Nhl Playoff

HENRIK LUNDQVIST made 39 saves for his fourth NHL playoff shutout, and Brian Boyle scored for the third straight game as the visiting New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators, 1-0, on Monday night. The Rangers, who lost Game 2 at home in overtime, lead the best-of-seven, first-round series 2-1. Game 4 will be Wednesday night in Ottawa before the series returns to New York. Lundqvist's biggest save came in the last minute when he robbed Kyle Turris on the doorstep with a quick pad stop.

Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves for his fourth NHL playoff shutout, and Brian Boyle scored for the third straight game as the New York Rangers beat the host Ottawa Senators, 1-0, on Monday night. The Rangers, who lost Game 2 at home in overtime, lead the best-of-seven, first-round series two games to one. Lundqvist's biggest save came in the last minute when he robbed Kyle Turris on the doorstep with a quick pad stop.   Chara lifts Bruins Zdeno Chara scored the tiebreaking goal during four-on-four play with less than 2 minutes left, and the reigning Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins finally solved playoff rookie goalie Braden Holtby, beating the host Washington Capitals, 4-3, to take a two-games-to-one lead.

Through all the insanity on Friday night in Pittsburgh, Jaromir Jagr did not flinch. His eyes did not widen. Having skated in more Stanley Cup playoff games (171) than teammates Matt Read and Sean Couturier have regular-season games combined (156), there isn't much that fazes him. "Don't forget, I've played 20 years," Jagr said. "I've seen a lot of wild ones. " It comes as no surprise, then, that Jagr has been in this situation before. In fact, it was with the Penguins in 2000.

Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov has his lips mostly sealed. For the Flyers, that's a great sign heading into the Pennsylvania Cold War series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. You see, ever since Bryzgalov stopped talking about himself and focusing on his game and his teammates, he has flourished. On Monday, Bryzgalov, who put a three-minute time limit on the group interview, said very little, though we did learn he doesn't fear the favored Penguins. "I'm not afraid of anything [except]

PITTSBURGH - If the NHL playoff format were more rational, two of the top five teams would not be meeting in the first round. "That's the way the schedule in the NHL is," Flyers winger and Penguins legend Jaromir Jagr said after Saturday's dress rehearsal game. "You look at the points and it probably shouldn't be these two teams playing against each other in the first round. But we can't do anything about it. One team's going to go home. " In this instance, we should probably be grateful for the lack of reason.

First come the beards. You can't have the competitions for Lord Stanley's cherished chalice without the growing of the beards. And neatness definitely does not count. None of that trim and thin sissy stuff. No, we're talking great clumps of facial forestation. Beards so thick and tangled that birds could nest in them. Think Grizzly Adams. Or a boatload of pirates. Who don't wash. It's unclear exactly what prompted this ritual of the hirsute, but it probably had something to do with superstition.

Two of the Eastern Conference's elite will finish the regular season in the middle of the pack, even though they will have better records than some of the teams that will finish ahead of them. Welcome to the wacky world of the NHL, where teams are seeded 1-2-3 for finishing first in their respective divisions, regardless of their accumulated number of points. The topic was addressed Monday as Peter Laviolette drove from Voorhees to the Wells Fargo Center for the morning skate.

A BYE IN the first week of the regular season is no way to begin the year. But, as Moses first said high atop Mount Sinai, it is what it is. There's no sense griping over last week's early bye, Soul players insist. The ramifications won't be felt until the middle of the season when the collective aches and pains sure could use a week off. The Soul's schedule is unfriendly in that regard, too. The AFL plays 18 games over 20 weeks, so each team has 2 weeks off. The Soul's second bye isn't until Week 19. When the Soul take on New Orleans on Sunday, they will start a run of 17 games in 17 weeks.