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MONTREAL – The New York Rangers took a commanding 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final with a 3-1 over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 on Monday at the Bell Centre. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist stood tall with 41 saves between the pipes, but it was defenceman Ryan McDonagh who got the first star of the game as he had a goal and an assist and now has two goals and four assists for six points in two games. With a big series lead and a chance of wrapping up the series back at Madison Square Garden, the young blueliner was surprisingly low-key considering his performance in Games 1 and 2. "Just everybody else around me," he answered when asked what the key to his recent offensive success has been. "You cant have that success without your teammates doing what they need to do and getting you the puck in certain situations. "It was great fore-checking on my goal and simple play by Dom [Domenic Moore] to find me. You play like that and good things will happen. It was great passing by Richie [Brad Richards] on the power play and then just simple plays by everyone. Everybodys really contributing and its showing on the scoreboard." McDonagh now has nine points in 16 games in the playoffs, but six of those have come in the last two. "I was just trying to be a little bit simpler out of my zone," said McDonagh, who - as Montreal fans know all too well now - was drafted 12th overall by the Canadiens at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. "If I have a second or two to make a direct pass, make it. But I was just looking for stick blades too much at times and its tight checking in the playoffs so you want to make sure that youre not giving forwards an opportunity to grind you in your own zone. So the simple plays will work a lot in the playoffs and Ive been able to make good reads and thats helped me." McDonaghs teammates have noticed the changes as well and are happy the hard work is paying off for their teammate. "The last bunch of games hes been getting better and better," said blueliner Marc Staal. "Obviously, we need that offence from the back end and hes really providing it right now. But its also the little things hes doing. "He works so hard on his defensive game and is so hard on his stick out there. Hers smart in his own zone and that cause us to have a lot of offense from it and obviously on the powerplay thats huge too. That hard work is paying off." Head coach Alain Vigneault echoed Staals assessment and credited McDonaghs defensive game - which in turn has led to more offence. "Both go hand in hand," he explained. "Like when Ryans gap is good and, obviously, hes got tough matchups because hes always playing against the other teams best line. "When his gap is good and hes battling hard in his one-on-ones, usually the offensive part of his game is there, and its been very good the last two games." James Murphy is a freelance reporter who also writes for NHL.com, the Boston Herald and XNsports.com. He covered the Boston Bruins/NHL for last 11 seasons writing for ESPNBoston.com, ESPN.com, NHL.com, NESN.com, the Boston Metro, Insidehockey.com and Le Hockey Magazine. Murphy also currently hosts the radio show "Murphys Hockey Law" heard Saturdays 9-11 AM ET on Sirius/XM NHL Network Radio and 4-6 PM ET on Websportsmedia.com. In addition to that, he is a regular guest TSN 690 in Montreal and Sirius/XM NHL Network Radio as well as a hockey analyst on CTV Montreal. Authentic NCAA Jerseys . - This win was more the New Jersey Devils style. Cheap NCAA Jerseys China . His absence against the Celtics comes a day after he scored 43 points in the Heats 100-96 win at Cleveland. https://www.cheapncaajerseysjustwholesale.com/. Lisicki beat South African Chanelle Scheepers by a 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) margin. Next up for the Wimbledon runner-up will be Slovenian Polona Hercog, who outlasted Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. College Football Jerseys . Masahiro Tanaka has touched down in the United States and the courting of the Rakuten Golden Eagles stud pitcher has begun in earnest by a bevy of MLB teams interested in the Japanese ace. Cheap NCAA Jerseys . Ghoulam has put pen to paper on a four and a half year deal, tying him to Napoli until 2018. The 22-year-old Algeria international, who played for France at Under 21 level, has made 87 league appearances in four seasons at Saint-Etienne.CHICAGO -- Jason Hammel is certain the Cubs are better than their record so far. Hammel pitched seven strong innings, Mike Olt hit a three-run home run and Nate Schierholtz drove in a pair of early runs to lead the Cubs to a 9-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. "With a doubt," he said. "Weve played a lot of close ballgames where we could have come out on the other end. Were a young team and well figure out how to win those ball games pretty soon." Hammel (3-1) allowed just one run and four hits without walking a batter in seven innings to lower his ERA to 2.60. "Very nice job," Cubs manager Rick Renteria said. "He got some groundball double plays when he needed to. Made some pitches when he needed to. It was pretty efficient." Olt still is hitting below .200 for the season (.195), but has four homers and nine runs batted in despite not playing every day. The Cubs, whove won three of four to improve to 7-12, have won back-to-back games for the first time this season. They last won consecutive games on Sept. 9 and 10 of last season against the Cincinnati Reds. Their last consecutive home wins came on Sept. 4 and 6 against Miami and Milwaukee. Brandon McCarthy (0-4) lowered his ERA from 7.11 to 6.23 because only one of five runs allowed was earned. He yielded seven hits in five innings. Arizona has dropped four straight and has the worst record in the majors at 5-18. "It was a carbon copy of the game (Monday)," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. "We made an error there, gave them life and then Brandon got behind in the count 3-1 and Olt hit a ball down over the plate, a pretty big pop into that wind. "We didnt mount any pressure again offensively so I dont know what to tell ya," he said. In the third inning, Luis Valbuena stroked a one-outt double to left-centre field and then scored two batters later on a two-out single by Schierholtz.dddddddddddd In the fifth, Schierholtz drove in Valbuena again, this time on a sacrifice fly to right field, for a 2-0 lead. Valbuena led off the inning with a single, went to second on a groundout and then reached third as Arizona second baseman Martin Prado dropped Anthony Rizzos grounder for an error. The Cubs took advantage. Given the extra out, Starlin Castro singled to put two runners on and Olt followed with a homer into the right field bleachers for a 5-0 lead. "I think it probably helped me," Olt said of the wind. "I wasnt trying to hit a home run. I was just trying to put the ball in play and hit it hard." Arizona finally got on the board against Hammel in the sixth when Tuffy Gosewisch led off with a homer. The Cubs then broke things open with four runs in the bottom of the eighth, while the Diamondbacks got one back in the ninth. NOTES: Wednesday is the 100th anniversary of the first game at Wrigley Field, which then was known as Weeghman Park, between the Chicago Federals and Kansas City Packers of the Federal League. The Cubs will wear replica Federal uniforms for the game, while Arizona will wear Packers uniforms. . Diamondbacks OF Mark Trumbo didnt start because of soreness in his left foot. The injury occurred late in Mondays game. . Now that RHP Jose Veres no longer is closing games, Renteria will hunt for opportunities to get Veres on the mound so he can work out his problems. "It could be at any moment," Renteria said. "We could be up by 10 (or) down by 10. He needs to pitch. Hes talked about he wants to get back on the mound and throw." . LHP Wade Miley (2-2) is scheduled to face Chicago RHP Jeff Samardzija (0-2) on Wednesday. ' ' '