The shot by Patrick Kane (No. 88) of the Chicago Blackhawks hits off the post as Ilya Bryzgalov (No. 30) and Jonas Brodin (No. 25) of the Minnesota Wild look on during overtime in Game Six of the second round of the NHL playoffs at Xcel Energy Center in St Paul, Minnesota, Tuesday. — Reuters MINNEAPOLIS — Patrick Kane solidified his reputation as the NHL's most clutch playoff performer as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in overtime to win their second round playoff series 4-2. Kane scored the game winner and series clincher at 9:42 of overtime Tuesday as the defending Stanley Cup champion beat the Wild in six games (4-2) to reach the Western Conference finals. In Pittsburgh, Henrik Lundqvist turned away 35 shots and Brad Richards scored the game-winning goal on a power play as the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in the decisive Game Seven of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. “It was nice to see the puck in the net and get the series over with,” Kane said. The 25-year-old American is making a habit of scoring clutch Stanley Cup playoff goals for the Blackhawks. He scored the overtime winner in game six of the 2010 Stanley Cup finals to claim his first championship ring. Three years later, Kane earned his second ring and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the postseason. Kane and Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews have combined to score seven of the Blackhawks eight-game winning goals in the 2014 postseason Tuesday's winning goal was the result of a weird bounce off the back boards that fooled Minnesota goalie Ilya Bryzgalov who was expecting the puck to hit the glass and sail behind the net. Kane drove to the front of the net, pick up the loose puck at the side and lifted a backhand just under the crossbar and past Russia's Bryzgalov in front of a crowd of 19,396 at the Xcel Energy Center arena. The play started with a shoot in by Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook who got an assist on the play. Kris Versteeg also scored and Corey Crawford came up with 34 saves for the Blackhawks, who await the winner of the other second round Western Conference battle between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. Erik Haula picked up the lone goal for the Wild, while Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots in the season-ending loss. In Pittsburgh, the Rangers rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to advance to the Eastern Conference final, where they will meet either the Boston Bruins or Montreal Canadiens. It was first time in 17 attempts New York have been able to come back in a series after trailing 3-1. The Rangers will be making their second appearance in the conference finals in three years. They lost to the New Jersey Devils in 2011-12 in six games. “What a feeling,” Rangers' goaltender Lundqvist said. “We battled so hard as a team the last three games. After losing that fourth game it was tough. “When you face a challenge like that it's about how you answer and we just did it the right way. We came together as a group and played a really smart game.” Lundqvist showed his Game Seven magic again, raising his career record to 5-1 in those situations. He stopped a combined 102 of 105 shots in winning the final three games of the series. “I thought in the first two periods, he played a real strong game when they had more shots,” New York coach Alain Vigneault said. “Then (the Penguins) took their game to another level in the third period and our goaltender took his game to another level and was able to stop a barrage of good opportunities.” The Penguins fell to 2-7 in their last nine Game Sevens at home. Richards, 7-0 in Game Sevens in his career, put the Rangers ahead for good when he scored a power-play goal at 7:56 of the second period after taking a pass from Martin St. Louis with Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen off for tripping. The Rangers opened the scoring at 5:25 of the first period through Dan Boyle before Jussi Jokinen evened the score at 1-1 at 4:15 of the second. — Agencies
