Overtime win puts Rangers on brink of Stanley Cup finals

NEW YORK: Martin St. Louis scored the overtime winner on Sunday, lifting the New York Rangers to a 3-2 win over Montreal and within sight of the NHL’s Stanley Cup finals.
St. Louis scored at 6:02 of the overtime period. The Canadiens had tried to clear the puck out of the zone at the left point, but Brad Richards managed to keep it in the zone and get it to Carl Hagelin.
Hagelin moved the puck across to the right circle, where St. Louis took the pass and fired a high shot over Canadiens goalie Dustin Tokarski for the victory.
“I looked up and he was just hanging out there on the right side,” Hagelin said. “I was tired at the time and I was just hoping he’d end the game.
“He did, it was a great shot by him. He didn’t have much to shoot it, but he found the spot over the glove.”
The win gave the Rangers a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.
With one more victory they will reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since they lifted the trophy in 1994.
The Canadiens will try to keep the Rangers from closing out the series when they host game five on Tuesday.
Montreal have rallied from a 3-1 series deficit twice, in 2004 against Boston and in 2010 against Washington.
“It’s great but we haven’t done anything yet,” St. Louis said. “We’ll enjoy tonight but (Monday) we get on the plane and try to close out the series.”
Richards also cautioned that the series was “far from over.”
“You don’t want to get ahead of yourself,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity. You sign up for these opportunities at the start of the year. This is exactly the position that every player in the NHL hopes to be.
“We want to do it as quick as possible.”
New York also got goals from Hagelin off a shorthanded breakaway in the first period, and Derick Brassard on a slap shot late in the second.
Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as he matched Mike Richter’s club record with his 41st career playoff victory.
Francis Bouillon and PK Subban scored for Montreal, who went 1-for-8 on the power play.

Putin watches as Russia win fifth world title
Meantime, Russia won the world ice hockey title on Sunday, beating Finland 5-2 in the gold-medal match watched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk.
As Western-friendly chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential elections in Ukraine, Putin was focusing on an ice hockey game in which Russia claimed a fifth world title.
“The head of state wanted to personally support the Russian team playing in the final of the world hockey championships,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
It was the first meeting between the two teams in a world championship final, with Russia losing to the Finns in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“We owed our fans this win after a poor performance in Sochi,” said left wing Danis Zaripov. “The gold medal is what we came here for, no other result would do.
“We acted as a single unit throughout the tournament and it a victory for everyone.”
Zaripov collected a goal and two assists, while Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovski produced 24 saves.
Russia came into the final without their manager Oleg Znarok, who has been handed a one-match ban for making a throat-slashing gesture toward Swedish assistant coach Rikard Gronborg following their verbal altercation at the end of the Saturday’s semi-final.
But Russia opened the score halfway into the first period through winger Sergei Shirokov, who beat Finland ‘keeper Pekka Rinne with a wrist shot on powerplay.
Finland levelled through IFK Helsinki forward Iiro Pakarinen, who sent the puck in between Bobrovski’s pads with just three seconds remaining before the first intermission.
Olli Palola lifted Finland 2-1 up 6:51 into the second period when Zaripov was in the sin bin but Washington Capitals sharpshooter Alexander Ovechkin levelled again just 43sec later.
Pittsburgh Penguins center Yevgeni Malkin put Russia into a 3-2 lead with 4:24 remaining in the second period when Russia were on two-man powerplay.
Zaripov and Viktor Tikhonov added one apiece in the third period both on powerplay to secure Russia’s win and make up for the team’s flop at their home Sochi Games.
Earlier on Sunday last year’s champions Sweden beat the Czech Republic 3-0 to take the bronze medal.