Pittsburgh Penguins take control of Eastern Conference quarter-finals play-off

Sidney Crosby was in inspirational form as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged out the New York Islanders 5-4 to regain the advantage in their Eastern Conference quarter-finals series.

Crosby drew the penalty on Islanders defenseman Brian Strait and then teed up Chris Kunitz to score on the power-play to make it 2-1 in the series.

It was Crosby's third assist of the game, who had needed goals from Jarome Iginla, Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis late in the opening period to recover after Matt Moulson and Casey Cizikas put the Islanders 2-0 up.

Douglas Murray added a fourth for the Penguins in the second period, but New York replied through Kyle Okposo and John Tavarez in the third to force overtime.

Jason Zucker in overtime as the Minnesota Wild edged the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 to cut their deficit to 2-1 in the series.

After Johnny Oduya gave Chicago an early lead, goals from Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Duncan Keith had Minnesota leading until three minutes from time when Dennis Keith tied it up.
Ill-tempered

The Ottawa Senators eased into a 2-1 lead in their series with the Montreal Canadiens with a comfortable 6-1 win.

Rookie Jean-Gabriel Pageau was the star of the show with a hat-trick, although he also lost a tooth in an ill-tempered clash that saw the teams serve a combined 210 penalty minutes in the third period alone.

Rene Bourque cancelled out Daniel Alfredsson early goal for Ottawa, but then Pageau took over with Kyle Turris and Jakob Silfverberg getting the other goals.

Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture had two goals each as the San Jose Sharks took a 3-0 lead over the Vancouver Canucks with a 5-2 victory.

Pavelski put San Jose 2-0 up and, after Alexandre Burrows cut their advantage, Couture scored either side of a Patrick Marleau goal to make it 5-2.

Dan Hamhuis' late goal was scant consolation for a Vancouver team with it all to do.