Ryan Lindgren celebrates an empty-net goal with Jacob Trouba, 8, Kevin Rooney, 17, Andrew Copp, 18,and Mika Zibanejad during the third period of Game 5 Wednesday night at New York. Frank Franklin II/Associated Press
NEW YORK — Filip Chytil scored the tie-breaking goal early in the third period and the New York Rangers staved off elimination with a 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday night.
Jacob Trouba and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist, and Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin, torched for 10 goals over three periods in the previous two games, had 27 saves.
Jake Guentzel had two goals and Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh, which leads the best of seven series 3-2. Evgeni Malkin had two assists and Louis Domingue finished with 29 saves.
Penguins star Sidney Crosby left with about seven minutes remaining in the second period with an apparent injury and didn’t return.
Game 6 is Friday in Pittsburgh, and a potential deciding Game 7 would be Sunday back at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers got their first power play of the night early in the third period and took advantage as Chytil got a pass from Lafreniere in the right circle, turned around and whipped a shot past Domingue to put the Rangers ahead 4-3 at 2:53.
Pittsburgh pulled Domingue for an extra skater with about 1 1/2 minutes remaining. He returned briefly 20 seconds later during a stoppage in play and left the ice again. Lindgren sealed the win with an empty-netter with 16 seconds left.
With the Penguins leading 1-0 after 20 minutes, Pittsburgh’s Mike Matheson hit a goalpost 3 1/2 minutes into the second period. Domingue then made saves a minute later on a shot by Artemi Panarin and a tip try by Lindgren. The goalie also stopped a slap shot by Trouba and a follow by Panarin two minutes later.
Letang made it 2-0 at 7:58 as he got a cross-ice pass from Malkin and fired a slap shot past Shesterkin on Pittsburgh’s first shot on goal of the period.
The Rangers then took the lead as they scored on three consecutive shots in a 2:42 span late in the second.
Fox got the Rangers on the scoreboard with 4:49 left as he got the puck inside the blue line, slowly skated up and fired a shot from the top of the right circle past Domingue’s shoulder.
Lafreniere tied it 90 seconds later as he quickly fired a slap shot in front off a centering pass from Kaapo Kakko.
Trouba put the Rangers ahead another 1:12 later as he skated across the right circle and put a backhander from the middle through Domingue’s skates.
The lead lasted just 13 seconds as Guentzel tied it with his second of the night and seventh of the series as he scored off a centering pass from Malkin.
PANTHERS 5, CAPITALS 3: Carter Verhaeghe set a Florida postseason record with a five-point night, and the Panthers escaped a three-goal deficit to beat visiting Washington Capitals and take a 3-2 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots for Florida, which trailed 3-0 in the second period. Verhaeghe had two goals and three assists for the Panthers.
Patric Hornqvist, Claude Giroux and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, and Aleksander Barkov had two assists.
T.J. Oshie scored twice for Washington, which also got a goal from Justin Schultz and two assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ilya Samsonov stopped 33 shots.
Verhaeghe broke the Panthers’ playoff scoring record that Ray Sheppard set on a four-point night back on April 22, 1996 — which remains the last, and only, season in which the Panthers won a playoff series.
They can change that Friday, when Game 6 is played in Washington. Game 7, if necessary, would be back at Florida on Sunday.
NOTES
OILERS: Defenseman Darnell Nurse will miss Game 6 of Edmonton’s first-round playoff series with Los Angeles after the NHL suspended him one game for head-butting Kings forward Phillip Danault.
The incident occurred with 10 seconds left in the second period of the Kings’ 5-4 overtime win in Game 5 on Tuesday night in Edmonton.
TUESDAY’S LATE GAMES
KINGS 5, OILERS 4: Adrian Kempe scored 1:12 into overtime to give visiting Los Angeles a win over Edmonton for a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Kempe muscled his way past his defender and wrapped a shot around Edmonton goalie Mike Smith to secure the victory.
The result means the Oilers need a win in Game 6 in Los Angeles on Thursday to stave off elimination.
BLUES 5, WILD 2: Vladimir Tarasenko had three goals in the third period to break open a tie game and series, and St. Louis pushed Minnesota to the edge of elimination.
Ryan O’Reilly scored for the fourth time in the series and Brandon Saad got the tying goal late in the second period. Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for his second straight win.
Wild star Kirill Kaprizov scored twice on Minnesota’s previously sluggish power play in the first period. Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 shots.
The series returns to St. Louis for Game 6 on Thursday night.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.