The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
60°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Rangers Oust Canadiens

Associated Press

NHL playoffs

The New York Rangers completed a four-game comeback against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday when they rode a four-goal first period to a 5-3 victory in Montreal to clinch their NHL Eastern Conference playoff series.

Adam Graves, Alexei Kovalev and Jari Jurri scored in a 1:02 span in the middle of the opening period after Pat Verbeek had opened the scoring at 6:24 on the Rangers’ first shot of the game.

Doug Lidster added a power-play goal in the second period after the Canadiens got goals from Mark Recchi and Pierre Turgeon.

New York took the best-of-seven series 4-2 after dropping the opening two games at home. The Rangers became only the 10th team in NHL history to win a seven-game series after losing the first two at home.

Rangers 5, Canadiens 3

N.Y. Rangers 4 1 0 - 5 Montreal 1 1 1 - 3

First period-1, New York, Verbeek 1 (Messier, Beukeboom), 6:24. 2, New York, Graves 6 (Leetch, Verbeek), 9:16 (pp). 3, New York, Kovalev 2 (Samuelsson), 9:43. 4, New York, Kurri 2 (Robitalle, Sundstrom), 10:18. 5, Montreal, Recchi 3 (Brisebois, Turgeon), 12:41 (pp).

Second period-6, Montreal, Turgeon 2 (Savage, Quintal), 2:11. 7, New York, Lidster 1 (Kovalev), 11:33 (pp).

Third period-8. Montreal, Brisebois 1 (Turgeon, Damphousse) :56.

Shots on goal-New York 12-12-2-26. Montreal 7-11-12-30.Power-play opp.-New York 2 of 5; Montreal 1 of 6.Goalies-New York, Richter 4-2 (30 shots-27 saves). Montreal, Thibault 2-4 (9-5), Jablonski (10:18 first, 17-16)A-21,273 (21,221).

Penguins 3, Capitals 2 Landover, Md.

Pittsburgh eliminated Washington from the playoffs for the fourth time in six years, winning its fourth straight game to capture the opening-round series 4-2.

Ken Wregget had 35 saves and the Penguins built a 3-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes on the way to becoming the 11th team to win an NHL playoff series after losing the first two games at home.

Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis scored for the Penguins, who won all three games at the USAir Arena, including the pivotal four-overtime game that tied the series 2-2.

Dale Hunter and Sergei Gonchar had goals for the Capitals, who went through the entire regular season without losing four straight.

Washington goalie Jim Carey continued to struggle. Carey was pulled in Game 1 and played poorly in Game 3. He started again but was pulled after allowing two of four shots to get past him.

Pittsburgh 3 0 0 - 3 Washington 0 1 1 - 2

First period-1, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 2 (Zubov), 1:57 (pp). 2, Pittsburgh, Jagr 3 (Lemieux, Zubov), 6:03 (pp). 3, Pittsburgh, Francis 3 (Nedved, Tamer), 12:24.

Second period-4, Washington, Hunter 1 (Gonchar, Kelly Miller), 1:43.

Third period-5, Washington, Gonchar 2 (Hunter, Konowalchuk), :50.

Shots on goal-Pittsburgh 12-9-5-26. Washington 9-13-15-37.Power-play opp.-Pittsburgh 2 of 4; Washington 0 of 4.Goalies-Pittsburgh, Wregget 3-0 (37 shots-35 saves). Washington, Carey (4-2), Kolzig 2-3 (6:03 1st, 22-21).A-17,256 (18,130).

Red Wings 4, Jets 1 Winnipeg, Manitoba

Vyacheslav Kozlov scored twice in the first period as Detroit advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a victory that ended NHL hockey in Winnipeg.

The Red Wings took the Western Conference series 4-2 over the Jets, who are moving to Phoenix for next season.

Steve Yzerman also scored in the first to put the Red Wings ahead 3-0. That held until the third period, when Norm Maciver scored for the Jets and they struggled to get another that would put a tie within reach.

Despite plenty of help from the 15,567 fans, it didn’t happen and Keith Primeau scored his first goal of the series into an empty Winnipeg net with 15 seconds left.

Detroit 3 0 1 - 4 Winnipeg 0 0 1 - 1

First period-1, Detroit, Kozlov 2 (Konstantinov, Fetisov), 3:46. 2, Detroit, Kozlov 3 (Fedorov, Larionov), 14:54 (pp). 3, Detroit, Yzerman 2 (Primeau, Ciccarelli), 16:31.

Second period-None.

Third period-4, Winnipeg, Maciver 1 (Korolev, Manson), 8:22. 5, Detroit, Primeau 1, 19:45 (en).

Shots on goal-Detroit 12-6-8-26. Winnipeg 5-4-4-13.Power-play opp.-Detroit 1 of 4; Winnipeg 0 of 4.Goalies-Detroit, Vernon 2-1 (13 shots-12 saves). Winnipeg, Khabibulin 2-4 (25-22).A-15,567 (15,393).