Marc Staal

If they want to avoid elimination, Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals must figure out a way to recover and regroup from a potentially devastating loss to the New York Rangers. The Rangers head into Wednesday's Game 6 with a three-games-to-two series lead, one victory from reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1997, when Wayne Gretzky was on the team. New York's Brad Richards tied Game 5 with 6.6 seconds left Monday, and Marc Staal won it 1 minute, 35 seconds into overtime.

JT. MILLER SCORED his first two NHL goals and then cautioned everyone not to get used to it. The teenage rookie found the net twice in his second career game to lift the New York Rangers to a 4-1 victory over the visiting New York Islanders on Thursday night. Miller, however, said setting up others is really more of his game. As long as pucks go in, the goal-starved Rangers will gladly take offense from anyone. "I am more of a playmaker," said Miller, who won't turn 20 until March.

This is a post by Frank Seravalli on the Daily News' Frequent Flyers blog.   IT HAS BEEN 481 days since Chris Pronger last appeared in a Flyers uniform, though it feels much longer since his in-your-face personality has bellowed through the halls of the Flyers' practice facility. Pronger, 38, has not played since Nov. 11, 2011. He has understandably not addressed the media or the public about his ultimate career-ending eye injury until now. There isn't much he's allowed to say. He gave his first interview to close family friend, Rogers Sportsnet analyst Dan Murphy, in a two-part series that aired beginning Wednesday night in Canada.

First, Sidney Crosby went into a slump, and Evgeni Malkin followed by going into an extended one. Those days look to be gone for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who finally saw both of their stars enjoy big games on the same night. Malkin broke out of his slump with three goals and Crosby scored twice and added four assists as the Penguins recovered after blowing a three-goal lead to beat the visiting Islanders, 6-4, last night. Trent Hunter and Richard Park scored in the third period as the Islanders came back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-1 to tie the game, but Kyle Okposo drew a tripping penalty midway through the period that led to Malkin's power-play goal that made it 5-4. Malkin scored from the right circle to put the Penguins back into the lead at 11 minutes, 9 seconds of the third period and added an empty-net goal with 29.6 seconds remaining.

Patrice Bergeron scored on a rebound with 18.3 seconds left in overtime and the Boston Bruins maintained their hold on the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with a 1-0 victory over the host New Jersey Devils. Tuukka Rask stopped 21 shots to pick up his fifth shutout of the season, keeping Boston two points ahead of Atlanta in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference, and tying them with the Flyers and Montreal at 82 points. Bergeron's goal was somewhat controversial in that he apparently knocked the stick out of the hands of Devils defenseman Paul Martin on the play.

Martin Gerber came back from a day off to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden last night. Gerber, who sat out the Senators' 4-3 overtime home loss to Chicago on Saturday night, made 34 saves to earn his fourth win in his last five outings. Goals by Jason Spezza and Chris Kelly wiped out an early 1-0 deficit for the Senators, who lead the Eastern Conference with 50 points (23-8-4). "It was good for us to bounce back," Gerber said.

Now that the National Hockey League's venture across the pond has proven, by most accounts, to have been a successful first entry onto the European stage, former NHL and Russian professional coach Dave King has a suggestion. Think across Europe. Think Russia. Especially, Russia. "The NHL has to attack the hockey markets in Europe," King said last week. He was in Calgary promoting his new book, King of Russia, coauthored with Eric Duhatschek. "The U.K. is obviously not a hockey market, but it is a huge market, population-wise.

Alexander Semin had gone 14 playoff games without a goal, a troubling trend for a Washington Capitals team that has endured too many postseason disappointments in recent years. It took almost 80 minutes of hockey in game No. 15 to finally end the drought. Semin scored 18:24 into overtime last night to give the Capitals a 2-1 win over the eighth-seeded New York Rangers in Game 1 of their first-round series in D.C., a welcome bit of relief to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Marc Savard came off the bench on a delayed penalty to score with 9 minutes, 25 seconds in overtime last night, and the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens for the first time this season, 2-1 in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series. Tim Thomas made 27 saves for Boston, stopping several shots at close range in overtime. Carey Price stopped 29 shots for the visiting Canadiens, who had beaten the Bruins in all eight games in the regular season and the first two of the best-of-seven series.

Veteran right winger Jaromir Jagr reaggravated a leg injury and sat out most of the last two periods of the Flyers' 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Monday at Citizens Bank Park. Jagr played two shifts in the second period and none in the third. He played just 7 minutes, 9 seconds as the Flyers lost for the fifth time in their last seven games. According to Jagr, he was speared by a Penguins player on his left calf on Thursday; he reaggravated the injury on Monday and the leg started to swell.