MONTREAL – Alexander Radulov scored at 18:34 of overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday night in Game 2 of the first-round series.
Radulov jammed the puck in from the edge of the crease after a feed from Max Pacioretty to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1. The victory was the first for a Canadian team in the playoffs since 2015.
Game 3 is Sunday night in New York.
Trailing 3-2 in the third period, the Canadiens pressed hard and finally scored with 18 seconds left, with goalie Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker.
Tomas Plekanec redirected Radulov’s feed past goalie Henrik Lundqvist to force overtime. The goal was the latest tying playoff goal in Canadiens history, beating Jacques Lemaire’s goal in 1975 with 24 seconds remaining.
Jeff Petry and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, which wasted early leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York.
Montreal had a 45-30 shots advantage in regulation and a 58-38 overall edge.
PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Marc-Andre Fleury stayed sharp in his second straight playoff start and Pittsburgh pulled away to beat Columbus in Game 2.
Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist to help the defending Stanley Cup champions take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the postseason, and Patric Hornqvist pushed in an empty-net goal.
Fleury finished with 39 saves while filling in for the injured Matt Murray, and received plenty of help. Pittsburgh blocked 23 shots before they even got to Fleury.
Brandon Saad scored for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots.
Game 3 is Sunday night in Columbus.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 remaining during a 4-on-4 situation and St. Louis beat Minnesota to take a 2-0 series lead.
Joel Edmundson had the first goal for the Blues after winning Game 1 in overtime, Jake Allen made 23 saves, and coach Mike Yeo devised another shrewd plan against his former team.
Zach Parise scored again for the Wild, on a 5-on-3 late in the second period, but goalie Devan Dubnyk simply hasn’t been as dominant as Allen at the other end. Screened by David Perron, Dubnyk didn’t track Schwartz’s deep shot from the slot. He made 20 saves.
Game 3 is Sunday in St. Louis.
EDMONTON, Alberta — Connor McDavid and Zack Kassian scored short-handed goals to help the Edmonton Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks 2-0 Friday night, evening their first-round series at one game apiece.
Cam Talbot stopped all 16 shots he faced for his first career playoff shutout and Edmonton’s first postseason win since 2006. The Oilers missed the playoffs in each of the last 10 years.
Kassian scored early in the second period and McDavid doubled the lead midway through the third period.
Game 3 is Sunday night in San Jose.
Martin Jones finished with 34 saves for the Sharks.
It was a dominant performance by the Oilers and particularly by Kassian, a fourth-line winger who drove the net effectively and delivered bone-jarring hits on the Sharks’ Brenden Dillon and Logan Couture. By the end of the second period, the Rogers Place fans were chanting “Kass-ee-ann! Kass-ee-ann!”
It was a reversal of Game 1, when the Oilers were outshot 44-19 en route to a 3-2 overtime loss. This time the Oilers kept the pressure, outshooting and outhitting the Sharks throughout the game.
Kassian scored 42 seconds into the second when Sharks forward Joe Pavelski lost control of the puck at the Oilers blue line. He swiped at the puck with this stick, giving it to Edmonton’s Mark Letestu.
Letestu promptly passed it to a streaking Kassian, who barreled in alone and fired a wrist shot low past Jones’ blocker.
McDavid, the NHL’s regular-season scoring leader, got his first NHL playoff goal at the 10:31 mark of the third, streaking down the left side and launching a short-side wrist shot that eluded Jones.
The Sharks were 0 for 6 with the man advantage and are 1 for 12 through the first two games. San Jose’s power play was ranked 25th in the NHL in the regular season at 16.7 percent.
The Sharks’ power play has suffered from the absence of dominant center Joe Thornton. He has been day-to-day with a knee injury he suffered April 2. Thornton has been skating in practice, and Sharks coach Peter DeBoer has said he expects Thornton to return at some point in the series.
