Blues push Blackhawks to verge of elimination with 4-3 victory in Game 4

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 in Chicago to open a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round Western Conference 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 last three years.

Duncan Keith had two goals for the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks, who dropped consecutive home playoff games for the first time since 2012.

Andrew Shaw had a goal and two assists for Chicago, and Corey Crawford finished with 16 saves after getting into a fight with Blues rookie Robby Fabbri during a wild second period.

Pittsburgh 3, at N.Y. Rangers 1: Matt Cullen beat Henrik Lundqvist on a semi-breakaway after beating two defensemen early in the third period and the Penguins spoiled the return of Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference series. Sidney Crosby also scored for Pittsburgh and 21-year-old Matt Murray made 16 saves in his playoff debut.

Rick Nash scored for the Rangers, who played without an injured McDonagh (hand) in the first two games in Pittsburgh. Lundqvist made 28 saves, giving up a power-play goal to Crosby and the one-on-one chance to Cullen. The Rangers seemed to lose momentum after a first-period goal by Chris Kreider was nullified because of an offside call following a challenge.

Tampa Bay 3, at Detroit 2: Ondrej Palat scored a power-play goal with 2:59 left in the third period and the Lightning took a 3-1 lead their Eastern Conference series with 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 winning goal. Drouin had three assists.

Ben Bishop stopped 26 shots for Tampa Bay and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for Detroit.

Nikita Kucherov had power-play goals in the first and second period to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead in the second, but Detroit’s Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist scored late in the period to tie the score.