NHL roundup: Canadiens beat Rangers in OT after scoring in final minute of regulation

Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec scored with 18 seconds left in regulation to tie the score, and Alexander Radulov scored at 18:34 of overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday night in Game 2 of the first-round series at Montreal.

Radulov jammed the puck in from the edge of the crease after a feed from Max Pacioretty to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1. The victory was the first for a Canadian team in the playoffs since 2015.

Trailing 3-2 in the third period, the Canadiens pressed hard and finally scored with 18 seconds left, with goalie Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker. Plekanec redirected Rad-ulov’s feed past goalie Henrik Lundqvist to force overtime. The goal was the latest tying playoff goal in Canadiens history, beating Jacques Lemaire’s goal in 1975 with 24 seconds remaining.

Jeff Petry and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, which wasted early leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York.

Montreal had a 45-30 shots advantage in regulation and a 58-38 overall edge.

at Pittsburgh, 4, Columbus 1: Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Marc-Andre Fleury stayed sharp in his second straight playoff start and the Penguins took a 2-0 lead over the Blue Jackets.

Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist for the defending Stanley Cup champions, Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the postseason and Patric Hornqvist pushed in an empty-net goal.

Fleury finished with 39 saves while filling in for the injured Matt Murray, and received plenty of help. Pittsburgh blocked 23 shots before they even got to Fleury.

Brandon Saad scored for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots.

St. Louis 2, at Minnesota 1: Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 remaining during a four-on-four situation, enabling the Blues to leave Minnesota with a 2-0 lead in the first-round series.

Joel Edmundson had the first goal for the Blues after winning Game 1 in overtime, Jake Allen was as steady as ever in the net again with 23 saves and coach Mike Yeo devised another shrewd plan against his former team.

Zach Parise scored again for the Wild, on a five-on-three late in the second period, but goalie Devan Dubnyk simply hasn’t been as dominant as Allen at the other end. Screened by David Perron, Dubnyk didn’t track Schwartz’s deep shot from the slot. He made 20 saves.

at Edmonton 2, San Jose 0: Zack Cassian and Connor McDavid scored short-handed goals as the Oilers evened their series against the Sharks.

McDavid’s unassisted score was his first playoff goal and Cam Talbot recorded his first postseason shutout.

Cam Talbot stopped all 16 shots he faced for his first career playoff shutout and Edmonton’s first postseason win since 2006. The Oilers missed the playoffs in each of the last 10 years.