Boston’s leading goal scorer during the regular season scored his first of the postseason with 4:20 left in the first overtime and the Bruins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in the first playoff game in 40 years between the Original Six teams.

“It’s always frustrating” not to score, Marchand said, “but there’s so many other areas of the game. It’s always nice to get the first one and you hope you just keep going.”

The win was Boston’s third straight in overtime, and New York’s third straight loss in extra time.

“I thought it was pretty even going into the overtime,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “But we got spanked in the overtime.”

Both teams advanced with Game 7 victories Monday night. The Rangers beat the Washington Capitals 5-0 behind Henrik Lundqvist’s second consecutive shutout. The Bruins overcame a three-goal deficit with 11 minutes left in regulation and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Patrice Bergeron’s goal in overtime.

“I really thought our guys turned the page on that historical game,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said.

Marchand scored on a pass from Bergeron. Marchand had carried the puck up the right side, passed it to Bergeron and kept going toward the net. Bergeron passed across the slot and Marchand tipped it past Lundqvist from the left side of the crease.

“I told Marchand when we were pretty close to each other on the wall to go backdoor,” Bergeron said. “It was good to see him score because I thought he had some pretty good looks tonight.”

Boston outshot New York 16-5 in overtime.

“I kind of knew he was coming in the middle, but I was just too locked in on the puck,” Lundqvist said. “Sooner or later when you face a lot of chances like that, you’re going to make a mistake.”

The Bruins carried the play throughout overtime. They applied constant pressure, but couldn’t score during a power play when Derek Dorsett was penalized for interference at 2:20 of overtime.

Boston nearly won in regulation, but Johnny Boychuk’s shot from the right point clanged off the left post with one-tenth of a second remaining. Then he hit the left post at the other end of the ice at 6:34 of overtime.

Zdeno Chara gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 12:23 of the second before Ryan McDonagh tied it with 1.3 seconds left in the period. Derek Stepan put the Rangers ahead 2-1 just 14 seconds into the third period, and Torey Krug tied it on a power play with his first NHL goal in four career games.

“For his first goal, he couldn’t have asked for better timing,” Julien said.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals is Sunday night in Boston.

On Thursday, the Bruins played without three injured veteran defensemen: Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden. Three rookies started on defense: Dougie Hamilton, Matt Bartkowski and Krug, who was called up from Providence of the AHL after Seidenberg was hurt early in the first period Monday night.

The Bruins ended Lundqvist’s shutout streak at 152 minutes, 23 seconds when he gave up a Chara’s soft goal. Lundqvist appeared to have a good view of the 50-foot slap shot from just in front of the middle of the blue line and got a piece of the puck, but it trickled by him.

That lead nearly held up through the second period. But when Boychuk passed it from in front of his net to Tyler Seguin in the right circle, Rick Nash hit Sequin’s stick and the puck went to McDonagh at the left point.

McDonagh’s rising slap shot soared over the right arm of goalie Tuukka Rask. Stepan then made it 2-1 on a 30-foot shot from the slot through Rask’s legs, two goals in 15.3 seconds.

Krug tied the game with teammate David Krejci in front of the net trying to screen Lundqvist. The shot from just inside the top of the left circle went under Lundqvist’s left arm.

Then Marchand beat Lundqvist to win in the extra session.

“It was a tough overtime period for us. They came hard,” Lundqvist said. “My record is terrible in overtime, but I’ve just got to stick with it, play my game and hopefully it’ll turn around.”

Game notes

Stepan’s goal was the sixth against the Bruins in the first two minutes of a period in their eight playoff games. … The teams last met in the playoffs in 1973 when the Rangers won the first-round series in five games. The previous year, they faced each other in the Stanley Cup finals, and the Bruins won in six. … Both teams’ leading goal scorers in the regular season had no goals in eight playoff games heading in. New York’s Nash stretched that unwanted string to nine, but Marchand’s goal won the game. . … Boston’s Jaromir Jagr, a former Ranger, is the only player on either team who had been born the last time the teams met in the playoffs on April 10, 1973.

