Backes’ shot got past Corey Crawford after bouncing off Trevor Van Riemsdyk’s skate. Defensemen Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo assisted on the winner.
Brian Elliott earned his first career playoff shutout. Elliott, who led the NHL with a .930 save percentage, made 35 saves to thwart a lineup led by scoring champion Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.
Crawford make 17 saves.
Game 2 of of the Western Conference quarterfinal series is Friday night in St. Louis.
Penguins 5, Rangers 2
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Patric Hornqvist had his first playoff hat trick and Pittsburgh pulled away from New York In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
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.
Lightning 3, Red Wings 2
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita
Kucherov scored twice and Alex Killorn snapped a third-period tie, lifting Tampa Bay past Detroit in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series.
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 was offsides before Victor Hedman scored.
Killorn took a feed from Tyler Johnson and 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.
Game 2 is Friday night at Amalie Arena.
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