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The first Game 7 of the second round is on tap for tonight, as the New York Rangers visit the Pittsburgh Penguins at CONSOL Energy Center for the decisive battle of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Pittsburgh once held a 3-1 lead in the series, but the Rangers staved off elimination in Games 5 and 6 to set up a final clash for the right to play in the conference finals. The Penguins are aiming for a second straight berth in the East finals, while New York is hoping to return to the third round for the second time in three postseasons. Pittsburgh is 7-6 all-time in Game 7s and the Rangers are 7-5. The Penguins are just 2-6 when hosting a seventh game, while New York is just 1-5 as the road team in this situation. At the center of New Yorks series comeback has been Rangers forward Martin St. Louis, who lost his mother to a heart attack on Thursday but managed to play in Fridays 5-1 victory in Pittsburgh. St. Louis then played a big role in Sundays Game 6 triumph, scoring the first goal of the contest to help his team earn an essential win on Mothers Day. St. Louis and Carl Hagelin scored within a three-minute span early in Sundays contest, while Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves to anchor the 3-1 victory. Derick Brassard recorded the other tally for the Rangers. "We wanted a chance and we have given ourselves that chance," said Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault. "It is what it is. Its going to be a lot of fun." Lundqvist is 9-2 in 11 elimination games with a 1.35 goals against average and .955 save percentage. He hopes to further improve that win/loss record on Tuesday to get his team back to the East finals after the Rangers lost to New Jersey in the third round of the 2012 postseason. The Swedish backstop is 2-2 lifetime in road elimination games and is 4-1 with a 1.00 GAA in Game 7s. New Yorks star goaltender did receive a $5,000 fine from the league after Game 6. Lundqvist was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct after spraying Pittsburghs Sidney Crosby with his water bottle during a scrum at the end of the second period and was Brandon Sutter provided the lone offense for the Penguins on Sunday. Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury struggled at times, taking the loss after stopping 26 shots. St. Louis scored just 3:34 into Game 6 to stake New York to a 1-0 lead. Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman wristed a shot from the high slot that was stopped by Fleury. The puck then hit off the skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Matt Niskanen in front of the crease and trickled to Derek Stepan, who caromed a backhand shot off of St. Louis and into the net for a lead. "It was Mothers Day. My dads here, my sisters here, its been a tough time for my whole family ... it was a good moment," said an emotional St. Louis, still battling through the sudden death of his mother on Friday. New York road the wave of emotion from that point on with Hagelin scoring the eventual game-winner less than three minutes later. "When he scored, on the bench you could see everyone jumping around," said teammate Derick Brassard of the St. Louis goal. "After that we really took off." After getting blown out in Game 5 and falling behind early on Sunday, the Pens know they need to get off to a better start in Game 7. "Its pretty clear, we didnt show up," Crosby said. The last two games our starts have hurt us, again tonight. We knew it was something we had to improve and we didnt. We paid the price for it. Hopefully, next game we learn those lessons." Although Crosby has just one goal in this postseason, Pittsburghs captain has added eight assists over his teams 12 games. Crosby has two goals and one assist in three lifetime Game 7 appearances. Fellow superstar forward Evgeni Malkin, who lead Pittsburgh with 13 points on six goals and seven assists this spring, had no goals and three assists over three career Game 7s. Tuesdays clash marks the first-ever Game 7 between the Penguins and Rangers. In fact, prior to Sunday, the teams only played one previous Game 6 -- the Patrick Division finals, a 5-1 Pittsburgh victory at Mellon Arena to close out that series on May 13, 1992 Pittsburgh is 4-0 all-time in postseason series against the Rangers, who finished second in the Metropolitan Division this season -- 13 points behind the division champion Penguins. New York also has never come back from down 3-1 to win a series. In 16 previous playoff series the Rangers trailed three games to one, the franchise never rallied to win, and only reached a Game 7 once until this season, in 1939 against the Bruins before losing that contest in triple overtime . The winner of tonights game in the Steel City will face either Boston or Montreal in the East finals. The Bruins and Habs also are tied at three games apiece and Boston will host Game 7 on Wednesday. . -- C.J. Cron hit an RBI single on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues, doubled his second time up and hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the sixth inning to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night. .Y. - Terry and Kim Pegula