Zibanejad, Shesterkin lead Rangers past Hurricanes in Game 3 to cut series deficit

Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist, Igor Shesterkin stopped 43 shots, and the New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 Sunday in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series.

Chris Kreider and Tyler Motte also scored as the Rangers cut their deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven matchup. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

It was just the Rangers' second win against Carolina in the teams' last 10 meetings, dating to the qualifying round of the 2020 playoffs in the bubble in Toronto. The Hurricanes swept that series in three games and won three of four in the regular season.

Shesterkin had 17 saves in the first period, 17 in the second and nine in the third.

The Rangers had a 2-on-1 breakaway 5 1/2 minutes into the third period, but Ryan Reaves' shot from the right side was stopped by Raanta. Motte, who started raising his arms in anticipation of a goal, couldn't corral the rebound.

Raanta then made a stellar save to deny Kaapo Kakko's attempt from the right side three minutes later to keep it a one-goal game.

The Hurricanes pulled Raanta for an extra skater with 2 1/2 minutes to go. Less than 30 seconds later, Kreider missed a chance at the empty net, but Motte sealed it with a backhander from the defensive zone with 1:23 remaining.

Niederreiter got the Hurricanes on the scoreboard 8:18 into the second as he brought the puck up the right side and put a backhander past Shesterkin for his fourth of the playoffs.

Carolina outshot New York 17-13 in the first period and had the better chances early with a 12-3 edge over the first 10 minutes of the game. However, the Hurricanes couldn't get anything past Shesterkin.

Zibanejad opened the scoring with the Rangers' first power-play goal of the series. He got a pass from Artemi Panarin and fired a shot from the left circle past Raanta with 8:06 left in the first for his fourth of the postseason. It was New York's first goal since early in the first period of Game 1.

The Rangers, who were shut out in Game 2, came in 0 for 5 on the power play against the Hurricanes.

Lightning push Panthers to brink of elimination

Steven Stamkos scored two goals and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the visiting Florida Panthers 5-1 to move to the brink of another trip to the NHL Eastern Conference final on Sunday.

Game 4 is Monday night at Amalie Arena, where the Lightning have won three of four games this post-season. One more victory will send them to the Eastern Conference final for the sixth time in eight years.

The Lightning are 9-0 in best-of-seven series in which they've won the first two games, including last year's first-round victory over the Panthers

Vasilevskiy allowed just one goal for the fourth straight game after allowing at least three in each of Tampa Bay's first six games this post-season. He's been helped in that dominating stretch, as his teammates in front of him have helped by playing excellent team defence.

Sam Reinhart scored Florida's lone goal in Game 3, snapping a puzzling 0-for-25 start to the playoffs for the Panthers' power play.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 of 34 shots, with Perry and Cernak both scoring only moments after Florida killed off penalties in the first and second periods. Stamkos' one-timer off a pass from Kucherov made it 3-1 midway through the second.

Perry notches 50th playoff goal

Kucherov and Stamkos added empty-net goals in the final four minutes after the Panthers removed Bobrovsky in favour of an extra attacker.

Perry, who signed with Tampa Bay as a free agent after being part of teams that lost to the Lightning in each of the past two Stanley Cup final, re-directed Ryan McDonagh's shot past Bobrovsky to get the defending champs an early lead.

With his 50th career playoff goal, Perry moved ahead of Brad Marchant and Patrick Bergeron into sole possession of sixth place among active career playoff goal leaders

The Panthers, 0-for-25 on the power play through their first nine playoff games, finally broke through to tie it 1-1 with Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov setting up Reinhart to beat Vasilevskiy from in front of the net.

Barkov just missed answering Cernak's goal that put the Lightning ahead 2-1, sending a shot from the right circle off the post. The Panthers also narrowly missed pulling even during a second-period power play that produced several chances, including Huberdeau's wide-open look that McDonagh deflected up over the net with his stick.

Florida finished 1-for-3, dropping to 1-for-28 in man-advantage situations in these playoffs.

Lightning centre Brayden Point missed his third consecutive game because of a lower-body injury suffered during Tampa's Game 7 victory over Toronto in the first round.