Derick Brassard and Ryan McDonagh scored in the first period and Henrik Lundqvist made the goals stand up as the New York Rangers won the opener of their NHL playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Thursday.
New York shut down Pittsburgh's top threats, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, for a fourth straight victory over the Penguins in the postseason. The Rangers won the final three games of a second-round series last year, rallying from a 3-1 deficit.
Lundqvist finished with 24 saves, while Marc-Andre Fleury was far busier in making 36.
Blake Comeau scored in the second period for Pittsburgh.
Game two is in New York on Saturday.
In Florida, Pavel Datsyuk scored twice and Petr Mrazek had 44 saves in his NHL playoff debut to help Detroit beat Tampa Bay in game one of their Eastern Conference series.
Datsyuk scored on two of the first four shots the Red Wings got against Tampa Bay's Ben Bishop. Luke Glendening's short-handed goal gave Detroit a 3-1 lead early in the third period.
Mrazek, named Detroit's starter for game one over veteran Jimmy Howard, gave up a short-handed goal to Brian Boyle in the first period and a late goal to Nikita Nesterov that enabled the Lightning to pull within 3-2.
Game one of this best-of-7 matchup is Saturday in Tampa.
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