Canadiens take advantage of late goal to sweep Lightning

Max Pacioretty lifted the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a power-play goal with 43 seconds remaining for a 4-3 victory and a four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The first team to advance this year, the Canadiens also got goals from Daniel Briere, Brendan Gallagher and Lars Eller at Montreal. The Canadiens now wait for the Eastern Conference semifinal against the winner of the Boston Bruins-Detroit Red Wings series.

Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay. Victor Hedman pulled the Lightning to within one goal three minutes into the third period, and Tyler Johnson tied the score three minutes later.

Lightning backup goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis replaced Anders Lindback after Gallagher’s goal 5 minutes 42 seconds into the second period. Lindback gave up three goals on 20 shots, and Gudlevskis stopped 16 of 17 shots in relief.

Pacioretty was parked in front to bang the rebound of Thomas Vanek’s shot past Gudlevskis and thrill the 21,273 spectators. A tripping penalty on Cedric Paquette with 2:11 left put Montreal on the power play and Pacioretty got the Canadiens’ second power-play goal of the series.

The Lightning played the series without No. 1 goalie Ben Bishop, who has a left arm injury.

Boston 3, at Detroit 0: Tuukka Rask finished with a 23-save shutout to give the Bruins a 2-1 playoff series lead.

Dougie Hamilton and Jordan Caron scored in the first period, and Patrice Bergeron added an empty-net goal late. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins are ahead for the first time in the opening-round series.

Jimmy Howard made 31 saves for the Red Wings, who needed him to make what appeared to be a routine stop midway through the first period on the first goal. He couldn’t.

Hamilton’s wrist shot from the top of the right circle beat Howard’s glove on a power play after Detroit had too many men on the ice.

The Red Wings didn’t have enough players in position to stop the second goal. After a poorly timed line change, Caron was all alone in front of the net and scored off a rebound.

Detroit had a five-on-three power play for 35 seconds midway through the second period and could not take advantage.

Since the Red Wings won Game 1 on Pavel Datsyuk’s goal late in the third period, they have been outscored 7-1.

N.Y. Rangers 4, at Philadelphia 1: Derek Stepan, Martin St. Louis, Dan Girardi and Dan Carcillo scored goals and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 31 shots to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead in a best-of-seven series.

Lundqvist was backed by a defense that delivered with a flurry of blocked shots. The Rangers took an early 2-0 lead and that was enough of a cushion for a team that led the Eastern Conference with 25 road victories.