NHL

Monday's NHL playoffs: Sidney Crosby leads Penguins past Canadiens 3-1; series tied 1-1

Associated Press

Toronto — Any remnants of the Montreal Canadiens’ feel-good glow from their series-opening overtime win over Pittsburgh were quickly dashed Monday night.

The fifth-seeded Penguins took advantage of a flat offensive effort from the Canadiens for a 3-1 victory that tied the best-of-five series at one game apiece.

Sidney Crosby and Jason Zucker beat Montreal goalie Carey Price and Jake Guentzel added an empty-net goal. Montreal’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi ended Matt Murray’s shutout bid with 2:09 left to play.

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (31) makes a pad save against Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang (58) during the second period Monday in Toronto.

The Canadiens went 0-for-3 on the power play, managing only one shot with the man advantage.

“Our best players have to be our best players,” Montreal head coach Claude Julien said. “Tonight we had some guys that really struggled and a lot of those guys happened to be on the power play.”

The 12th-seeded Canadiens delivered a 3-2 upset win on Saturday, but were listless from the start in Game 2.

Crosby gave Pittsburgh an early lead and Price — by far Montreal’s best player — did well to keep it a one-goal game until Zucker tallied with 5:19 left in the third. Price was pulled after Kotkaniemi’s goal for the extra attacker, but Guentzel sealed the win with 9.1 seconds left.

Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday night.

“There’s no panic,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said of his team. “They are a confident group. They believe in one another and they control what they can.

“They aren’t going to dwell on the past and they certainly aren’t going to get ahead of themselves.”

The Penguins controlled the early offensive play and Price had to be sharp right away, denying Zucker after he was sent in alone a few minutes into the game.

Pittsburgh kept the pressure on and was rewarded when Guentzel’s cross-ice pass found Crosby streaking down the left wing. The Penguins captain snapped the puck between Price’s legs at 4:25.

It was the 188th playoff point of Crosby’s NHL career, moving him into an eighth-place tie with Joe Sakic and Doug Gilmour.

The Canadiens, who were outshot 14-7 in the first period, nearly scored on a Brett Kulak wrap-around attempt midway through the stanza.

Pittsburgh’s Jared McCann dislodged the net just before Kulak flipped the puck over Murray’s shoulder. After a review, the officials decided it was not a goal.

Montreal came out with more pace in the second period, but could only manage a few decent chances. The best opportunity came when Jonathan Drouin found Joel Armia for a goalmouth redirect, but Murray made a brilliant glove save.

Price, who made 39 saves in Game 1, stoned Kris Letang twice on a scramble midway through the second period. Murray also had his moments and delivered key saves when needed.

Pittsburgh outshot Montreal 38-27.

“Obviously it wasn’t our best effort,” Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber said. “They were the better team tonight, but Carey gave us a chance.”

As Montreal pressed for the equalizer in the third, Kulak got caught at the blue line to give Pittsburgh a 2-on-1 break. Conor Sheary broke down the side and found Zucker in front to make it a two-goal game.

More NHL playoffs

Tampa Bay 3, Washington 2, SO: In Toronto, Nikita Kucherov scored the shootout winner to give the Lightning a victory over the Capitals in Eastern Conference round-robin play.

The teams played 5 minutes of 3-on-3 overtime before going to a shootout because the games for seeding are following regular-season rules.

Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped two of the three Capitals players he faced in the shootout after making 31 saves in regulation and overtime.

Kucherov also scored in regulation. Mitchell Stephens gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead 7:48 into the second. That lead didn’t last the rest of the period.

Richard Panik scored at the 17:24 mark of the second, and Evgeny Kuznetsov, scored with 27.1 seconds left before intermission to tie it.

Carolina 4, N.Y. Rangers 1: In Toronto, Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov scored three times for the first postseason hat trick in franchise history.

The 20-year-old Svechnikov beat Henrik Lundqvist for the first goal less than 5 minutes into the game. He followed with a power-play one-timer early in the second off a feed from Sami Vatanen, then buried a third at 14:02 of the third off a feed from Sebastian Aho — who assisted on all three of Svechnikov’s goals.

