Rangers take control of series, Penguins advance

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3 on Wednesday to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven NHL Eastern Conference quarter-final playoff series.

Should the Rangers progress, the fifth seeds are likely to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Conference semi-finals after their Atlantic Division rivals completed a four-game sweep of the Ottawa Senators with a 3-1 road victory.

In the other game of the day, the surprising Nashville Predators evened their series against the Detroit Red Wings, top seed in the Western Conference, with a 3-2 home victory.

The teams are tied at 2-2 and will now head back to Detroit for Game Five on Friday.

The Rangers' winning goal was scored on a booming slapshot by rookie defenseman Marc Staal for his first career playoff goal with just over three minutes to play.

Staal had inadvertently diverted the puck into his own net in the third game on Sunday to give the Devils their only win of the series so far.

Scott Gomez, who joined the Rangers this season after playing with the Devils for seven years, scored the first goal and added the fifth into an empty net directly from a face-off with 12 seconds left at Madison Square Garden.

Martin Straka and Chris Drury also scored for New York and Patrik Elias had two goals for New Jersey. Mike Mottau scored the visitors' third.

The Rangers can wrap up the series with a Game Five win in Newark, New Jersey on Friday.

REMARKABLE TURNAROUND

In Ottawa, the Penguins gained some revenge in knocking last year's Eastern Conference champions out of the playoffs with a first-round series sweep that earned them the honor of becoming the first team to advance to the second round.

It was a remarkable turnaround for the young Penguins, who were eliminated by the experienced Senators in the first round last year in Ottawa's march to the finals.

The roles have been reversed a year later, however, after the understrength Senators ran out of steam in the second half of the regular season and were never able to match the speed of their opponents during the playoffs.

The Penguins out-shot the Senators by a crushing 34-22 on Wednesday with Evgeni Malkin, Jarkko Ruutu and Sidney Crosby all scoring. Cory Stillman scored the Senators' goal.

The Penguins could still face the Boston Bruins in the second round of the playoffs but the eighth seeds trail the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in their series, meaning a showdown against the winner of the Devils-Rangers match-up is more likely.

In Nashville, the Predators evened their series with the NHL's regular season top team as Dan Ellis made 39 saves to lead the home side to a 3-2 win.

Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber scored 32 seconds apart in the opening period and Ellis was outstanding as the Predators drew level at 2-2 with Detroit despite being out-shot 41-27.

Greg de Vries scored the other Nashville goal, at 6:35 of the second period, to give his team a 3-1 lead. It also sent veteran goalie Dominik Hasek to the bench after he allowed three goals on 14 shots.

Chris Osgood stopped all 13 shots he faced and Pavel Datsyuk scored both goals but the Red Wings could not find a way past Ellis again after Datsyuk had made it 3-2 in the third period.

Martin Erat added two assists for the Predators.

(Editing by John O'Brien)