Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots, Alex Killorn scored with less than two minutes remaining and the Tampa Bay Lightning advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.
Killorn’s second winning goal of the series was set up by Ryan Callahan, who retrieved goalie Petr Mrazek’s bad pass behind the Detroit net and centered the puck in the crease for Killorn’s backhander at 18:17 of the third period.
Tampa Bay eliminated the Red Wings in the first round for the second straight year. Detroit pushed the defending Eastern Conference champions to seven games a year ago, but could only beat them once in five attempts this time, with Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov picking up the offensive slack for Tampa Bay with star Steven Stamkos injured.
Detroit only scored eight goals in the series, though not because of a lack of opportunities.
The Red Wings finished 1-for-25 on the power play, and their futility was never more evident than Thursday night, when they failed to even get a shot on goal during a 5-on-3 advantage early in the opening period.
The closest they came during that first power-play was Pavel Datsyuk hitting the post. The Lightning were fortunate again late in the period, when Detroit’s Danny Dekeyser also hit the post before the puck glanced off Bishop’s right arm.
Just as frustrating was an inability to crack Bishop in the second period, when the Tampa Bay goalie rejected Riley Sheahan, Darren Helm and Dylan Larkin on breakaways that could have snapped a scoreless tie.
Bishop sopped 14 shots in the second and 11 more in the third, two in the closing seconds with Detroit on its fourth power play of the night. Mrazek wasn’t tested as often but his teammates played a hand in that by limiting the line of Johnson, Kucherov and Killorn to a combined two shots heading into the final period.
Mrazek, who replaced Jimmy Howard after the Red Wings lost the first two games of the series on the road, finished with 23 saves. He won Game 3 in Detroit 2-0 – his third career playoff shutout, all against the Lightning – but contributed to his own demise this time when he went behind the net but failed to clear the puck.
Penguins 5, Rangers 0
Flashing his old brilliance, Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and set up two others and the Pittsburgh Penguins pushed the New York Rangers to the brink of playoff elimination.
Malkin, whose four points tied his single-game high in the postseason, assisted on two of the Penguins’ three first-period goals in helping Pittsburgh dominate the Rangers for the second consecutive game and take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven, first-round series.
Sidney Crosby, who added two assists, and the red-hot Penguins can wrap up things in Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Rookie goaltender Matt Murray, who returned to the lineup for Game 3, made 31 saves in posting his first playoff shutout.
Eric Fehr, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary also scored as the Penguins tallied four times on 18 shots against Henrik Lundqvist, who was lifted early in the second period.
Pittsburgh converted 3 of 6 power plays, and is 7-of-19 in the series with the extra man.
Ducks 4, Predators 1
Nate Thompson and Jamie McGinn scored nearly two minutes apart late in the second period, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Nashville Predators on Thursday night to even up their first-round series at 2-2.
Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Cogliano also scored as the road team stayed perfect in this best-of-seven series.
Goalie Frederik Andersen picked up his second straight win by making 30 saves and setting a career shutout streak of 91 minutes, 26 seconds.
Mike Fisher scored his first goal of the series.
Nashville lost a 2-0 series lead despite outshooting the Ducks for a second straight game, this time with a 31-25 edge in shots. But the Predators went 0-of-6 with the man advantage and are 1-of-19 on the power play in this series against the NHL’s best penalty killers in the regular season.
Game 5 is Saturday in Anaheim.