Toughness Helps Rangers Pull Even
The toughened-up New York Rangers stopped talking a big game and played one instead, containing Pittsburgh’s stars with forechecking and follow-up goals for a 6-3 victory Sunday in Pittsburgh to even their second-round series.
Luc Robitaille, labeled as overpaid and unproductive by ex-Ranger Sergei Zubov, scored the first goal and assisted on two others as New York came away from Pittsburgh with a 1-1 tie in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference semifinals.
Game 3 will be Tuesday in Madison Square Garden, where the teams split two regular-season games.
Mark Messier, who stressed the necessity of playing with a sense of urgency, also had a goal and an assist as New York swept away its sixth consecutive Game 1 playoff loss by shutting out Pittsburgh on four firstperiod power plays.
Rangers 6, Penguins 3
New York 2 3 1 - 6
Pittsburgh 0 1 2 - 3
First period-1, New York, Robitaille 1 (Lowe, Verbek), 5:10. 2, New York, Berg 1 (Churla, Driver), 17:26. Second period-3, New York, Kovalev 3 (Kurri, Samuelsson), 1:25. 4, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 4 (Zubov, Francis), 6:21 (pp). 5, New York, Messier 3 (Beukeboom, Verbeek), 6:33. 6, New York, Verbeek 3 (Robitaille, Messier), 15:17 (pp). Third period-7, Pittsburgh, Smolinski 2 (Roche, Daigneault), 6:27. 8, Pittsburgh, Jagr 6 (Nedved, Zubov), 14:19. 9, New York, Kurri 3 (Sundstrom, Robitaille), 19:20 (en).
Shots on goal-New York 9-14-9-32. Pittsburgh 5-9-14-28.Power-play opp.-New York 1 of 5; Pittsburgh 2 of 8.Goalies-New York, Richter 5-3 (28 shots-25 saves). Pittsburgh, Wregget 4-1 (31-26).A-17,181 (17,181).
Red Wings 8, Blues 3
Detroit
Steve Yzerman had two goals and three assists, tying a Detroit record with five points in a playoff game, as the Red Wings crushed St. Louis and took a 2-0 lead in their second-round series.
Yzerman had a goal and two assists as the Red Wings scored five goals in the first period.
Nicklas Lidstrom had two goals for the Red Wings. Vladimir Konstantinov, Darren McCarty, Martin Lapointe and Marc Bergevin also scored for Detroit.
Detroit, after a four-day layoff, was sluggish in the first game, a 3-2 win. But the Red Wings were back on their form in Game 2, scoring on four of their first nine shots.
St. Louis 1 1 1 - 3
Detroit 5 0 3 - 8
First period-1, Detroit, Yzerman 3 (Errey), 3:40. 2, Detroit, Konstantinov 2 (Larionov, Fedorov), 4:45. 3, Detroit, Lidstrom 1 (Yzerman), 7:02. 4, Detroit, McCarty 2 (Yzerman), 11:41. 5, St. Louis, Corson 7 (Gretzky, Pronger), 13:27 (pp). 6, Detroit, Lapointe 1 (Draper), 15:40. Second period-7, St. Louis, Zezel 3 (Anderson, Courtnall), 2:48. Third period-8, Detroit, Lidstrom 2 (Coffey, Yzerman), 6:19 (pp). 9, St. Louis, Creighton 1 (Kravchuk), 8:03. 10, Detroit, Yzerman 4 (Errey, Fetisov), 17:56 (pp). 11, Detroit, Bergevin 1 (Taylor), 19:35 (pp).
Shots on goal-St. Louis 6-8-7-21. Detroit 11-7-13-31.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 1 of 6; Detroit 3 of 13.Goalies-St. Louis, Casey 3-4 (9 shots-5 saves), Racine (11:41 first, 0-0), Casey (12:14 first, 22-18). Detroit, Osgood 4-1 (21-18).A-19,893 (19,875).
xxxx NHL playoffs Tonight’s game Colorado at Chicago, 5:30 p.m. (ESPN)