cancel out Chicago's Peter Regin, but Kane beat the backcheck of Minnesota forward Matt Cooke and roofed a shot under the crossbar to silence the full house of 19,396 roaring fans. As exciting as it was for Kane, it was even more painful for the Wild, who carried the play for much of the night, only to lose on a bad bounce in a building that has been so kind to them all postseason. Minnesota was 5-0 at home before the overtime calamity in Game 6. Bryzgalov, who finished with 25 saves, was distraught over how the change in the puck's direction left him scrambly and helpless. Minnesota carried the game for long periods but could not find the go-ahead goal after Erik Haula tied it with a burst of speed and a deadly shot at 2:29 of the second period. That goal, Haula's second in as many games, answered a first-period goal by Chicago forward Kris Versteeg, who scored 1:58 into the game on a shot that hit defenseman Wild defenseman Clayton Stoner and bounced over Bryzgalov's shoulder. But after Haula's goal, Chicago goalie Corey Crawford shut down a Minnesota team that was repeatedly dangerous during the last 40 minutes of regulation and finished with 35 shots. In the second period, Crawford stopped 13 of 14 shots, including two double-shot attempts by Justin Fontaine and a spin-o-rama by Cody McCormick. The Wild had won their first five home games, beating the Colorado Avalanche three times and winning Games 3 and 4 here against Chicago. In those two games, Minnesota outscored the Blackhawks 9-2. But their home-ice mojo finally dried up with a freakish bounce in Game 6 against a team that knows how to convert such opportunities. It left a rancid taste in the mouths of all the Wild players, who, to a man, insisted there was very little separation between their team and the defending Stanley Cup champion.

Kane (Of his sixth game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the fourth in overtime.) "It was exciting to get that opportunity and that chance and whatever it is, if the luck finds me or the heavens above give me some blessings in overtime, I'll keep taking it. You know, it's like Johnny [Toews] always finds a way to score game-winners. We have a bunch of guys that have experience and everyone has done it, but it's always exciting when you do it. It was a weird feeling tonight because at first you didn't know it was in. It's a good feeling. It was exciting. It's exciting to be in on those goals and have something to do with a big win like this. (Of Crawford, who allowed one goal in Game 5 as well after allowing eight in the previous two games, both losses.) He did what he does. He is a great goaltender and we feel he is the best in the League."

Ilya Bryzgalov: "Not even in practice," he said when asked if he could ever remember the puck reacting as it did on what turned into the season-ending goal. "I see the puck bounce back and we covered the first guy, but we can't pick up the puck and they score a goal," he said, his voice wavering. It seems our luck was not tonight."

Crawford: "I felt pretty good. Our D men made some big plays, too, on a couple pucks that were sitting there in the blue [of the crease]. They came up big on those ones. It's just sticking with it throughout the whole game and just giving our guys a chance."

Zach Parise: "We saw how hard it is and this time of the year how hard you have to play on a nightly basis. We lost to a very good team, but it's not as if we didn't feel we could have won that series. We had our opportunities. It just didn't go our way. It can't get any worse than losing like that. You shouldn't lose like that."