The post Brad Marchand, Bruins edge Rangers in OT to take series opener appeared first on IdealCapper.

That’s the main reason the Rangers are heading to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Led by Lundqvist’s 35 saves in a second consecutive shutout, and goals from some unlikely sources, the Rangers beat the Capitals 5-0 in an anticlimactic Game 7 Monday night, eliminating Washington for the second year in a row.

By winning a Game 7 on the road for the first time in its history, New York completed its comeback after trailing in the series 2-0 and 3-2 — the latest in Washington’s long history of playoff collapses.

“He was really good, but the team was also good, too. I have to give the team some credit. They played hard in front of him,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said, before making sure everyone knew this: “Henrik is our backbone.”

The last NHL goalie with shutouts in Games 6 and 7 of a series was Detroit’s Dominik Hasek in 2002 against Colorado, according to STATS LLC.

Lundqvist, Ovechkin said, did an “unbelievable job; he makes incredible saves.”

Sixth-seeded New York faces the No. 4 Boston Bruins in the second round.

Arron Asham put New York ahead Monday in the first period, before Taylor Pyatt and Michael Del Zotto made it 3-0 early in the second on goals 2:10 apart. Ryan Callahan added a goal 13 seconds into the third period, and when Mats Zuccarello scored with about 13½ minutes remaining, thousands of red-clad fans streamed to the exits.

Soon after, when Lundqvist fell forward to smother a puck, chants of “Hen-reeek! Hen-reeek!” from the no-longer-outnumbered Rangers supporters rose in the arena.

Asked why his team couldn’t score in the final two games, Capitals forward Troy Brouwer replied: “Henrik Lundqvist. Plain and simple.”

From the moment Mike Ribeiro’s overtime goal gave Washington a Game 5 victory, Lundqvist was simply superb.

The Swede stopped all 62 shots he faced in Games 6 and 7, showing exactly why he won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie last season and is a finalist this season.

“In a game like this, obviously you’re looking for a great start. I thought we set the tone in the first. You just need a couple of good bounces and we got them tonight. A couple of big goals for us,” Lundqvist said. “When we scored the fourth one, I thought, ‘OK, we got this.’ As long as it’s three, you never know with (the Capitals). They have so much skill, they can turn it around quickly.”

But Washington’s offense, led by two-time MVP Ovechkin, managed to score 12 goals the entire series — and zero over the final six periods.

Indeed, Ovechkin was held without a point in Games 3-7. The Russian wing led the NHL with 32 goals but he heads into the offseason after the longest playoff point drought of his career. He had a goal in Game 1, an assist in Game 2, and that was it.

Ovechkin delivered some big hits early in Game 7, but he was credited with only one shot by the end of the second period, which closed with some boos from the red-clad spectators in the stands.

New York’s top scorer in the regular season, Rick Nash, didn’t have a goal against Washington, but the Rangers found other players to pick up the slack.

While Callahan did have 16 goals this season, the other four Rangers who put pucks past Braden Holtby combined for a total of only 14.

The Rangers-Capitals finale began only a little more than 24 hours after the shoving- and wrestling-filled end of Game 6, which New York won 1-0 on Derick Brassard’s second-period goal and Lundqvist’s seventh career postseason shutout. That, of course, was played at Madison Square Garden, continuing the pattern of the home team winning each of the first six games of the series.

That ended emphatically Monday, in a Game 7 similarly anticlimactic to Washington’s 6-2 loss to Pittsburgh in 2009.

Since the start of the 2008 playoffs — when Washington’s core of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green made their postseason debuts — the Capitals have appeared in nine series, and this was the seventh to last the full seven games.

They’re now 2-5 in those, and Ovechkin and Co. have never been beyond the second round. Going further back, to 1985, the Capitals have lost nine series in which the club led either 2-0 or 3-1.

