The Pittsburgh Penguins ended their postseason slump against the New York Rangers emphatically Saturday, lighting up Henrik Lundqvist in a remarkably easy 6-3 rout in Game 5 to win the series 4-1 and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. Rookie Bryan Rust scored twice during a four-goal burst in the second period and Matt Murray made 38 saves for the Penguins. Pittsburgh outscored the Rangers 14-4 over the final three games to gain a measure of revenge after New York ended the Penguins' seasons each of the last two years. Matt Cullen, Carl Hagelin, Conor Sheary and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins to end a miserable and brief postseason for Lundqvist, who stopped just 17 of 23 shots and failed to make it to the third period for the third time in the series. Rick Nash, Dominic Moore and Chris Kreider scored for the Rangers. Ducks 5, Predators 2: Ryan Garbutt scored the go-ahead goal in the second period for the Ducks, who beat the Nashville Predators for the first win by a home team in their first-round series, which Anaheim leads 3-2. Nashville had won the first two games in Anaheim before the Ducks tied it with two wins on the Predators' home ice. David Perron scored the tying goal earlier in the second and assisted on Garbutt's goal. The Ducks added three goals in the third: Sami Vatanen scored on a breakaway, Cam Fowler had a power-play goal and Ryan Kesler added an empty-netter. Miikka Salomaki and Ryan Johansen scored for Nashville. Blackhawks 6, Blues 3: Artem Anisimov, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dale Weise scored during Chicago's dominant second period, and the Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night to send their first-round playoff series to Game 7. Andrew Shaw added a third-period goal in his return from a one-game suspension for using a gay slur during Chicago's 4-3 loss in Game 4. Andrew Ladd had a goal and an assist as the Blackhawks improved to 15-1 in their last 16 Game 6s in the playoffs. Chicago trailed 3-1 in the series, but stayed alive with a 4-3 double-overtime victory in St. Louis Thursday. Then, the defending Stanley Cup champions trailed 3-1 after one period in Game 6, but found a way again. NHL participation in Games in doubt The NHL's participation in future Winter Olympics is under threat in negotiations between the league and the International Olympic Committee, US media reported Saturday. ESPN.com reported that the NHL, the NHL Players Association and the International Ice Hockey Federation met last week, with the international governing body reporting that the IOC doesn't want to reimburse some of expenses previously paid for the North American league and players who took part in the Games. The IOC has helped cover expenses such as insurance for players and travel costs since NHL players began taking part in Nagano in 1998. The NHL's participation in future Games has been uncertain for some time, with commissioner Gary Bettman saying during the Sochi Olympics in 2014 that more negotiations were needed to decide if the league's stars would take part in 2018. League owners find it difficult to shut down competition for more than a fortnight in the middle of the NHL season and are also worried about injuries like the one suffered by Canada's John Tavares in Sochi. However, the NHL could work out a deal to play in the 2018 Games in South Korea and the 2022 Olympics in Beijing in a bid to expand interest in the sport in Asia. — Agencies
