Brandon Dubinsky scored with eight minutes 17 seconds remaining and Henrik Lundqvist outplayed his counterpart, Jose Theodore, as the seventh-seeded New York Rangers stunned the Washington Capitals, the second seeds, 4-3 in Game One of the Eastern Conference quarter-finals. Lundqvist stopped 32 shots, including all 14 he faced during a first period in which Alex Ovechkin and his teammates pressed hard for a goal. Theodore surrendered four goals on 21 shots, a performance that did little to allay concerns about the Capitals' goaltending in this series.
The winner was scored on only the Rangers' 20th shot. New York, who had just killed off a penalty, made two long passes to get out of their own zone. The second pass ended up with Dubinsky, right in front of the Capitals' bench. Dubinsky cut to the middle, turning Jeff Schultz inside out in defence. Schultz stumbled and fell while Dubinsky raced to the Washington net and fired a wrist shot from the circle over Theodore's glove. The Capitals were awarded a seventh powerplay three minutes later.
But Lundqvist and the NHL's top-ranked penalty kill unit made sure Washington were unable to capitalise, and the Rangers scored an all-important first win on the road. Goaltending also featured prominently in the other two opening night matchups, Martin Brodeur, the NHL leader in career wins, making 18 saves to notch his 96th post-season victory as the New Jersey Devils drubbed the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1.
The Pittsburgh Penguins came out guns blazing to thrash the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 in the first of their best-of-seven quarter-finals. The NHL scoring champion Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby each had a goal and an assist to help power the Penguins to a 1-0 series lead. In the only Western Conference clash, Roberto Luongo won a goaltending duel over Chris Mason making 25 saves as Vancouver Canucks cooled off the NHL's hottest team edging the St Louis Blues 2-1.
* Agencies