CHICAGO (AP) Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a pair of impressive wrist shots, Brian Elliott made 39 saves and the St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on Tuesday night to open a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Jaden Schwartz scored a tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period for the second straight game as St. Louis moved to the brink of its first appearance in the Western Conference semifinals since 2012. The Blues were eliminated in the opening round in each of the past three years.
Game 5 is Thursday night in St. Louis
Duncan Keith had two goals for Chicago, which dropped consecutive home playoff games for the first time since 2012.
Andrew Shaw had a goal and two assists, and Corey Crawford finished with 16 saves after getting into a fight with Blues rookie Robby Fabbri during a wild second period.
PENGUINS 3, RANGERS 1
NEW YORK (AP) - Matt Cullen beat Henrik Lundqvist on a semi-breakaway after beating two defensemen early in the third period and Pittsburgh spoiled the return of Rangerscaptain Ryan McDonagh with a win in Game 3 of their first-round series.
Sidney Crosby also scored and Matt Murray made 16 saves in his return to action in helping the Penguins take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Game 4 is Thursday night in New York. The Rangers have lost four consecutive playoff games at Madison Square Garden going back to last season's Eastern Conference final against Tampa Bay.
Kris Letang iced the game with an empty-net goal.
Rick Nash scored for the Rangers, who played without an injured McDonagh (upper body, hand) in the first two games in Pittsburgh. Lundqvist made 28 saves, giving up a power-play goal to Crosby and a one-on-one chance to Cullen.
LIGHTNING 3, RED WINGS 2
DETROIT (AP) - Ondrej Palat scored with 2:59 left in the third period, lifting Tampa Bay over Detroit for a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
Game 5 is Thursday night at Tampa Bay.
Ben Bishop stopped 26 shots for theLightning and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for the Red Wings.
Palat was in a perfect position right in front of the net to make the most of Jonathan Drouin's pass on the game-winning goal. Drouin had three assists.
Nikita Kucherov had power-play goals in the first and second period to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead late in the second, but Detroit's Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist scored late in the period to tie the game.
DUCKS 3, PREDATORS 0
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Frederik Andersen made 27 saves, and Anaheim shut out Nashville to pull within 2-1 in the first-round playoff series.
The Ducks have not lost three straight to open a postseason series since the 2006 Western Conference finals, and they didn't come close to dropping a third straight this year.
Andersen, who started in net after John Gibson took the first two losses in Anaheim, posted his second postseason shutout despite taking Shea Weber's slap shot off his head. He has 15 postseason wins since 2014.
Chris Stewart had a goal and an assist, and Jamie McGinn and Rickard Rakell each scored their first goals of the series.
Game 4 is Thursday night in Nashville.
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