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Jimmy Vesey, Artemi Panarin lead Rangers to win over Capitals in Game 1

SportsNets - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 16:30

NEW YORK — Matt Rempe helped the New York Rangers get their postseason off to a strong start.

Rempe and Artemi Panarin scored 33 seconds apart in the second period, and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 on Sunday in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Jimmy Vesey had a goal and an assist, Chris Kreider also scored, Barclay Goodrow had two assists for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin finished with 20 saves.

“It’s obviously good to get that first one,” said New York’s Peter Laviolette, who became the first coach in NHL history to lead six different teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs. “There’s things we could have done better. … You need to win one at a time, so for that the result was good.”

The Rangers, seeking their first championship in 30 years, won their third straight and 11th in the last 14 games.

Martin Fehervary scored and Charlie Lindgren stopped 27 shots for the Capitals, who had won three straight and four of their last five games to earn the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

“We’ve got to do a way better job offensively,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “It’s no secret. We struggled all year but we’ve got to find ways to create more on the interior. We’ve got to skate out of pressure, we’ve got to keep pucks off the yellow. We continually ran pucks around.”

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night.

Leading 3-1 after two periods, the Rangers outshot the Capitals 15-6 in the third.

Kreider made it 4-1 as he put a backhander past Lindgren on a breakaway from the right side with 3:43 left in the third period. It was his 41st postseason goal, extending his franchise record.

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The Rangers bottled up Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, who had no shots on goal. He was held without a shot only five times in 79 games during the season.

“We all understand it’s the playoffs,” Ovechkin said. “Forget about this one and move forward.”

After a scoreless first period in which the teams combined for 11 shots on goal, there were four goals in the second period.

Rempe got the Rangers on the scoreboard first, sweeping in the puck from the left side off a deflection across the front of the net by Vesey at 4:17.

Rempe, the 21-year-old rookie who has garnered a lot of attention for his physical play and fights, drew chants of “Rem-pe! Rem-pe!” from the crowd.

“That was a big goal to put energy in the building, maybe because it was him, too, put a little more extra juice in the building,” Laviolette said. “And then be able to get another one right after that. That was a turning point in the game.”

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Panarin, who had a career-high 49 goals during the regular season, made it 2-0 just 33 seconds later at 4:50 as he fired a shot past Lindgren from the right circle. Alexis Lafreniere knocked defenseman Vincent Iorio off the puck and shoulder-first into the boards. Lafreniere then send the puck to Trocheck, who sent across to Panarin for the goal.

Iorio went to the dressing room after the play and did not return. Carbery did not have an update on his status.

“I don’t think it was that, it was close, it was borderline,” he said of the hit. “I feel bad for him because he put himself in a tough spot. Probably needs to move the puck quicker there and get it out of his hands. Then he hangs on to it, wobbles it.”

Vesey made it 3-0 as he got the puck off a draw in the right circle and fired it past Lindgren at 6:23. Rempe in front knocked down Beck Malenstyn to give Vesey some space for his shot.

“(Rempe) scoring sent the fans crazy, and we scored two more goals in the next few minutes,” Vesey said. “He definitely gets the crowd into the game and as the team with home-ice advantage, you’re going to try to feed off that energy in the crowd.”

Fehervary deflected a shot by Tom Wilson off his foot and past Shesterkin to get the Capitals on the scoreboard at 7:31.

Rempe was whistled for charging to give the Capitals a power play 2:07 into the game. The Capitals managed just one shot on goal during the advantage and had several shots blocked. They also went a 14:09 stretch in the period without a shot on goal as the Rangers had an 11-7 advantage.

The Rangers improved to 21-9 in the openers of a seven-game series at home.

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Harden, Zubac lead Leonard-less Clippers to win over Doncic, Mavericks in playoff opener

SportsNets - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 16:25

LOS ANGELES — James Harden spent the season developing a pick-and-roll chemistry with big man Ivica Zubac. The future Hall of Famer, in his first season in Los Angeles, is schooling the longest-tenured Clipper.

It paid off in their playoff series opener.

Harden scored 28 points in his playoff debut for the Clippers, Zubac had a playoff-career high 20 points to go with 15 rebounds, and Los Angeles defeated Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks 109-97 Sunday.

“Just a perfect game for a big,” said Harden, who, like Paul George, is seeking his first NBA championship.

Game 2 is Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

“We are going against some Hall of Famers,” Dallas’ Kyrie Irving said. “I don’t even know if we even are favourites in this series and so we just have to pay attention to what we can control.”

Coach Tyronn Lue called the game’s first play for Zubac, and the Clippers were off to a dominating start.

“When I’m out there, I’m going to try to punish them in the post,” said Zubac, in his sixth season with the team. “I want to be the best version I can be for this team.”

Harden hit 6-of-11 3-pointers and had eight assists. George finished with 22 points after the Mavs slowed him in the first half. The Clippers outdid the Mavs at their own 3-point game, making 18 of 36 from long range to 10 of 33 for Dallas.

“We’re going to be very good any time Zu is playing at that level,” George said.

The Clippers had five players in double figures without Kawhi Leonard. The two-time NBA Finals MVP hasn’t played since March 31 because of inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee. Russell Westbrook finished with 13 points and fellow reserve guard Norman Powell played 30 minutes.

“We obviously want Kawhi back when he’s ready,” George said. “The luxury we have is just experience with James, myself, Russ, Norm’s been in big playoff battles.”

The teams were meeting in the playoffs for the third time in five years, with the Clippers having won both previous series.

“Their mentality was next man up and they did very well, very well,” Doncic said. “We just got to stay focused 48 minutes.”

Doncic led the Mavs with 33 points and 13 rebounds. Irving had 31 points and seven rebounds, but the Mavs got little from their supporting cast.

“Luka was finding the open guy. We just didn’t shoot well,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “I like the way we played in the second half and we got to build on that.”

Trailing by 22, the Mavs outscored the Clippers 10-2 to close within 102-88. Dallas was helped by a technical on Zubac and a flagrant-1 foul for his subsequent actions after a second free throw attempt by Doncic. In all, it cost the Clippers four points after Doncic scored when the Mavs retained possession.

“I didn’t have a lot of technicals and flagrants in my life,” Zubac said. “I don’t know how I got both on the same play.”

Harden hit another 3-pointer, George scored four in a row and the Clippers closed out the win.

“Very important to start off on the right note,” George said. “You want to take care of business at home.”

The Mavs revived themselves in the third, when Doncic and Irving (20 points) combined for 29 of their 34 points. But they still trailed 87-64 going into the fourth. George’s 3-pointer put the Clippers ahead by 29, their largest lead.

“In the second half that is how we should play the whole game, so we got to learn from that,” Doncic said.

The Clippers dominated the first half, leading 56-30 at the break. It was the fewest points they’ve allowed in either half of a playoff game and a first-half playoff low for the Mavs, who were outscored 22-8 in the second quarter when they made just two field goals.

“In a playoff game, man, scoring eight points feels like forever,” Irving said. “It started with how we started off the second quarter and allowed them to feel very comfortable in that first quarter and there was carryover. We got to give them credit for hitting shots and doing the right thing. Capitalizing off our turnovers and our lack of physicality.”

Harden scored 20 points in the half, including nine in a row in the second quarter. He made his first four 3s.

Doncic and Irving were a combined 5 of 19 from the floor in the half. Doncic had all of his 11 in the first quarter; Irving had two of his six points in the second.

Terance Mann and Amir Coffey, who started in place of Leonard, led a Clippers defence that held Dallas to 9 of 40 field-goal shooting and 2 of 18 from 3-point range in the half.

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