Ovechkin, in speaking with a Russian reporter, said he thinks the league wanted a Game 7 in the series, citing a dearth of penalties against the Rangers, though he stopped short of accusing the NHL of match-fixing.

“The refereeing … You understand it yourself,” Ovechkin told reporter Slava Malamud, who translated his interview from Russian to English. “How can there be no penalties at all (on one team) during the playoffs?

“I am not saying there was a phone call from (the league), but someone just wanted Game 7. For the ratings. You know, the lockout, escrow, the league needs to make profit. … I don’t know whether the refs were predisposed against us or the league. But to not give obvious penalties (in the Capitals’ favor), while for us any little thing was immediately penalized…”

Still, there was not much Washington could do with the way Lundqvist performed, helping New York reverse a little bit of playoff misery of its own: Until Monday, the Rangers were 0-5 in Game 7s on the road.

On one spirited shift not quite midway through the opening period, Ovechkin delivered hard hits to John Moore, Steve Eminger and Ryan McDonagh, slamming the latter into the boards to draw loud cheers of “Ovi! Ovi!”

Moments later, 19-year-old Tom Wilson had a close, open look thanks to a steal behind the net by Matt Hendricks, but Lundqvist made the reflex save.

The Capitals had more and better early chances, generally keeping the puck at their offensive end, but it was the Rangers who went ahead 1-0 at the 13:19 mark of the first period — thanks to a quick rush when Washington didn’t get back on defense fast enough.

Green, who led NHL defensemen with 12 goals this season and scored the OT winner in Game 2, skated in for a 1-on-1 chance that Lundqvist kicked away. Tumbling to the ice, Green managed to swat the puck back toward the crease.

Again, Wilson was in the right spot. This time, though, the puck bounced over his stick, and the Rangers raced the other way for a 4-on-2. Chris Kreider, scratched for Games 2-5, sent the puck to Asham, whose shot from the top of the right circle zipped into a tough-to-find spot above Holtby’s shoulder and the crossbar.

It was fourth-line winger Asham’s second goal of the series, matching his output for the entire regular season — and doubling Ovechkin’s postseason total against New York.

Soon after, Ovechkin’s nice pass along the boards freed Jay Beagle for an attempt that Lundqvist batted away. Marcus Johansson was in position for a rebound but couldn’t get it in the net, either.

When Del Zotto’s wrister from the top of the left circle appeared to glance off Brouwer’s skate before sliding through Holtby’s legs, there were still nearly 35 minutes of regulation left, and yet the game felt finished.

The crowd, so boisterous earlier, went silent for stretches as Washington’s fans contemplated another early playoff exit.

Game notes

The Rangers will open on the road against the Bruins, who beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 in overtime in Game 7 Monday. … Ovechkin’s longest span without a point this regular season was three games, something he went through twice: Feb. 14-21 and March 9-12. The Rangers were the opponent in the middle game of both of those droughts.

The post Henrik Lundqvist gets 2nd straight shutout as Rangers ice Caps in 7 appeared first on IdealCapper.

The deal sends right wing Derek Dorsett, center Derick Brassard, defenseman John Moore and a sixth-round draft pick in 2014 to the Rangers.

“I was surprised. I heard rumors here and there, but didn’t try to focus on them,” Gaborik said Wednesday during a television interview with TSN. “This is a new challenge and I’m looking forward to it.”

Although Dorsett is on injured reserve with a broken collarbone, he is expected to return by the end of the regular season or the start of the playoffs, his agent Allain Roy confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.

The Rangers (17-15-3) entered Wednesday in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings with 37 points.

It was the second significant move leading up to the deadline for the Rangers, who acquired gritty forward Ryane Clowe from San Jose on Tuesday in exchange for three draft picks.

“Listen, (Gaborik)’s a good player and his game is beginning to come but it gives us some flexibility moving forward; we’re filling out the middle of our lineup with the deal,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “We’re getting some good players with some grind and some skill.”

