NEW YORK (AP) - Martin St. Louis and Carl Hagelin scored 2:51 apart in the first period, and Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves and the New York Rangers avoided elimination again with a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night.
The matchup between the Metropolitan Division rivals will be decided in Game 7 at Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. The Penguins, who led the series 3-1, failed in their first attempt to advance to the Eastern Conference finals with a 5-1 home loss on Friday.
Derick Brassard pushed the Rangers’ lead to 3-1 in the second period. Brandon Sutter scored the lone goal for the Penguins, who got 26 saves from Marc-Andre Fleury.
This was a far cry from New York’s disheartening 4-2 home loss in Game 4.
The Rangers are 9-2 in their past 11 games when facing elimination, dating to Game 6 of the first round in 2012 at Ottawa. New York has never won a series it trailed 3-1.
BLACKHAWKS 2, WILD 1
CHICAGO (AP) - Jonathan Toews had a rebound goal early in the third period, and Chicago beat Minnesota to take a 3-2 series lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
Bryan Bickell also scored and Corey Crawford made 27 saves as Chicago bounced back from consecutive losses in Minnesota that handed the momentum to the Wild heading into Game 5.
But the Blackhawks were back at the United Center, where they improved to 6-0 in this postseason and 17-2 over the past two playoffs.
Erik Haula scored in the first period for the Wild, and Ilya Bryzgalov had 26 stops.
Game 6 is Tuesday night in Minnesota, where the Wild are undefeated in this postseason.
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