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Rangers go up 2-0 on Thrashers

Tampa Bay's Vincent Lacavalier, rear, celebrates with teammates after third-period goal. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
Tampa Bay's Vincent Lacavalier, rear, celebrates with teammates after third-period goal. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

The puck is bouncing just right for the New York Rangers.

Sean Avery ricocheted a fluke goal off the boards from center ice and Brendan Shanahan scored the winner with 4:01 remaining Saturday, lifting the Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers and a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 playoff series.

Shanahan’s 54th career playoff goal came after Ilya Kovalchuk tied the game at 1 for the Thrashers with 14:25 to go in the third period. From the blue line, Fedor Tyutin fired a shot that was blocked in front by Atlanta defenseman Greg de Vries.

But the puck deflected to Avery in the faceoff circle, and he spotted Shanahan alone in front. The 38-year-old veteran didn’t miss, flipping a shot past a diving Johan Hedberg to give the Rangers their second straight one-goal win in Atlanta.

The series moves to Madison Square Garden for Game 3 on Tuesday night. The next two games are in New York, giving the Rangers a chance to clinch the series without coming back to Atlanta.

“We came in here to do a job, and we did it,” Shanahan said. “But until we win four games, the job’s not done.”

Things got ugly at the end. Kovalchuk took a run at Avery with 3.4 seconds left and drew a penalty. Another tussle nearly broke out at the horn, but the officials broke it up and the Rangers descended on goalie Henrik Lundqvist to celebrate.

Penguins 4, Senators 3: At Ottawa, Sidney Crosby scored his second goal in two career playoff games 11:44 into the third period to lift Pittsburgh over Ottawa, evening the first-round Eastern Conference series at 1-all.

Crosby, who scored a late power-play goal in Wednesday’s series-opening 6-3 loss, scored Pittsburgh’s third goal of the third period at 11:44. The Penguins tied it twice in the final frame before the 19-year-old NHL scoring champion gave them their second and final lead.

Islanders 3, Sabres 2: At Buffalo, N.Y., Rick DiPietro bounced back from a pair of concussions to stop 32 shots in his first game in three weeks, and Marc-Andre Bergeron scored the go-ahead goal 8 minutes into the third period as New York tied its series with top-seeded Buffalo at 1-all.

Bergeron’s goal came on the Islanders’ first shot of the period, when his slap shot from the right point beat Ryan Miller. New York forward Ryan Smyth contributed by providing traffic in front to distract the Sabres goalie.

Lightning 3, Devils 2: At East Rutherford, N.J., Tampa Bay evened its Eastern Conference playoff series with New Jersey as Johan Holmqvist gave the Devils solid goaltending.

Vincent Lecavalier, the NHL’s top goal scorer this season, scored early in the third period to break a tie, and Holmqvist made 34 saves. Martin St. Louis and Filip Kuba also scored for the Lightning, who will host the next two games of the best-of-7 matchup, starting Monday.

Bertuzzi won’t play

Detroit’s Todd Bertuzzi (concussion, neck injury) will not play today against Calgary in Game 2 of their series.