The decision to move Gaborik was not shocking, given his struggles this season. Although the 31-year-old Slovakian native is coming off a 41-goal campaign in 2011-12, he has been inconsistent this season.

“Throughout this process our focus was to add a player who could provide a boost to our offense, improve our goal scoring and power play and we identified Marian Gaborik as the player we wanted,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. “He has been an elite goal scorer in this league for many years and we are very excited to have him.”

Gaborik has nine goals and 19 points this season but has scored goals in just six of the Rangers’ 35 games. He also has been benched and demoted several times by Tortorella during his struggles.

Tortorella said he didn’t lose faith in Gaborik.

“No. Gabby and I have a great relationship,” Tortorella said. “I hope you guys don’t go that way and interfere our relationship because it’s a really good one, no matter what’s gone on with him. He’s a good man and I’ll miss him. I’ll tell you right now, I’ll miss him. He has grown as he’s been with us. Quite honestly, when he first came here, I don’t think he really had enough skin on him. He has skin on him and I respect him and I think he’ll get his game back.”

In dealing the three-time 40-goal scorer, the Rangers also shed salary — a huge coup considering the salary cap will drop to $64.3 million next year. Gaborik had one year left on a five-year, $37.5 million deal that paid him $7.5 million annually.

“The biggest thing is if we had been where we wanted to be, none of this would have happened so it’s a message to everybody that it’s not good enough right now and unfortunately that’s part of the business management decided to do. But we wish him well,” Rangers center Brad Richards said.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets added some offense to a lineup that has made a surprising playoff push. As of Wednesday, Columbus (15-14-7) is one point back of the eighth-place St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference standings.

“The one thing we needed to address is goal scoring, offense and the power-play,” Kekalainen said Wednesday during an interview with TSN.

New York and Columbus have become big-time trading partners in recent times.

The Rangers received top-line forward Rick Nash from the Blue Jackets in a trade last July that sent Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixon and a first-round pick in this year’s draft to Columbus.

Nash, the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft by the Blue Jackets in 2002, has 13 goals and 30 points in his first 31 games with New York.

In terms of the players heading to New York in Wednesday’s deal, the Rangers addressed some major needs.

Paper-thin at center, the Rangers added depth down the middle by adding Brassard, a 25-year-old center who has seven goals and 11 assists in 34 games for the Blue Jackets this season.

Agent Allan Walsh said via text that Brassard is “very happy” to join the Rangers.

The Rangers also add another defenseman in Moore to a back end that currently is without valuable blue-liner Marc Staal, who is out indefinitely with an eye injury.

Moore, 22, is a former first-round pick (2009, 21st overall) who averaged 14:30 per game.

Although Dorsett is injured, the 23-year-old adds some extra grit to the Rangers, who toughened up one day prior with the addition of Clowe.

Dorsett, who has 53 penalty minutes in 24 games for the Blue Jackets, broke his collarbone last month but is not believed to be done for the season, contrary to the initial reports.

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The Rangers announced Wednesday that Nash, who is suffering from an undisclosed injury, will not join the club on its trip to Ottawa.

Nash has not been ruled out to rejoin the team in Montreal, however. The Rangers visit the Canadiens on Saturday at Montreal’s Bell Centre in a rematch of Tuesday’s 3-1 loss.

Nash was somewhat of a surprising scratch on Tuesday, if only because he played Sunday against the Washington Capitals. The 28-year-old Nash, who was acquired by the Rangers in a heralded trade this past summer, was questionable leading up to that game against Washington.

Nash missed a team event on Friday due to illness and missed practice the next day — the team characterized it as a maintenance day — but took warm-ups Sunday and played. He also practiced Monday but sat out with the mystery ailment on Tuesday.

Nash did not practice with the team on Wednesday.

Although the Rangers have repeatedly declined to reveal what is ailing Nash — coach John Tortorella’s most colorful response on the matter was, “None of your business” — or how serious the injury may be, it is believed that whatever is holding Nash out of the lineup is linked to a nasty hit he took last week in Boston.

