Rangers take 3-1 series lead

Penguins beat Senators, sweep into next round

April 17, 2008

Marc Staal pushed the New York Rangers within a win of the second round, and he did it with a good old slap shot.

No tricks or funky screens were needed to beat Martin Brodeur and the visiting New Jersey Devils. Staal scored his first NHL playoff goal with 3:13 left in Game 4, and the Rangers earned a 5-3 victory last night for a 3-1 series lead in the first-round series over New Jersey.

"I was thinking shoot right away," Staal said. "I tried to shoot it to the far post and it just went in."

Scott Gomez had two goals and Chris Drury also scored for the Rangers, who could end the series tomorrow with a win in New Jersey. New York took the first two games on the road before splitting two at home.

Rookie defenseman Staal took a pass from Martin Straka, who provided the Rangers with one of their four one-goal leads, and fired a drive from inside the blue line that got by Brodeur. Gomez sealed it with an empty-netter with 12.2 seconds left.

Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves and the Rangers beat the Devils for the 10th time in 12 meetings this season.

• Penguins 3, Senators 1 // Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals, leading Pittsburgh over host Ottawa to complete a four-game sweep of their first-round series. Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds remaining and had an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which got its first sweep in 16 years and its first playoff series win since 2001. Cory Stillman scored for Ottawa, which was swept out of the first round for the third time in its 11 consecutive playoff appearances.

• Predators 3, Red Wings 2 // Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber scored in a 32-second span in the first period, and host Nashville evened its first-round Western Conference playoff series against Detroit. Dan Ellis stopped 39 shots, Greg de Vries added a goal and Martin Erat had two assists as the Predators grabbed a lead in the first period and never let up.

E-mail

Reprint

Get home delivery of The Sun and save over 50% off the newsstand price

Rangers take 3-1 series lead

Penguins beat Senators, sweep into next round

Features

Featured Video Advertisers

Online resources

Going deep

Going deep Sun sports special reports and in-depth coverage
	> 1983 O's > Recruiting Tavon Austin > Football: The tie that binds > Orioles > Baltimore Colts > Going deep: Other sports

Rangers take 3-1 series lead

Penguins beat Senators, sweep into next round

Related topic galleries: Martin Brodeur, National Hockey League, Martin Straka, Detroit Red Wings, Greg de Vries, New Jersey Devils, Orlando Predators

Features

Featured Video Advertisers

Popular stories

Online resources

Going deep