Columbus: Jake Guentzel scored a hat trick, including a goal at 13:10 of overtime, to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night and give them a 3-0 lead in their first-round play-off series.
Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh and Marc-Andre Fleury overcame a shaky first period to make 33 saves. Guentzel is the first Pittsburgh to rookie to get a play-off hat trick.
The defending champion Penguins will go for the sweep in Columbus on Tuesday night.
Cam Atkinson had two goals for Columbus, and Zach Werenski and Brandon Dubinsky also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky had 42 saves.
After only scoring two goals combined in the first two games of the series, Columbus scored three goals in just over six minutes of the first period.
But the Penguins regained their composure and pushed back hard during the second period to tie the score at 3-3.
Meanwhile, Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist to lead Montreal over New York 3-1, giving the Canadiens a 2-1 lead in the first-round play-off series.
Artturi Lehkonen and Shea Weber scored power-play goals for Montreal and Carey Price stopped 20 shots.
Radulov, who got the overtime winner in Game 2 on Friday night after Tomas Plekanec tied it with 18 seconds left in regulation, has two goals and three assists in the past two games.
Brady Skjei spoiled Price’s shutout bid with 2:56 remaining for his first career play-off goal.
Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, coming off a play-off career-high 54 saves in Game 2, stopped 26 shots in this one.
Game 4 is Tuesday night.
Zack Kassian scored midway through the third period and Cam Talbot made 23 saves in his second straight shutout as Edmonton beat San Jose 1-0 in Game 3 of their first-round series.
The Oilers bounced back from an overtime loss in their first play-off game in 11 years to post consecutive shutouts and take a 2-1 series lead over the defending Western Conference champions. Game 4 is Tuesday night in San Jose.
Edmonton weathered a spirited start by the Sharks fuelled in part by the return of Joe Thornton from a knee injury, then the Oilers took control and capitalised on a costly turnover to take the lead.
David Schlemko’s clearing attempt was intercepted by Kassian in the slot, and Kassian beat Martin Jones with a backhand to make it 1-0 with 9:15 to play. Kassian also scored the first goal in Edmonton’s 2-0 win in Game 2.
Jaden Schwartz scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Jake Allen made 40 saves to lead St. Louis 3-1 over Minnesota for a 3-0 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Colton Parayko also scored for the Blues and Alexander Steen added an empty-netter for St. Louis, who will try to sweep the series Wednesday night in St. Louis.
Charlie Coyle scored for Minnesota, who got 28 saves from Devan Dubnyk.
Schwartz had a power-play goal at 15:19 of the second period to put the Blues one win away from the second round. He scored with 2:27 left in the third period of Game 2 to give St. Louis the 2-1 win.
