NEW YORK — Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and set up two others and the Pittsburgh Penguins pushed the New York Rangers to the brink of playoff elimination with a 5-0 victory Thursday night.
Malkin, whose four points tied his single-game high in the postseason, assisted on two of the Penguins’ three first-period goals in helping Pittsburgh dominate the Rangers for the second consecutive game and take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven, firstround series.
Sidney Crosby, who added two assists, and the red-hot Penguins can close out the series in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Rookie goaltender Matt Murray, who returned to the lineup for Game 3, made 31 saves in posting his first playoff shutout.
Eric Fehr, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary also scored as the Penguins tallied four times on 18 shots against Henrik Lundqvist, who was lifted early in the second period.
Pittsburgh converted 3 of 6 power plays and is 7 of 19 in the series with the extra man.
The Rangers have lost five consecutive home playoff games dating to last season. They brought tenor John Amirante out of retirement to sing the national anthem and the crowd at Madison Square Garden was buzzing when the puck dropped.
The excitement disappeared 69 seconds into the game when Lundqvist allowed a rebound on a slap shot by Ben Lovejoy and Fehr charged down the middle of the ice to poke the rebound into the net. Malkin made the pass that set up Lovejoy’s big shot.
The big Russian, who hurt an arm in early March and didn’t return to the lineup until Saturday, helped push the lead to 2-0 at 7:11 with a shot from the point on a power play. Crosby deflected the shot on the way in and Hornqvist tipped it again standing in front of Lundqvist for his fourth goal of the postseason.
LIGHTNING 1, RED WINGS 0
TAMPA, Fla. — Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots and Alex Killorn scored with less than two minutes remaining as the Tampa Bay Lightning advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
Killorn’s second winning goal of the series was set up by Ryan Callahan, who retrieved goalie Petr Mrazek’s bad pass behind the Detroit net and centered the puck in the crease for Killorn’s backhander at 18:17 of the third period.
Tampa Bay eliminated the Red Wings in the first round for the second consecutive year. Detroit pushed the defending Eastern Conference champions to seven games a year ago, but could only beat them once in five attempts this time, with Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov picking up the offensive slack for Tampa Bay with star Steven Stamkos injured.
DUCKS 4, PREDATORS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nate Thompson and Jamie McGinn scored nearly two minutes apart late in the second period, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Nashville Predators to even up their first-round series at 2-2.
Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Cogliano also scored as the road team stayed perfect in this best-of-seven series.
Goalie Frederik Andersen picked up his second consecutive victory by making 30 saves and setting a career shutout streak of 91 minutes, 26 seconds.
Sports on 04/22/2016