NEW YORK (AP) — Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad each had a goal and an assist and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers held on to beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 Tuesday night for a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Jack Roslovic and K’Andre Miller also scored for the Rangers, and Erik Gustafsson and Alexis Lafreniere each had two assists. Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 shots.
New York, seeking its first Stanley Cup championship in 30 years, has won four straight and 12 of its last 15 games. The Rangers, third on the power play during the season, were 2 for 6 with the advantage and scored a short-handed goal.
Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist, and Connor McMichael and Dylan Strome also scored for the Capitals, who had won four of five to close the season and take the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Charlie Lindgren finished with 23 saves.
PANTHERS 3, LIGHTNING 2, OT
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe lifted a backhander just under the crossbar 2:59 into overtime, and Florida beat Tampa Bay for a 2-0 lead in their NHL first-round playoff series.
It was the fifth OT winner in Verhaeghe’s career, coming on a play where Matthew Tkachuk got the puck to Anton Lundell — who found Verhaeghe. He waited for Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to commit, then put the puck over him to end it.
Sam Bennett, who left with an injury in the second period when he appeared to get hit by teammate Brandon Montour’s slap shot, and Vladimir Tarasenko scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 21 shots, including some highlight-reel saves.
AVALANCHE 5, JETS 2
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Artturi Lehkonen had a goal and assist and Colorado scored four goals in the second period in a win over Winnipeg to tie the first-round playoff series at a game apiece.
Miles Wood, Zach Parise, Josh Manson and Valeri Nichushkin also scored for the Avalanche. Alexandar Georgiev made 28 saves for Colorado, a bounce-back effort after allowing seven goals on 23 shots in the series opener.
David Gustaffson and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 27 of 31 shots.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Friday night in Denver.
PREDATORS 4, CANUCKS 1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored a goal and had an assist, and Nashville beat Vancouver to level the best-of-seven playoff series at 1-1.
Anthony Beauvillier — a former Canuck — also had a goal and an assist for the Predators, Colton Sissons and Kiefer Sherwood had goals and Juuse Saros made 17 saves.
Nikita Zadorov scored for a Vancouver team that struggled to get shots on net and experienced a series of unlucky bounces.
Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren (79) and Martin Fehervary (42) protect the net from New York Rangers' Artemi Panarin (10) during the second period in Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine.
The drills are in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
It was the first time that Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, though its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons have a lower yield compared to massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to obliterate entire cities.
The announcement appeared to be a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies about becoming more deeply involved in the more than two-year war. Some of Ukraine’s Western partners have previously expressed concern about stoking the war amid fears it could spill beyond Ukraine and into a conflict between NATO and Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kyiv’s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.
The Kremlin branded those comments as dangerous, heightening tension between Russia and NATO. The war already has placed significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West.
Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on the battlefield.
The ministry said the exercise is intended to “increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfill combat tasks” and will be held on President Vladimir Putin’s orders. The maneuvers will involve missile units of the Southern Military District along with the air force and the navy, it said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones hit two vehicles Monday in Russia’s Belgorod region, killing six people and injuring 35 others, including two children, local authorities said, in an area frequently struck by Kyiv’s forces in recent months.
One of the vehicles was a minibus that was carrying farm workers, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
No other details were immediately available, and it was not possible to independently confirm the report from the border region.
While Ukraine’s army is largely pinned down on the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line due to a shortage of troops and ammunition after more than two years of fighting, it has used its long-range firepower to hit targets deep inside Russia. The apparent aim is to disrupt Russia’s war logistics system by hitting oil refineries and depots, and unnerve the Russian border regions.
The Belgorod region was a staging ground for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has come under regular attack ever since Russian forces retreated there from northeastern Ukraine early in the war following a counteroffensive by Kyiv.
In what has largely been a war of attrition, Russia has also relied heavily on long-range missile, artillery and drones to wreak damage on Ukraine.
At the end of last year, Belgorod officials said 25 people were killed, including five children, and more than 100 were injured in a Ukrainian attack, and regular rocket and drone strikes have continued since then. The area can be reached by relatively simple and mobile weapons such as multiple rocket launchers from forests on the Ukrainian side.
Russian authorities said in March they planned to evacuate about 9,000 children from the area because of continuous shelling, after Putin said he wanted to create a buffer zone to help protect border regions.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
FILE - In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry on March 19, 2024, a Russian tank fires at Ukrainian troops from a position near the border with Ukraine in Russia’s Belgorod region. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)
