NEW YORK (AP) The Minnesota Wild have been thriving lately on the road to keep pace in the Central Division. After smothering the Rangers
4-1
Patrick Kane Jersey , they completed a three-game sweep in the New York area.Mikael Granlund and Eric Staal each scored twice and Devan Dubnyk made 22
saves in the Wild’s victory over the free-falling New York Rangers on Friday
night. The Wild also beat the Islanders on Monday night and New Jersey on
Thursday night.”Well, it obviously means getting six points, but we have never
done that before,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”Anytime you do something you
haven’t done before, it’s pretty cool.”The Rangers lost for the sixth straight
time in regulation. New York is 6-17-0 since beating Buffalo in the Winter
Classic on Jan. 1.”In my mind, we worked hard. We just weren’t able to make the
plays that we needed to make to get something out of that,” Rangers coach Alain
Vigneault said.Granlund opened the scoring for Minnesota at 16:06 of the first
period after Staal intercepted a terrible breakout pass attempt by Rangers
defenseman Anthony DeAngelo. Staal passed to Granlund, who easily put the puck
past rookie netminder Alexandar Georgiev.Georgiev played his second NHL game
after making his debut Thursday night in a 3-1 loss at Montreal.Staal made it
2-0 at 18:43. The goal was originally credited to Granlund but was changed to
Staal late in the third period.The Rangers narrowed the deficit to 2-1 when
Jesper Fast scored his ninth of the season at 2:41 of the second.Staal made it
3-1 for the visitors 52 seconds into the third period with a power-play goal –
his team-leading 29th – of the season. Defenseman Ryan Suter and Granlund had
assists.Eric Staal had a short stint with the Rangers two seasons ago, joining
his brother Marc in New York but only recording only three goals in 20 games and
none in the playoffs.”There’s always motivation every night,” Eric Staal said.
”You always want to prove yourself. Tonight was one of those nights we caught
them with some great plays and we were fortunate to be able to
capitalize.”Granlund, made it 4-1 at 9:22 of the third with his 17th goal of the
season.”Obviously, it’s always nice to score,” said the 25-year-old Finnish
forward who was drafted ninth overall by the Wild in 2010. ”It’s nice to get
some offense going.”Minnesota is 6-1-2 in its last eight games. The Wild are in
playoff position in a tight Central Division race.Rangers forward Rick Nash
didn’t dress for the second straight game. The 33-year-old Nash, whose contract
expires after this season, is expected to be traded by Monday’s deadline.He has
18 goals and 10 assists this season and is one point shy of 800 for his career.
Nash scored against the Flyers in last Sunday’s 7-4 home loss. He was also a
healthy scratch for Thursday’s loss at Montreal.The Rangers traded forward
Michael Grabner – their leading goal scorer – to the Devils late Thursday after
sending defenseman Nick Holden to the Boston Bruins earlier in the week.The
Rangers are facing late-season games without playoff-race meaning for the first
time since 2004 when they also made numerous deadline trades. They have only
missed the playoffs once since 2005-06, in 2010 when the Rangers missed out on
the last day of the season in a shootout loss at Philadephia.”We’re in a
results-oriented business,” Vigneault added. ”The effort and preparation is
there. We just have to stay with it.”NOTES: Forward Chris Kreider returned for
the Rangers after missing 24 games with blood clot in right arm. Kreider last
played Dec. 27 against Washington. … The Wild are 4-7-0 at Madison Square Garden
… Minnesota scratched forward Chris Stewart and defensemen Jonas Brodin and
Gustav Olofsson … The Rangers continued to be without injured defensemen Kevin
Shattenkirk, Ryan McDonagh and Steven Kampfer.UP NEXT:Wild: Host San Jose on
Sunday night.Rangers: Host Detroit on Sunday night. PITTSBURGH (AP) Tom Wilson’s
aggression helped propel him from fourth-line grinder into a difference-maker
who skates alongside Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.His teammates feed off
the edginess of his play. His coach loves his tenacity.”There are very few Tom
Wilsons in the league,” Barry Trotz said.And in Game 4 of Washington’s
increasingly prickly Eastern Conference semifinal against Pittsburgh, there
won’t be any at all.The league suspended Wilson three games for his run-in with
Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese that left the rookie with a concussion and a
broken jaw.Aston-Reese was skating in front of the Washington bench when
Wilson’s left shoulder hit some combination of Aston Reese’s shoulder and jaw in
the middle of the second period.Following a brief conference among the on-ice
officials, Wilson was not penalized on the play and the Capitals used it as a
