Reigning Kings beat Blues to advance

Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Kings advanced to the second round of the NHL play-offs with a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Friday, boosting its hopes of back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.

Meanwhile in other games, Detroit beat Anaheim to stay alive and force a Game 7, while Toronto won at Boston to cut the series deficit to 3-2 and Washington downed the New York Rangers to go ahead 3-2.

LA’s Dustin Penner scored the tie-breaking goal in the final second of the second period, while Jonathan Quick made 21 saves and Drew Doughty scored his first goal of the post-season for the Kings, who came back from a 2-0 deficit in the series to win it 4-2.

Penner put the Kings ahead with his latest big play-off goal, ripping a slap shot from just inside the blue line past Brian Elliott right before time expired.

Elliott stopped 14 shots and Chris Porter scored his first career play-off goal for the Blues, who were eliminated by Los Angeles for the second straight season.

Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg scored his second goal 1:04 into overtime to give the Red Wings a 4-3 win over Anaheim.

Detroit blew a two-goal lead in the last 3= minutes of regulation time, sending the team to a fourth overtime in a series for the first time in franchise history.

Anaheim’s Emerson Etem and Bobby Ryan scored 51 seconds apart late in regulation to pull the Ducks into a 3-3 tie.

Zetterberg, who scored earlier in the third period, had a shot to win it with about a minute left. However his shot hit the right post and slid across the crease, but he made up for it with the overtime winner.

The second-seeded Ducks will host seventh-seeded Detroit on Sunday in the deciding game.

Toronto’s Tyler Bozak and Clarke MacArthur scored to give the Maple Leafs a 2-1 win at Boston, staying alive in their series.

Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer stopped 43 shots to preserve the win for Toronto, which will host Game 6 before a switch back to Boston if there is a Game 7.

Boston has won both games in Toronto in the series and has not lost on the Leafs’ home ice in the play-offs since 1959.

Zdeno Chara scored for Boston to cut the deficit to it 2-1 with 8:48 left. The Leafs killed off a delay-of-game penalty in the last four minutes and then protected the lead when the Bruins pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with 1:11 left.

Only once in their history have the Leafs come back to win a play-off series after falling behind 3-1: the 1942 Stanley Cup finals win over Detroit.

The Bruins are 15-2 in play-off series after taking a 3-1 lead, but they blew a 3-0 lead against Philadelphia in the 2010 Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Washington’s Mike Ribeiro scored in overtime to give the Capitals a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers and the momentum in the series.

Ribeiro put in the puck after Troy Brouwer deflected a shot from the blue line.

Game 6 is Sunday in New York.

The home team has won every game in the series, with Washington taking the first two and New York pulling even in Games 3 and 4. The Capitals have been fighting history along the way: The franchise has lost eight play-off series in which it has held a two-game lead.

Brian Boyle scored for New York in the first minute, but that was it for the Rangers, with Joel Ward tying it in the second period.