Lightning ousts Red Wings to enter last eight of NHL play-offs

Tampa: Tampa Bay became the first team to book their place in the last eight of the NHL Stanley Cup play-offs after beating Detroit 1-0 on Thursday to seal a 4-1 series victory.

St. Louis almost joined the Lightning in the last eight but lost in overtime at home against Chicago, with Patrick Kane’s winner cutting the series deficit to 3-2 and keeping the reigning champions alive.

Pittsburgh moved within one victory of reaching the second round by routing the New York Rangers, led by two goals from Evgeni Malkin, while Anaheim won at Nashville to square that series at 2-2.

Tampa Bay left it late to net the winner against Detroit. With less than two minutes remaining, Ryan Callahan retrieved a bad pass by Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek behind the Detroit net and centred the puck in the crease for Alex Killorn’s backhand winner.

Lightning goalie Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots for Tampa Bay, who eliminated the Red Wings in the first round for the second straight year.

Detroit pushed the defending Eastern Conference champions to seven games a year ago, but could only beat them once in five attempts this time, with Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov picking up the offensive slack for Tampa Bay with star Steven Stamkos injured.

Chicago’s Patrick Kane also scored a late backhand winner, with his overtime shot giving the Blackhawks a 4-3 victory at St. Louis.

Kane, who led the NHL in scoring with 106 points, circled the net to corral his own shot that slowly slid wide, and poked it past Brian Elliott.

It was the first goal in the series by Chicago’s stars Kane and Jonathan Toews. Both assisted on Artemi Panarin’s goal in the final second of the second period for a 3-1 lead.

St. Louis’ David Backes tied it on a deflection that slipped past Corey Crawford with 5:10 to play. Rookie Robby Fabbri and Jaden Schwartz also scored for the Blues.

Marian Hossa and Artem Anisimov also scored for Chicago, who will host Game 6 on Saturday.

Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and set up two others as the Pirates won 5-0 against the Rangers to go up 3-1 in the series.

Malkin, whose four points tied his single-game high in the postseason, assisted on two of the Penguins’ three first-period goals.

Sidney Crosby, who added two assists, and the red-hot Penguins can wrap up things in Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Rookie goaltender Matt Murray, who returned to the line-up for Game 3, made 31 saves in posting his first playoff shutout. Eric Fehr, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary also scored as the Penguins tallied four times on 18 shots against Henrik Lundqvist, who was lifted early in the second period.

Anaheim’s Nate Thompson and Jamie McGinn scored nearly two minutes apart late in the second period to push the Ducks to a 4-1 win at Nashville.

Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Cogliano also scored for the Ducks, who continued the pattern of the series in which all four games have been won by the visiting team. Goalie Frederik Andersen made 30 saves and set a career shutout streak of 91 minutes, 26 seconds.

Mike Fisher scored his first goal of the series for Nashville.

Game 5 is Saturday in Anaheim.