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Wings Soar; Pittsburgh Tripped Up

Associated Press

NHL playoffs

The Detroit Red Wings, the NHL’s best team in the regular season, were victorious again in their first game of the playoffs. Another division winner, the Pittsburgh Penguins, flopped.

The Red Wings, seeking their first Stanley Cup since 1955, scored three goals in a 2:21 span of the third period and beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 Wednesday night in their Western Conference opener.

The Penguins, who won the Northeast Division with 102 points, blew a three-goal lead and lost at home to the Washington Capitals 6-4.

Red Wings 4, Jets 1 Detroit

Kris Draper, Viacheslav Fetisov, Greg Johnson and Paul Coffey scored for Detroit, which won an NHL-record 62 games during the regular season. Alexei Zhamnov scored for Winnipeg.

Winnipeg scored first against Detroit, but the Red Wings tied it early in the third period on Draper’s goal. Fetisov took a backhanded pass from Sergei Fedorov and scored the go-ahead goal at 2:06, then Johnson made it 3-1 just 42 seconds later.

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

First period-1, Winnipeg, Zhamnov 1 (Korolev, Tverdovsky), 10:06.

Second period-None.

Third period-2, Detroit, Draper 1 (Taylor, Ramsey), 2:27. 3, Detroit, Fetisov 1 (Fedorov), 4:06. 4, Detroit, Johnson 1 (Ramsey, Yzerman), 4:48. 5, Detroit, Coffey 1 (Yzerman, Primeau), 8:07 (pp).

Shots on goal-Winnipeg 5-6-3-14. Detroit 8-13-13-34.Power-play opp.-Winnipeg 0 of 4; Detroit 1 of 5.Goalies-Winnipeg, Khabibulin 0-1 (34 shots-30 saves). Detroit, Osgood 1-0 (14-13).A-19,983 (19,875).

Capitals 6, Penguins 3 Pittsburgh

Todd Krygier scored twice during the comeback by the Capitals, who held Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, the NHL’s two top scorers, to a total of three assists.

The Capitals, the second-lowest scoring team in the playoffs, scored the final five goals after the heavily favored Penguins opened a 4-1 lead.

Backup goaltender Olaf Kolzig shut out Pittsburgh for the final 28:51 after Jim Carey was lifted, and the Capitals beat the Penguins in Game 1 of a playoff series for the fifth consecutive time.

Krygier’s goal at 12:26 of the third period proved to be the game winner. Dale Hunter grabbed the puck in the near corner after goaltender Tom Barrasso couldn’t clear it and fed to Krygier in the slot.

Michael Pivonka scored an empty-net goal with 4.7 seconds remaining for Washington.

Petr Nedved scored goals 11 seconds apart in the first period, a playoff record for a Pittsburgh player.

Nedved, coming off a career-high 99-point regular season, took Jagr’s drop pass and wristed a shot by Carey at 2:53. After Carey couldn’t clear the puck following the ensuing faceoff, Nedved scored unassisted from almost the same spot at 3:04.

Washington 1 2 3 - 6 Pittsburgh 2 2 0 - 4

First period-1, Pittsburgh, Nedved 1 (Jagr), 2:53. 2, Pittsburgh, Nedved 2, 3:04. 3, Washington, Bondra 1, 19:23.

Second period-4, Pittsburgh, Francis 1 (Zubov, Lemieux), 5:47 (pp). 5, Pittsburgh, Sandstrom (Lauer, Lemieux), 11:09. 6, Washington, Cote 1 (Pivonka, Bondra), 16:12. 7, Washington, Krygier 1 (Juneau, Gonchar), 19:26.

Third period-8, Washington, Gonchar 1 (Brunet, Juneau), 7:58 (pp). 9, Washington, Krygier 2 (Hunter, Eagles), 12:26. 10, Washington, Pivonka 1 (Juneau, Bondra), 19:55 (en).

Shots on goal-Washington 14-14-7-35. Pittsburgh 11-9-8-28.Power-play opp.-Washington 1 of 5; Pittsburgh 1 of 6.Goalies-Washington, Carey (16 shots-12 saves), Kolzig 1-0 (11:09 second period, 12-12). Pittsburgh, Barrasso 0-1 (34-29).A-16,238 (17,181).

Panthers 6, Bruins 3 Miami

Ray Sheppard had two goals and an assist as Florida, playing its first playoff game, beat Boston.

Boston 1 1 1 - 3 Florida 3 2 1 - 6

First period-1, Florida, Sheppard 1 (Woolley, Barnes), 7:37. 2, Florida, Hough 1 (Washburn, Dvorak), 8:02. 3, Florida, Hull 1 (Lindsay, Svehla), 8:54. 4, Boston, Tocchet 1 (Oates, Bourque), 15:04 (pp).

Second period-5, Boston, Tocchet 2 (Oates, Bourque), 3:16 (pp). 6, Florida, Woolley 1 (Sheppard), 5:08 (pp). 7, Florida, Sheppard 2 (Barnes, Svehla), 9:02 (pp).

Third period-8, Florida, Garpenlov 1 (Jovanovski), 18:34. 9, Boston, Sutter 1 (Rohloff, Moger), 19:27.

Shots on goal-Boston 12-19-14-45. Florida 7-12-11-30.Power-play opp.-Boston 2 of 7; Florida 2 of 8.Goalies-Boston, Ranford 0-1 (30 shots-24 saves). Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 1-0 (45-42).A-14,703 (14,503).

Blackhawks 4, Flames 1 Chicago

Joe Murphy, coming off a disappointing regular season, opened the playoffs with two goals and an assist to lead Chicago over Calgary. Sheldon Kennedy scored the only goal for the Flames.

Calgary 1 0 0 - 1 Chicago 2 1 1 - 4

First period-1, Calgary, Kennedy 1 (Evason), 3:23. 2, Chicago, Nicholls 1 (Murphy, Chelios), 4:33 (pp). 3, Chicago, Murphy 1 (Nicholls), 15:34.

Second period-4, Chicago, Murphy 2 (Carney, Craven), 7:05.

Third period-5, Chicago, Daze 1 (Suter, Roenick), :31.

Shots on goal-Calgary 4-10-6-20. Chicago 11-9-6-26.Power-play opp.-Calgary 0 of 4; Chicago 1 of 5.Goalies-Calgary, Kidd 0-1 (26 shots-22 saves). Chicago, Belfour 1-0 (20-19).A-17,455 (20,500).