rallying point on their way to a dramatic 4-3 victory that gave them a 2-1
series lead.The league, however
Blake Comeau Jersey , suspended Wilson following a hearing on Wednesday, ruling the hit was illegal. The league considered Aston-Reese’s head the initial
point of contact and called the incident avoidable.The decision means the
Capitals are now forced to push the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions to
the brink of elimination without one of their most physical players.Trotz
defended Wilson, who has now been disciplined by the department of player safety
three times this season.”It was a collision,” Trotz said Wednesday before the
suspension was announced. ”They hit and to me it looked like body on body. We’ve
stopped it, we’ve looked at it, there’s pictures all over the Internet that you
can see. He doesn’t leave his feet. It’s body-on-body. … I’m surprised the
player has the injury that he has.”The incident overshadowed the kind of taut
and electric play that’s come to symbolize one of the NHL’s top rivalries.Sidney
Crosby gave the Penguins the lead with a goal late in the second period only to
have Washington – in a historically un-Washingtonlike move whenever the Capitals
face Pittsburgh – beat Matt Murray twice in the third to win, the last coming on
Ovechkin bunting in a rebound of his own shot with just 1:07 to play.”I really
believe this year has felt a little bit different,” Washington forward Jay
Beagle said. ”Even in season when we would get down a couple goals we could
fight back. It seems like we’re never out of it.”Then again, it’s been 36 months
since the Penguins have exited the postseason without the Cup on the team
plane.Pittsburgh has ripped off nine consecutive series victories during its run
at the top, and has only trailed after three games once, in last year’s Eastern
Conference final against Ottawa.The Penguins rebounded to win in seven games and
there’s hardly any panic. It’s not what Pittsburgh does.The other thing the
Penguins try not to do? Get so caught up in trying to retaliate against Wilson
that they forget why they’re out there in the first place.Defenseman Kris Letang
pointed to his team’s antagonist – and entirely legal – response to Wilson in
Game 3 as proof.Jake Guentzel delivered a shot into the end boards. Defenseman
Jamie Oleksiak basically begged Wilson to fight, but didn’t take it too far when
Wilson failed to engage.”After the whistle we walked away,” Letang said.
”There’s not much business to do. I liked our answer.”The Penguins will need
another one if they want to keep their hopes of becoming the first team in 35
years to three-peat alive. They’ve only dropped consecutive games in the
playoffs five times in two-plus years and have lost to Washington only once in
10 all-time postseason meetings.The Capitals have momentum on their side.
Pittsburgh has history.”It’s hard to win in the playoffs and you’re going to go
through ups and downs and emotional highs and emotional lows,” Penguins coach
Mike Sullivan said. ”And it’s all about how you handle those and respond. …
Right now our eyes are on Game 4.”—UNDISCIPLINED OR PLAIN SLOPPY?The Nashville
Predators won the Presidents’ Trophy despite leading the NHL in penalty minutes.
They had played with much more discipline until melting down with three
consecutive penalties helping turn a 3-0 lead after the first period into a 7-4
loss and a 2-1 deficit to the Winnipeg Jets.Now Nashville faces a challenge on
Thursday night (9:30 p.m. ET NBCSN) in their Western Conference semifinal to
avoid being pushed to the brink of elimination in the best-of-seven series.”We
have a smart group,” Predators center Ryan Johansen said Wednesday. ”We
understand what we did wrong and what needs to be done.”Not only did the
Predators not help themselves with five penalties – three in the third after
tying the Jets at 4-4 – they didn’t play well after grabbing a big lead.”We just
sat back too much,” Predators forward Filip Forsberg said. ”Obviously they
scored a goal early and after that we just became passive and, yeah, I don’t
think it would have mattered which team we were playing. If we play like that,
we’re going to get scored on.”—WHERE’S PHIL?Penguins forward Phil Kessel set a
career high with 92 points during the regular season, but has just one secondary
assist through three games of the series and – perhaps more troubling for a
player with 330 goals – only four shots on net.Sullivan and the coaching staff
met with Kessel before Game 3 in an attempt to provide insight into what Kessel
could do to get it going. The main thing? Just becoming more active. Sullivan
wants Kessel to get closer to traffic in front of the net instead of loitering
at the half boards looking for an opening.—AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker
contributed to this report.—
