NHL playoff roundup: Lighting put Wings on brink

[April 20, 2016]  The Sports Xchange
 
 DETROIT -- Ondrej Palat's power-play goal with 2:59 left gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena and a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference first round best-of-7 series.

Game 5 is Thursday at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals, Jonathan Drouin had three assists and Ben Bishop made 26 saves for the Lightning.

Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist scored and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for the Red Wings.

Penguins 3, Rangers 1

NEW YORK -- Matt Cullen scored a tie-breaking goal 4:16 into the third period as Pittsburgh defeated New York in Game 3 of their first-round series at Madison Square Garden.

The Penguins hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series that will resume Thursday night at MSG.

Matt Murray, who did not play in the first two games of the series after suffering an injury in the team's regular-season finale, stopped 16 shots to earn his first postseason victory. Sidney Crosby scored in the second period and Kris Letang added an empty-net goal with 12.1 seconds remaining.

Rick Nash scored for the Rangers, who received 28 saves from Henrik Lundqvist.

Ducks 3, Predators 0

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Frederik Anderson stopped all 27 shots he faced for his second postseason shutout while Chris Stewart scored a goal and added an assist in Anaheim's victory over Nashville at Bridgestone Arena.

The Predators still lead the series 2-1 with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday night, but the Pacific Division champions generated an impressive comeback after eating consecutive 3-2 losses at home to start the best-of-seven series.

Jamie McGinn, Richard Rakell also scored for the Ducks, while Pekka Rinne made 18 saves for the Predators.

Blues 4, Blackhawks 3

CHICAGO -- Vladimir Tarasenko had two goals and an assist, and St. Louis rallied for a win over Chicago.

Jaden Schwartz and Alexander Steen also scored for the Blues, who erased a 2-1 deficit with three consecutive goals. St. Louis seized a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal.

Duncan Keith scored two goals and Andrew Shaw had a goal and two assists for the Blackhawks, who dropped back-to-back games on home ice.

Brian Elliott stopped 39 of 42 shots for St. Louis and Corey Crawford turned aside 16 of 20 shots for Chicago.

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