Jaromir Jagr and Michael Nylander made Kari Lehtonen long for his safe spot on the bench. And the New York Rangers' top line needed less than a period to do it.
Lehtonen got the curious start over Johan Hedberg and then endured a thorough beating as the Rangers scored three times in the first period and cruised to a 7-0 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers that gave New York a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference playoff series on Tuesday night.
Nylander had his first playoff hat trick, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots in his first NHL playoff shutout for the Rangers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lehtonen was touched for all seven goals on 35 shots.
Jagr assisted on all three of Nylander's scores and they teamed to set up defenseman Marek Malik for another that made it 3-0 at 12:26. But Nylander had the quickest strike of all when he wired a shot under Lehtonen's shoulder 32 seconds after the opening faceoff on New York's initial shot.
Senators 2, Penguins 1
At Pittsburgh, light-scoring Anton Volchenkov sent a slap shot from the slot for a goal midway through the third period and the Ottawa Senators moved within one victory of eliminating the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ottawa takes a 3-1 lead into Game 5 tonight, where the teams split the first two games in the Eastern Conference first-round series.
Volchenkov, a defenseman, scored only once in 78 games during the season and had only one previous playoff goal, four years and a day before scoring his second. He has only nine goals in 229 career regular-season games.
Canucks 2, Stars 1
At Dallas, Trevor Linden shoveled a rebound past Marty Turco with 5:31 left in the third period and defenseman Willie Mitchell prevented a tie by sweeping a trickling puck off the goal line for the Vancouver Canucks.
Vancouver leads the series 3-1 and can advance to the second round -- and avoid a return trip to Texas -- with a victory at home tonight.
Dallas is in jeopardy of being eliminated in a five-game, first-round series for the third straight postseason. A big part of the Stars' problem has been an inability to win at home. This was their sixth straight home playoff loss covering those three playoffs.
Wild 4, Ducks 1
At St. Paul, Minnesota, Marian Gaborik scored a rare power-play goal and Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves to help the Wild avoid a sweep.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brian Rolston and Mark Parrish also scored for the Wild, who had been thoroughly dominated by Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer and the defensive Anaheim Ducks in the first three games of the series.
Minnesota still faces an incredibly daunting task. Only two teams in NHL history have come back from 3-0 deficits to advance in the playoffs, the 1975 New York Islanders and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs. Game 5 is tonight in Anaheim.
Flames 3, Red Wings 2
At Calgary, Alberta, Jarome Iginla scored the go-ahead goal at 9:21 of the third period, leading Calgary over Detroit.
Matthew Lombardi and defenseman Mark Giordano scored power-play goals for the Flames, who avoided falling behind 3-0 in the Western Conference quarter-final series. Game 4 will be tonight at Calgary, with Detroit leading 2-1.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB