Pittsburgh
Hornqvist added an assist, Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists and backup goaltender Jeff Zatkoff did just fine in his first postseason start, finishing with 35 saves. Tom Kuhnhackl also scored for Pittsburgh, which took advantage when New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist left with a facial injury after the first period.
Game 3 is Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Lundqvist played just 20 minutes after taking a stick to the face from teammate Marc Staal. Antti Raanta was shaky in Lundqvist’s place, stopping 16 of 19 shots.
Derek Stepan scored twice for the Rangers but New York never led as its quest to knock the Penguins out of the playoffs for a third straight year got off to an underwhelming start.
The Penguins ripped off a 14-2 surge to end the regular season even with Fleury sidelined since March 31 with a concussion. He returned to practice this week and was the first goaltender off the ice during Wednesday morning’s skate, typically an indication of who is starting. Coach Mike Sullivan remained coy about his decision-making process, and when Pittsburgh came out for warm-ups in their vintage black-and-gold uniforms, Fleury wasn’t even in uniform, instead sitting in the press box in a blue suit.
That left the job to Zatkoff, who’d played just five times since Jan. 1 after losing his spot as the primary backup to rookie Matt Murray. Yet with Murray out indefinitely with a concussion of his own, the Penguins gave Zatkoff the first postseason start of his three-year career, or 110 fewer than Lundqvist.
Tampa, Fla.
Ben Bishop had 34 saves for the defending Eastern Conference champions, who got the winner from Killorn less than two minutes after a potential go-ahead goal was waived off when Detroit coach Jeff Blashill successfully challenged that Tampa Bay should have been called for offsides before Victor Hedman scored.
Tyler Johnson picked up a loose puck along the boards and fed Killorn, who slipped the puck past Jimmy Howard at 8:52 of the third.
Kucherov scored in the first and second periods and also assisted on the winner.
Mike Green and Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit, which outshot the Lightning 36-34 but had few real scoring opportunities after taking a 2-1 lead in the second period.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is Friday night at Amalie Arena.
