NEW YORK - Chris Kreider steered in a pass from Rick Nash 7:03 into overtime, and the New York Rangers stayed alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
New York, which erased 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the critical Game 4 match up in the Eastern Conference semifinals, still trails the series 3-1. The Rangers will need to win again on Saturday in Boston to force a Game 6 back in Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers, who were out shot 40-32, won a face off deep in their zone, and Nash rushed the puck up ice. He stopped above the right circle and fed a hard pass in front that Kreider skated into and tipped past goalie Tuukka Rask for his first goal of the playoffs.
Derek Stepan and Brian Boyle scored tying goals in the third period for the Rangers, who even found success on the power play. Carl Hagelin netted New York’s first goal of the game in the second period.
Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves.
Boston got second-period goals from Nathan Horton and rising star Torey Krug to build an early lead. Tyler Seguin’s first of the playoffs put the Bruins back on top 3-2 in the third.
Only three teams have lost a series after leading 3-0, but the Bruins are the most recent to do it in 2010 against Philadelphia. One more victory will put Boston back into the conference finals for the second time in three years.
Stepan got New York even at 2-2 just 1:15 into the third after a dump-in. Rask went behind the net to slow the puck down for defenseman Zdeno Chara, but Stepan forced a turnover when he surprised Chara from behind.
Stepan gathered the puck, came around in front and tucked the puck inside the left post for his team-leading fourth goal of the playoffs.
But the Bruins made the most of another power play and took a 3-2 lead just 2 seconds after a goalie interference penalty against Ryan McDonagh expired. Seguin got to his own rebound in close and shoved a shot past Lundqvist at 8:06.
However, the Rangers still wouldn’t go away and they finally connected on the power play for the first time in the series.
Boyle took a pass from Stepan in the slot and snapped a drive that nestled into the middle of the net at 10:00.
Given another power play 2 minutes later, the Rangers couldn’t make it two in a row.
New York Coach John Tortorella made desperate moves with his lineup, hoping to find some chemistry to spark his club. Tortorella benched star center Brad Richards, who had just one goal in the playoffs, and rugged forward Arron Asham in favor of seldom-used Kris Newbury and Micheal Haley.
The Bruins used their power play to grab control in the second period, connecting twice in a span of 3:02 to take a 2-0 lead.
Horton tried to feed a pass from the bottom of the left circle into the slot, but the puck hit Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto and bounced back to Horton. This time, Horton let a shot go that struck the inside of Lundqvist’s left leg and caromed into the net at 4:39.
Just over a minute later, Krug made the Rangers pay again. Krug, a rookie defenseman who made his NHL postseason debut in the series opener, fired a slap shot from the Stanley Cup logo in the Rangers’ zone that sailed past Lundqvist and into the top right corner at 7:41.
RED WINGS 2, BLACKHAWKS 0
DETROIT - Jakub Kindl scored on a power play in the second period, Daniel Cleary had an empty-net goal and Jimmy Howard made 27 saves to help the Detroit Red Wings hold on for a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, putting the Blackhawks on the brink of elimination.
After losing Game 1, the seventh-seeded Red Wings have surged into control of the second round series by handing Chicago its first three-game losing streak of the year.
Game 5 is Saturday night in Chicago.
NHL playoffs CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
THURSDAY’S GAMES
NY Rangers 4, Boston 3, OT
Boston leads series 3-1
Detroit 2, Chicago 0
Detroit leads series 3-1
San Jose at Los Angeles, (n)
Series tied 2-2
TODAY’S GAME All times
Central Ottawa at Pittsburgh, 6:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh leads series 3-1
Sports, Pages 21 on 05/24/2013