WASHINGTON (AP) — Vincent Trocheck had a power-play goal and a short-handed assist, Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves and the New York Rangers moved one win away from advancing by beating the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 3 Friday night, taking a 3-0 lead in their first-round series.
The Rangers scored goals at even-strength 5 on 5, up 5 on 4 and down 4 on 5 in a special teams showcase from the Presidents’ Trophy winners who finished atop the NHL regular season in part because of their potent power play. Trocheck set up Barclay Goodrow short-handed and scored on the power play, while Chris Kreider tipped the puck in for his franchise-best 42nd career playoff goal.
At the other end of the rink, Shesterkin looked like his 2022 Vezina Trophy-winning self, robbing Max Pacioretty alone in front with a right pad stop and turning away Alex Ovechkin, who remains without a point this postseason. Shesterkin was perfect after allowing John Carlson to score on a fluttering shot just over five minutes in.
CANUCKS 2, PREDATORS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Casey DeSmith made 30 saves for his first postseason victory as Vancouver held on to beat Nashville for a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series to open the NHL playoffs.
This was DeSmith’s second straight start and third all-time in the playoffs with Thatcher Demko out since the series opener with an injury.
J.T. Miller had a power-play goal and an assist, and Brock Boeser’s power-play goal wound up the game-winner. Quinn Hughes had two assists as Vancouver took back home-ice advantage.
Game 4 is Sunday in Nashville.
AVALANCHE 6, JETS 2
DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin scored on the power play during a five-goal, third-period outburst and Colorado rallied for a victory over Winnipeg.
Alexandar Georgiev stopped 22 shots to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round playoff series. Game 4 is Sunday in the Mile High City.
Trailing 2-1 in the final period, Colorado, the highest-scoring team in the league, began pouring it on. The Avalanche scored four times in a 10:24 span to energize the crowd and stun the Jets.
MacKinnon sparked the scoring run with the tying goal and Nichushkin knocked in the go-ahead tally with 15:21 remaining. Nichushkin’s goal came after Jets center Gabriel Vilardi was given a double-minor for hitting Devon Toews in the face with his stick and drawing blood. Toews left the ice with a towel held to his face.
Artturi Lehkonen and and Ross Colton added goals to make it 5-2. Toews, returning from a bloodied face, scored an empty-netter with 3:35 remaining to seal the win.
OILERS 6, KINGS 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist, Zach Hyman also scored twice and Edmonton rode the momentum of three first-period goals to a victory over Los Angeles to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round NHL playoffs series.
Connor McDavid (one goal, two assists) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (three assists) also had three-point nights. McDavid is the first player since Wayne Gretzky in 1987 to have at least eight assists in the first three games. Gretzky had nine in 1987 and eight in 1981.
Evander Kane added a goal and an assist while Stuart Skinner stopped 27 shots as the Oilers posted a Game 3 rout on the Kings’ home ice for the second time in three years.
Drew Doughty had the Kings’ lone goal early in the second period and Cam Talbot made 35 saves.
Game 4 in the best-of-7 series is Sunday night.
Washington Capitals right wing T.J. Oshie (77) collides with New York Rangers center Matt Rempe (73) during the second period in Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Friday, April 26, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The rate of guns stolen from cars in the U.S. has tripled over the last decade, making them the largest source of stolen guns in the country, an analysis of FBI data by the gun safety group Everytown found.
The rate of stolen guns from cars climbed nearly every year and spiked during the coronavirus pandemic along with a major surge in weapons purchases in the U.S., according to the report, which analyzes FBI data from 337 cities in 44 states and was provided to The Associated Press.
The stolen weapons have, in some cases, turned up at crime scenes. In July 2021, a gun taken from an unlocked car in Riverside, Florida, was used to kill a 27-year-old Coast Guard member as she tried to stop a car burglary in her neighborhood.
The alarming trend underscores the need for Americans to safely secure their firearms to prevent them from getting into the hands of dangerous people, said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steve Dettelbach, whose agency has separately found links between stolen guns and violent crimes.
"People don't go to a mall and steal a firearm from a locked car to go hunting. Those guns are going straight to the street," said Dettelbach, whose agency was not involved in the report. “They’re going to violent people who can’t pass a background check. They’re going to gangs. They’re going to drug dealers, and they’re going to hurt and kill the people who live in the next town, the next county or the next state."
Nearly 122,000 guns were reported stolen in 2022, and just over half of those were from cars — most often when they were parked in driveways or outside people’s homes, the Everytown report found. That’s up from about one-quarter of all thefts in 2013, when homes were the leading spot for firearm thefts, the report says.
Stolen guns have also been linked to tragic accidents, such as when a 14-year-old boy in St. Petersburg, Florida, killed his 11-year-old brother after finding in an alley a gun that had been stolen from an unlocked car a few days before.
At least one firearm was stolen from a car every nine minutes on average in 2022, the most recent year for which data was available. That’s almost certainly an undercount, though, since there’s no federal law requiring people to report stolen guns and only one-third of states require a report.
“Every gun stolen from a car increases the chances it’ll be used in a violent crime,” said Sarah Burd-Sharp, senior director of research at Everytown, which advocates for gun control policies. It’s unclear what’s driving the trend. The report found higher theft rates in states with looser gun laws, which also tend to have higher rates of gun ownership.
The report analyzed crime data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, which includes details about what was stolen and where it came from. Guns stolen from cars bucked car theft trends overall — the rate of other things stolen from cars has dropped 11% over the last 10 years, even as the rate of gun thefts from cars grew 200%, Everytown found in its analysis of FBI data.
In Savannah, Georgia, city leaders last month passed an ordinance requiring people to secure firearms left inside cars after seeing more than 200 guns stolen from unlocked cars in a year. The measure is facing pushback from the state's attorney general.
The ATF has separately said that theft is a significant source of guns that end up in the hands of criminals. More than 1 million guns were reported stolen between 2017 and 2021, the agency found in a sweeping report on crime guns released last year. And the vast majority of gun thefts are from individuals.
The agency is prohibited by law from publicly releasing detailed information about where stolen guns end up. The information can, however, be shared with police investigating a crime.
FILE - Dozens of recovered stolen handguns are displayed during a press conference, Nov. 21, 2023, in Benton Township, Mich. Two men, who are brothers, are accused of targeting a Dunham's near Benton Harbor. The rate of guns stolen from cars in the U.S. has tripled over the last decade, making them the largest source of stolen guns in the country, a new analysis of FBI data by the gun-safety group Everytown found. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP, File)
FILE - This undated photo provided by the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office in Paw Paw, Mich., shows stolen guns, ammunition and knives that were recovered Sept. 12, 2015, in Antwerp Township, Mich. The rate of guns stolen from cars in the U.S. has tripled over the last decade, making them the largest source of stolen guns in the country, a new analysis of FBI data by the gun-safety group Everytown found. (Van Buren County Sheriff's Office via AP)
