New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins – NYR wins 5-1, PIT leads series 3-2
Of all things, it was the New York Rangers power play that got the scoring started in this game. The Rangers snapped a 0-for-36 stretch of goalless power plays when Chris Kreider banked a rebound from a sharp angle off of Marc-Andre Fleury’s right pad.
New York, as they have been want to do at times in this series, carried the play for most of the period. In the past, they didn’t get the desired results. Derick Brassard would make it 2-0 for New York on the 14th shot of the period for the Rangers, while Pittsburgh had managed just six. Brassard backhanded a rebound off of Fleury and doubled his team’s lead with 4:37 left in the period. The shots through the end of the first were 17-9 in favour of New York and 13-8 at even strength.
Evgeni Malkin, who looked to be the most dangerous Pittsburgh player in the first period, cut the Rangers lead in half a little over three minutes in to the second. A great individual effort, Malkin fought through two Rangers’ defensemen, got a shot, followed his rebound and swept it under Henrik Lundqvist. Brassard would give the Rangers their two-goal lead back, though, after he was able to corral his rebound and fire it in the upper portion of the net from an angle. It was a big goal for the Rangers, who were being outshot 9-2 to start the period and were put back on their heels. Less than a minute after that, Ryan McDonagh ripped a shot from the point and got the Rangers’ second power play goal of the night. What was a 2-1 game where Pittsburgh appeared to have all the momentum was now a 4-1 crowd-silencing Rangers lead.
The third period would go by without much happening, though the Rangers were doing a good job of generating offensive opportunities until Pittsburgh pulled their goalie in the power play with a little under six minutes left in the game.
Kevin Klein scored the empty-net goal with 2:29 left in the game to give his team a 5-1 lead. Lundqvist was stellar in net for New York, saving 30 of 31 shots for the win.
Chicago Blackhawks at Minnesota Wild – MIN wins 4-2, Series tied 2-2
There was just four shots between the two teams through seven minutes, but a turnover by Chicago in their zone left Justin Fontaine with time to place the fifth shot short-side-high over Corey Crawford to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.
A mildly entertaining period was seemingly headed for a 1-0 score until the final minute of the period. With 38 seconds remaining, Patrick Sharp took just Chicago’s fourth shot on goal from a bad angle, a shot that squeezed through Ilya Bryzgalov’s leg. What had been a good period for Minnesota was now a tie game all over again. There would be just 11 total shots in the period, a pretty good indicator of what it felt like to watch these two teams play another tight-checking game.
The Wild would get a bankshot goal of their own early in the second period. Crawford was a bit slow getting to his post after a scramble and Jason Pominville banked it off Crawford’s skate and in for a 2-1 lead. To this point in the game, it was the third goal on just 12 total shots. The fourth goal of the game on just the 16th shot came off the stick of Michal Handzus, who deflected a point shot from Brent Seabrook. The play had seemed to pick up a bit, at least on the scoreboard. Nino Niederreiter snapped a shot past Corey Crawford less than a minute later to give the Wild a 3-2 lead on the game’s 17th shot.
The Wild would extend their lead to 4-2 with an early power play goal in the third period. With just 3:52 elapsed, Jared Spurgeon was set up for a clean shot on the power play by Mikko Koivu and made no mistake with his opportunity. Considering the ‘Hawks had managed just 13 shots on goal through the first 45 minutes of the game, that would seem to be enough on this night.
Ilya Bryzgalov made a couple of big saves late in the game but the ‘Hawks just didn’t look good on this night. The ‘Hawks managed just 20 shots on goal with five of those coming in the last five minutes of the game. Minnesota out-shot-attempted Chicago 35-20 over the final 40 minutes.
