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ICE HOCKEY

Lundqvist shines as Rangers reach NHL final

Swedish ice-hockey ace Henrik Lundqvist had an 18-save shutout as the New York Rangers advanced to their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years on Thursday with a 1-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Published: 30 May 2014 08:00 CEST
Lundqvist shines as Rangers reach NHL final
Henrik Lundqvist in action for the New York Rangers. Photo: AP

Dominic Moore scored a second-period goal for the Rangers, who captured the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference championship four games to two in front of a crowd of 18,000 at Madison Square Garden.

Goaltender Lundqvist, who backstopped Sweden to a silver medal in the Sochi Olympics in February, said he was on top of his game Thursday.

"I don't know that I have ever been more determined to win a game," said Lundqvist, who set a franchise record for most career post-season victories with 42.

"It took me nine years. I finally made my first Stanley Cup final."

The Rangers will face either the Chicago Blackhawks or the Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League's championship series, which begins Wednesday. The Kings lead the other league semi-final series 3-2 with game six scheduled for Friday in Los Angeles.

New York improved to 6-4 at home in the 2014 post-season. This was the first game at Madison Square Garden in this series not to go into overtime.

"We played, in my book, our best game of the play-offs," said Rangers coach Alain Vigneault.

New York barrelled through the Eastern Conference by beating the Philadelphia Flyers in game seven in the first round and then came back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.

By beating Montreal, they punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since winning it all in 1994.

That Stanley Cup saw the Mark Messier-led Rangers snap a 54-year dry spell when they edged the Vancouver Canucks in seven games for their fourth league championship.

Goaltender Dustin Tokarski was brilliant in the series but he couldn't get Montreal over the hump on Thursday. Tokarski, who came into the series when number one goalie Carey Price went down with an injury, made 31 saves.

"Right now it is tough to think of what could have been," said Tokarski.

Said Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty, "We had a letdown."

The Canadiens were seeking to return to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1993 when they won the title. Montreal is the last Canadian-based team to win it all.

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ICE HOCKEY

Sweden beat Swiss to win ice hockey world title in shoot-out drama

Sweden retained their world championship title with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over plucky Switzerland in Copenhagen on Sunday.

Published: 20 May 2018 23:33 CEST
Sweden beat Swiss to win ice hockey world title in shoot-out drama
Swiss players react after the defeat to Sweden. Photo: AFP

Filip Forsberg of the NHL's Nashville Predators scored the winning penalty as Sweden came back from 1-0 down in the shoot-out to win 2-1 following a 2-2 draw after overtime.

Surprise finalists Switzerland had been aiming for their first ever world title, while Sweden claimed an 11th crown.

Sweden had been the only unbeaten team through the group stage while Switzerland scraped into the quarter-finals with the weakest record.

But they stunned Group B winners Finland and then Canada to take their place in a third world championship final.

Five years ago they had lost to Sweden, who beat them 5-3 in the group stages too.

Switzerland twice took the lead, in each of the first two periods, but were pegged back by the favourites before the end of each stanza.

Minnesota Wild's Nino Niederreiter had given them a 16th minute lead but Gustav Nyquist of the Detroit Red Wings equalised a minute later.

On 23 minutes Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks put the underdogs in front again, but that was wiped out by New York Ranger Mika Zibanejad on 34 minutes.

With no scores in either the third period or overtime, the final was decided by a shoot-out where Switzerland once again took the lead.

But Oliver Ekman-Larsson cancelled out Sven Andrighetto's successful strike, allowing Forsberg to become the hero.

Christopher Kreider of the Rangers scored twice as the United States thumped Canada 4-1 to take the bronze medal.

 After Kreider opened the scoring, Marc-Edouard Vlasic of the Sharks equalised.

But goals from Nashville's Nicholas Bonino and Anders Lee of the New York Islanders put the US in charge before Kreider rounded out the win.