Rangers force Game 7 with Caps

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 27 shots in earning his seventh NHL playoff shutout, and Derick Brassard scored a second-period goal for the host New York Rangers, who stayed alive with a 1-0 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday that forced a Game 7 in the first-round series.

The game ended with a melee in the far left corner in the New York zone after the final buzzer sounded.

Brassard handed Lundqvist the lead at 9 minutes, 39 seconds of the second period, with a goal that was originally credited to struggling forward Rick Nash.

The reigning Vezina Trophy winner made it stand up, and helped send the series back to Washington for the deciding game on Monday night.

The home team has won all six games in the series

Leafs even series. Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel scored third-period goals and the Toronto Maple Leafs edged the visiting Boston Bruins, 2-1, Sunday to send their playoff series back to Boston for Game 7 on Monday night.

Not only did the win keep the Leafs alive, it snapped a 54-year run of home playoff failures against the Bruins.

Toronto's previous home playoff win against Boston was March 31, 1959, when the Leafs won by 3-2 in overtime. Nine straight postseason home losses followed in the decades since.

Milan Lucic scored for Boston with 26 seconds left in the third.

The only time Toronto has come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series was the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings. The Leafs trailed by 3-0 in that series before reeling off four straight wins.

Toronto's last Game 7 win was in 2004 - the last time the Leafs made the playoffs - when it beat Ottawa 4-1 to wrap up a first-round series.

Sens' Spezza practices. Fresh off their first-round elimination of the Montreal Canadiens, the Ottawa Senators had a familiar face back on the ice on Sunday.

Center Jason Spezza practiced with his teammates for the first time since undergoing back surgery for a herniated disk on Feb. 1.

Despite speculation that Spezza could be done for the season, seeing the 29-year-old take part in a full practice was encouraging for the Senators, who will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round of the playoffs.

It's unclear whether Spezza will travel to Pittsburgh, but Senators coach Paul MacLean didn't offer much hope that he would play in the first two games of the series. "He's a long ways away," MacLean said.

League sued. The New York Times reported that Derek Boogaard's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the NHL.

In the lawsuit, the family says the NHL is responsible for the brain damage that Boogaard sustained during six seasons as an enforcer in the league, and for his addiction to prescription painkillers.

Boogaard was found dead of an accidental overdose of pain medication and alcohol on May 13, 2011. He was 28. He was posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain ailment that is caused by repeated blows to the head.

Quotable. St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, on arguing with goalie Jaroslav Halak over playing time during the playoffs: "With Jaro, that's an everyday occurrence."

- Staff and wire reports