have no immediate plans to tinker with their new NFL team. . -- J.R. Sweezy was the one part of the Seattle Seahawks offensive line that had avoided injuries or having to change positions this season. . -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have released veteran guard Davin Joseph, a mainstay on their offensive line over the past eight seasons. .C. -- The shot that would have beaten No.Maybe we need to start calling it "Kassian Karma." Whenever Matt Kassian plays, the Ottawa Senators seem to pick up points and when the winger isnt in the lineup, they have struggled. The Sens forward has dressed for roughly half of the games this season and the contrasting record when he is in and out of the lineup is rather remarkable. They have lost only three times in regulation out of the 24 games that Kassian has been a part of, posting a 13-3-8 record. But when Kassian doesnt play, they have a woeful 8-16-1 record in 25 games. On Monday, I approached Kassian to see if he was aware of the teams outstanding record with him in the lineup. "Yeah I knew," Kassian said immediately. "When you are a guy who goes in and out of the lineup, you pay attention to things like that. You want to be a guy that, when youre in the lineup, the team has success. Its been fortunate for me that so far we have." The simple explanation would be that perhaps the Senators skilled forwards feel like they have a little more room to operate on a night when Kassian is sitting on their bench. Maybe the opposition is a little less inclined to take liberties with Ottawa players if they have to answer to Kassian. But even Kassian agrees that is likely an oversimplification of the situation. "There are probably more factors to it than just that," he said. "You hope its because the team has an identity where theyre going to go out and play and just get things done and maybe give them some confidence. Thats what you hope for." Other Sens players cant necessarily identify the phenomenon, either. "I dont know the real reason for it, other than weve timed our games well and hes played well when hes played," explains captain Jason Spezza. "Hes a guy that when he plays, hes a physical presence out there. He understands his role and hes done a really good job of just keeping things simple when he plays. But its also strange that Ottawas record would be so good with Kassian in the lineup, considering he hardly sees the ice when he plays. He averages 4:23 of ice-time per game – although that number has been slightly north of six minutes per game in the month of January. In a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in December, Kassian played just 1:05 and followed that up with just 2:20 of ice time in the next game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Remarkably, the Sens picked up three out of a possible four points in those games.dddddddddddd. "It depends on the night. Some of those nights where I havent played there have been a lot of penalties and special teams – and I dont play on special teams. Instantly, that cuts it down," says Kassian. "And the guys who need to play 5-on-5 are your big guys, so there could be some weird nights like that. Especially at the start of the season when we basically had a parade to the penalty box." It turns out that Kassians limited ice time may actually benefit the other 11 forwards, who often see increased ice time on those nights. While many people like to see their team roll four lines consistently, it appears as though this years edition of the Sens seem to thrive on the nights when they are playing with three-and-a-half lines. "Its better for me. I prefer when I play more, I think I play better," said Spezza. "If you play more when hes in the lineup, that might help everybody a little bit. But he really understands his role and he does a good job. He gets some good shifts early in the game and if they shorten the bench, hes fine with it I think." There is also the matter of the Senators being a perfect 5-0-0 when Kassian drops the gloves and fights this season. "I would expand on that and say look at our teams record as a whole when we fight, whether its me or someone else," said Kassian. "That might just be preparedness and being engaged in the game as a team – not just me as an individual. When were aggressive and ready to play, when were ready to fight – not that you have to – those are the games that were more invested in emotionally." For the record, the Sens are 5-5-1 in games when someone other than Kassian gets into a fight. So once again, the "Kassian Karma" seems to be in effect when it comes to this realm as well. In any event, Kassian cant put his finger on exactly why his team is so much more successful when he plays and when he fights – although he is hoping his rugged style does rub off on his teammates. "You hope its a general identity and an attitude the team has that you help them with when youre in the lineup and thats the reason," said Kassian. The Sens are back in action on Tuesday night when they visit the Washington Capitals, a team theyve enjoyed recent mastery over, having won their last six encounters. You can catch all the action live on TSN at 7pm et/4pm pt. ' ' '
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