Penguins, Blues go 2 up
MONTREAL — Alexander Radulov scored at 18:34 of overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers Friday in Game 2 of their NHL first-round playoff series.
Radulov jammed the puck in from the edge of the crease after a feed from Max Pacioretty to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1. The victory was the first for a Canadian team in the playoffs since 2015.
Trailing 3-2 in the third period, the Canadiens pressed hard and finally scored with 18 seconds left, with goalie Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker. Tomas Plekanec redirected Radulov’s feed past goalie Henrik Lundqvist to force overtime. Jeff Petry and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, which wasted early leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York.
Penguins 4, Blue Jackets 1: Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Marc-Andre Fleury stayed sharp in his second straight playoff start and Pittsburgh pulled away to beat Columbus in Game 2.
Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist to help the defending Stanley Cup champions take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the postseason, and Patric Hornqvist pushed in an empty-net goal.
Fleury finished with 39 saves while filling in for the injured Matt Murray. Brandon Saad scored for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots. Blues 2, Wild 1: Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 remaining during a 4-on-4 situation and St. Louis beat Minnesota to take a 2-0 series lead.
Joel Edmundson had the first goal for the Blues after winning Game 1 in overtime, Jake Allen made 23 saves.
Zach Parise scored again for the Wild, on a 5-on-3 late in the second period, but goalie Devan Dubnyk simply hasn’t been as dominant as Allen at the other end. Screened by David Perron, Dubnyk didn’t track Schwartz’s deep shot from the slot. He made 20 saves.
Oilers 2, Sharks 0: Connor McDavid and Zack Kassian scored short-handed goals to help the Edmonton Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks, leveling their first-round series at one game apiece.
Cam Talbot stopped all 16 shots he faced for his first career playoff shutout and Edmonton’s first postseason win since 2006.
The Oilers missed the playoffs in each of the last 10 years.
Kassian scored early in the second period and McDavid doubled the lead midway through the third period.
It was a dominant performance by the Oilers and particularly by Kassian, a fourth-line winger who drove the net effectively and delivered bone-jarring hits on the Sharks’ Brenden Dillon and Logan Couture. — AP
