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Associated Press 9y

NHL Playoff Capsules

NHL, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild

NEW YORK -- Sidney Crosby scored twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins evened their first-round playoff series with the New York Rangers with a 4-3 win Saturday night.

The Rangers won Game 1 by making Crosby virtually invisible and keeping Evgeni Malkin out of the danger zone. On Saturday, both of them and the Penguins as a whole showed more jump, possessing the puck and keeping New York off-balance. Forcing turnovers in the decisive second period, shutting down the Rangers' power play and generally controlling the pace, the Penguins got even.

Game 3 is Monday night in Pittsburgh.

Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 23 saves for the Penguins, while Henrik Lundqvist had 18.

Brandon Sutter and Chris Kunitz also scored for Pittsburgh, and Derek Stepan, Derick Brassard and Rick Nash (with 5.1 seconds to go) had goals for New York.

LIGHTNING 5, RED WINGS 1

TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay's Ben Bishop stopped 24 shots for his first NHL playoff victory, a win over Detroit that evened their opening-round Eastern Conference series at one game apiece.

Tyler Johnson had two goals for the Lightning, who dropped Game 1 while outplaying the Red Wings for most of a 3-2 loss. Alex Killorn and Andrej Sustr scored in second period before Johnson's breakaway goal finished a three-goal flurry that put Tampa Bay up 4-0.

Bishop lost his bid for a shutout when Detroit's Tomas Tatar scored at 5:49 of the third period. Despite the loss, the Red Wings return home for Game 3 on Tuesday night feeling fortunate the series is tied. They did not play particularly well in either of the two games at Amalie Arena, but escaped with the opener thanks to an outstanding playoff debut by young goalie Petr Mrazek.

The 23-year-old Mrazek was pulled Saturday after Tampa Bay's three-goal second period, replaced by the struggling, but much more experienced Jimmy Howard, who gave up Tampa Bay's final goal to Valtteri Filppula on a power play in the closing minutes.

BLUES 4, WILD 1

ST. LOUIS -- Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals in the first period and then had an empty-netter for his first career playoff hat trick, leading St. Louis to a victory over Minnesota that evened the Western Conference series at a game apiece.

Tarasenko had an assist and no shots in a 4-2 loss in Game 1, but responded with an impressive performance more in line with his play in the regular season. The dynamic winger ran his playoff total to seven goals in nine games.

Patrik Berglund's unassisted goal past Devan Dubnyk made it a two-goal cushion with 1:58 to go for the Central Division champions, who will carry momentum to Minnesota for Game 3 on Monday night.

Jake Allen made 24 saves for St. Louis.

Marco Scandella scored for Minnesota.

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