Jordan Martinook also scored for the Hurricanes. Petr Mrazek added 23 saves.

Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers. Lundqvist finished with 30 saves.

Winnipeg 3, Calgary 2: In Edmonton, Nikolaj Ehlers scored a power-play goal in the third period, lifting Winnipeg past Calgary as the teams drew even in their qualifying round.

Adam Lowry led the Jets with a goal and an assist in Game 2 of the best-of-five series. Rookie Jansen Harkins also scored for Winnipeg and Jack Roslovic contributed a pair of assists. Vezina Trophy finalist Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the win.

Elias Lindholm and Sam Bennett scored for the Flames. Calgary starter Cam Talbot stopped 23 shots in the loss.

Calgary won Saturday’s opener 4-1.

Vegas 5, Dallas 3: In Edmonton, Will Carrier scored the tiebreaker with 5:12 left, Robin Lehner had 24 saves and Vegas beat Dallas in Western Conference round-robin play.

Carrier backhanded a rebounded shot through his own legs and past Stars goaltender Ben Bishop after the Knights rallied from a 3-1, third-period deficit. Vegas scored three times in 5:02 and added an empty-netter with 21 seconds left.

Chandler Stephenson, Mark Stone, Nate Schmidt and William Karlsson also scored for the Knights.

Before the game, two players from each team knelt in support of Black Lives Matter and other social causes.

Joe Pavelski, Jamie Oleksiak and Corey Perry scored for Dallas, and Bishop had 28 saves.

Edmonton 6, Chicago 3: In Edmonton, Connor McDavid recorded his first playoff hat trick to lead Edmonton to a win over Chicago, tying their best-of-five qualifying series at one game apiece.

McDavid scored 19 seconds into the game, then off an electrifying solo rush just past the four-minute mark, and once more on the power play late in the second period.

Game 3 is Wednesday night.

Olli Maatta, Patrick Kane and defenseman Slater Koekkoek scored for the Blackhawks.

Chicago’s top line of Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad, and Dominik Kubalik, which torched the Oilers for 10 points in Saturday’ win, were held in check.

Stanley Cup qualifiers

CAROLINA VS. N.Y. RANGERS

Carolina leads 2-0

Saturday: Carolina 3-2

Monday: Carolina 4-1

Tuesday: 8 

x-Thursday: TBD

x-Saturday, Aug. 8: TBD

FLORIDA VS. N.Y. ISLANDERS

N.Y. Islanders lead 1-0

Saturday: N.Y. Islanders 2-1

Tuesday: Noon

Wednesday: Noon

x-Friday: TBD

x-Sunday: TBD

MONTREAL VS. PITTSBURGH

Series tied 1-1

Saturday: Montreal 3-2, OT

Monday: Pittsburgh 3-1

Wednesday: 8 

Friday: TBD

x-Saturday: TBD 

COLUMBUS VS. TORONTO

Columbus leads 1-0

Sunday: Columbus 2-0

Tuesday: 4 

Thursday: TBD

x-Friday: TBD

x-Sunday, Aug. 9: TBD

CHICAGO VS. EDMONTON

Series tied 1-1

Saturday: Chicago 6-4

Monday: Edmonton 6-3

Wednesday: 10:30 

Friday: TBD

x-Saturday, Aug. 8: TBD

WINNIPEG VS. CALGARY

Series tied 1-1

Saturday: Calgary 4-1

Monday: Winnipeg 3-2

Tuesday: 6:45

Thursday:10:30 

x-Saturday, Aug. 8: TBD

ARIZONA VS. NASHVILLE

Arizona leads 1-0

Sunday: Arizona 4-3

Tuesday: 2:30

Wednesday: 2:30

x-Friday: TBD

x-Sunday, Aug. 9: TBD

MINNESOTA VS. VANCOUVER

Minnesota leads 1-0

Sunday: Minnesota 3-0

Tuesday: 10:45

Thursday: TBD

x-Friday: TBD

x-Sunday, Aug. 9: TBD

x-if necessary