Sidney Crosby scored a goal, prevented one and his deft stickhandling led to Kris Letang’s winner late in the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins rebounded to beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Friday night to level the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series at 1-1.
Several minutes after Crosby slid on his stomach across the crease to punch away Anton Volchenkov’s shot as it lay centimeters from the goal line, Crosby began cycling the puck by himself behind the Ottawa net. Looking for an opening to pass or to dart out and take a shot, he crossed the goalie trapezoid three times before finally carrying the puck out and, sliding to the ice, feeding it to Letang.
Letang’s shot with 4 minutes, 12 seconds left beat goalie Brian Elliott, who made 29 saves, but didn’t get any support after Peter Regin scored on the Senators’ first shot 18 seconds into the game. Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury shook off that goal and a poor first game to turn aside Ottawa’s next 19 shots.
Sharks 6, Avalanche 5, OT
In San Jose, California, Devin Setoguchi deflected in a loose puck for a power-play goal 5 minutes, 32 seconds into overtime as the Sharks rallied to level the Western Conference series 1-1.
Joe Pavelski tied it for the Sharks with 31.3 seconds left in regulation with goalie Evgeni Nabokov off for an extra attacker and Setoguchi won it with his second goal of the game in overtime.
The Sharks avoided dropping the first two games at home for a third straight playoff series. The series shifts to Denver for Game 3 and Game 4, beginning tonight.
Nabokov earned his fifth overtime win in 13 playoff games.
He allowed five goals on the first 13 shots he faced, getting mock applause when he stopped an easy dump-in midway through the third period.
Ron Blake, Manny Malhotra and Scott Nichol also scored for San Jose.
Chris Stewart had two goals, while Kyle Cumiskey, Milan Hejduk and Brandon Yip also scored for Colorado.
Devils 5, Flyers 3
In Newark, New Jersey, Dainius Zubrus scored on a rebound with 4 minutes, 4 seconds to play as New Jersey beat Philadelphia to level the Eastern Conference series at 1-1.
Zach Parise, Colin White, Andy Greene and Ilya Kovalchuk also scored, while Martin Brodeur stopped 26 shots to help New Jersey avoid losing the first two games at home in the best-of-seven series.
Aaron Asham, Claude Giroux and Chris Pronger scored for the Flyers, who are headed home for Game 3 and Game 4, tonight and Tuesday.
Brian Boucher had no chance on Zubrus’ goal. Zubrus powered his way around the net and sent a shot on goal that was blocked. Parise and Zubrus both swung at the rebound and the puck went into the net.
Kovalchuk added an empty-net goal.
Predators 4, Blackhawks 1
In Chicago, J.P. Dumont scored twice in the final period as the Nashville Predators won for the first time on the road in the playoffs, rallying to beat the Blackhawks in the Western Conference quarter-final opener.
It was Nashville’s first road playoff win in 11 attempts and it was a dramatic one, with former Blackhawk Dumont burning his former team in the third period.
Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in his playoff debut for Nashville, allowing only Patrick Kane’s second-period goal. After Dumont gave Nashville the lead, Jerred Smithson and Martin Erat added empty-net goals in the final seconds.
Nashville’s David Legwand got the puck after a turnover by Chicago’s Troy Brouwer, raced in and took a shot that Antti Niemi stopped, but Dumont was there to knock in the rebound to give the Predators a 2-1 lead after 10 minutes, 37 seconds of the final period.
Red Wings 7, Coyotes 4
In Glendale, Arizona, Henrik Zetterberg scored three goals, including the winner with 6 minutes, 6 seconds left, as Detroit leveled the series 1-1.
Zetterberg scored the deciding goal when he gathered a rebound off a shot by Todd Bertuzzi and fed it into an open net. He added an empty-net goal with 47 seconds left.
Linemate Valtteri Filppula scored twice, while Justin Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk added goals for Detroit. Shane Doan, Matthew Lombardi, Wojtek Wolski and Keith Yandle scored for Phoenix. Game 3 is tonight in Detroit.
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