Chicago: Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a pair of impressive wrist shots, Brian Elliott made 39 saves and the St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on Tuesday night to open a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round play-off series.
Jaden Schwartz scored a tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period for the second straight game as St. Louis moved to the brink of their first appearance in the Western Conference semi-finals since 2012. The Blues were eliminated in the opening round in each of the past three years.
Duncan Keith had two goals for Chicago, who dropped consecutive home play-off games for the first time since 2012.
Andrew Shaw had a goal and two assists, and Corey Crawford finished with 16 saves after getting into a fight with Blues rookie Robby Fabbri during a wild second period.
In New York, Matt Cullen beat Henrik Lundqvist on a semi-breakaway after beating two defencemen early in the third period as Pittsburgh spoiled the return of Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh with a 3-1 win in Game 3 of their first-round series.
Sidney Crosby also scored and Matt Murray made 16 saves in his return to action in helping the Penguins take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is on Thursday night in New York. The Rangers have lost four consecutive play-off games at Madison Square Garden going back to last season’s Eastern Conference final against Tampa Bay.
Ondrej Palat scored with 2:59 left in the third period, lifting Tampa Bay over Detroit (3-2) for a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
Ben Bishop stopped 26 shots for the Lightning and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for the Red Wings.
Palat was in a perfect position right in front of the net to make the most of Jonathan Drouin’s pass on the game-winning goal. Drouin had three assists.
Nikita Kucherov had power-play goals in the first and second period to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead late in the second, but Detroit’s Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist scored late in the period to tie the game.
— AP
