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Tampa Bay eliminates Detroit from Stanley Cup playoffs

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Ben Bishop refused to crack.

Tampa Bay’s Vezina Trophy candidate stopped 34 shots, Alex Killorn scored with less than two minutes remaining and the Lightning advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night in Tampa, Fla.

Bishop used all of his 6-foot-7 frame, even making one third-period save with his mask, to repeatedly deny the Red Wings and post his fourth career playoff shutout.

“I just wanted to find a way to win; the guys have done a good job scoring goals all series for me. It was my turn tonight,” Bishop said. “I just had to keep them out of the net.”

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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. Killorn also provided the winner in Game 1.

“It was a play where Mrazek makes a goalie play and Callahan kind of jumped him. Once I saw that Mrazek was out of his net, I was trying to gain position and go to the net knowing that if Callahan could get it to me I could probably put it in,” Killorn said.

“It’s a great feeling. We battled so hard for those two periods and there were periods where Bishop kept us in it. To get the winning goal with under 2 minutes left was huge because I think they did outplay us at instances in that game.”

Tampa Bay eliminated the Red Wings in the first round for the second straight year, advancing to a second-round matchup against either the Florida Panthers or New York Islanders, whose opening-round series is tied, 2-2.

Pittsburgh 5, at New York Rangers 0: Flashing his old brilliance, Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and set up two others and the Penguins pushed the Rangers to the brink of playoff elimination.

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, first-round series.

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Sidney Crosby, who added two assists, and the red-hot Penguins can wrap up things in Game 5 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 three of six power plays, and is seven of 19 in the series with the extra man.

Chicago 4, at St. Louis 3: Patrick Kane scored on a backhander early in the second overtime and the Chicago Blackhawks avoided first-round elimination with a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night in St. Louis.

The game winner was the first goal in the series by the defending Stanley Cup winners’ stars, Kane and Jonathan Toews. Both assisted on Artemi Panarin’s goal in the final second of the second period for a 3-1 lead.

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Kane, who led the NHL in scoring with 107 points, circled the net to corral his own shot that slowly slid wide, and poked it past Brian Elliott at 3:07 to send a standing-room crowd of 19,956 home unhappy.

David Backes tied it on a deflection that slipped past Corey Crawford with 5:10 to play. Rookie Robby Fabbri and Jaden Schwartz also scored for St. Louis.

Marian Hossa and Artem Anisimov also scored for Chicago, which will host Game 6 on Saturday.

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