Bruins oust Rangers, go to East finals
Tuukka Rask stopped 28 shots, Gregory Campbell scored twice and the Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers 3-1 in Game 5 on Saturday to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
The Bruins will face the Pittsburgh Penguins for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. That highly anticipated series will start as soon as the Western Conference finals are set.
Recent call-up Torey Krug scored his fourth goal of the series for Boston, which reached the third round of the NHL playoffs for the second time since 1992. The other was 2011, when the Bruins won the sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Dan Girardi scored and Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves for the Rangers, who lost to New Jersey in last year's East finals.
Campbell broke a 1-1 tie in the second period, then added an empty-netter with 51 seconds left, shortly after Lundqvist was pulled for an extra skater.
The Rangers fell behind 3-0 in the series before winning Game 4 on Thursday night to avoid a sweep, thanks in part to a pratfall by Rask that helped them erase a 2-0 deficit. They took an early lead Saturday, but they could not send the series back to New York for a sixth game.
'HAWKS 4, WINGS 1
CHICAGO -- Jonathan Toews and Andrew Shaw scored power-play goals in the second period, and the Chicago avoided elimination with a victory over Detroit in Game 5 of the second-round playoff series.
Shaw added his third career playoff goal in the third as the Blackhawks stopped the Red Wings' three-game winning streak by creating chaos in front of Jimmy Howard, who had shut down Chicago's attack while moving Detroit to the brink of the Western Conference finals.
Bryan Bickell scored the first goal of the game and Corey Crawford had 25 stops for Chicago, which managed only two goals during its first three-game losing streak of the season.
Daniel Cleary scored for the second straight game for the Wings.
Game 6 is Monday night at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.
AP source: A hurdle
is left for Coyotes sale
PHOENIX -- The NHL has approved the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to a group of Canadian-led investors, but the deal is contingent on reaching a lease agreement with the city of Glendale, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
The NHL agreed to sell the team to Renaissance Sports & Entertainment, a group headed by George Gosbee, Anthony LeBlanc and Daryl Jones, according to the people, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because there had been no official announcement.
They said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and the prospective buyers will meet with Glendale officials on Tuesday for talks on a lease.
The approval of the Gosbee group's sale by the NHL was first reported by Fox Sports Arizona.