Nash’s head rattled against the glass when he was slammed into the boards by Bruins forward Milan Lucic, who was not penalized on the play.

Without Nash, Marian Gaborik has moved up to the right wing position on the team’s first line, where he is playing with left wing Carl Hagelin and center Derek Stepan.

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Powe was helped off the ice after a frightening collision with Washington’s Matt Hendricks early in the second period of the Rangers’ 2-1 win against the Capitals on Sunday.

“I missed him right away on the bench, especially protecting a lead,” Tortorella said. “I don’t know how long he’s going to be out. He doesn’t have the stats, but it’s not always about the stats. He’s done a lot of good things in his role.”

Powe was said to be feeling better a day after the collision. He appeared to be unconscious after the hit and was down on the ice for several minutes looking dazed, and the team is handling the injury with caution.

Down one of their best penalty killers, the Rangers recalled physical forward Brandon Mashinter from the team’s AHL club, the Connecticut Whale. It is not yet clear whether Mashinter will make his debut or whether Chris Kreider will play in place of Powe in Tuesday’s game against Montreal.

“I’ve been interested to look at Mashinter. He’s an interesting one to me, but I’m not sure,” Tortorella said. “I’m not sure what the lineup’s going to be. A number of things come into play.”

Both skaters practiced with the team Monday.

Mashinter, 24, has five goals and six assists in 14 games this season for the Whale. He previously played 13 NHL games for the San Jose Sharks in 2010-11.

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While no one was willing to talk about what is ailing the top forward, whatever it is didn’t seem to slow him down Sunday night.

Nash assisted on surging linemate Carl Hagelin’s tying goal in the second period and registered a game-high eight shots on goalie Braden Holtby in New York’s come-from-behind 2-1 victory.

Nash has been limited to three goals and nine assists in his first 14 games with the Rangers, following a blockbuster offseason trade. But his mere presence is opening up lots of space for those on the ice with him.

“They’re not going in, but I’m getting the chances,” Nash said. “A couple of posts and point-blanks. I thought they were going in for sure. The exciting thing is Carl is putting them in.”

The Rangers (8-5-1) tied it when Hagelin scored at 7:39 of the second. Ryan McDonagh fired a drive from the middle of the ice, just inside the blue line, that was tipped into the net on New York’s 30th shot.

Hagelin has scored five of his six goals in the past four games — netting at least one in each. That led coach John Tortorella to call him “probably our best forward” recently.

“He is one of the few guys who can beat his guy one-on-one most of the time,” Hagelin said of Nash. “That’s why you can hide a bit on the ice and try to disappear. When he makes that move, the D who is supposed to be on me goes over to him, and I am wide open.

“When you feel good, you continue playing well, and goals are going to come.”

One on the power play finally did for New York when Derek Stepan scored the winner early in the third period.

It was the only time the Rangers’ power-play unit connected in five chances, but it came at the right moment and helped snap the Capitals’ season-high winning streak at three.

Washington (5-9-1), which lost to New York in the second round of last year’s playoffs, had been 11-5-2 in its last 18 regular-season games against the Rangers.

“We could have played better,” Capitals coach Adam Oates said. “We took too many penalties. We spent so much energy killing penalties. It took away from the rest of our game.”

Defenseman John Carlson put Washington ahead in the first, despite the Capitals being outshot 20-8.

Washington went 2-1 on its trip and will play its next three at home.

“They played better than us,” Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom said. “They had better chances. It’s tough, one-goal games coming down to the wire.”

New York improved to 5-1-1 in its past seven, despite entering the game with an NHL-worst power play that connected on only 10 percent of its chances.

The deciding advantage lasted only 7 seconds before clicking 4:25 into the third.

Brad Richards, benched for all but one shift in the third period of the Rangers’ shootout loss to the Islanders on Thursday, won a faceoff and then made a pass to Michael Del Zotto in the right circle. Del Zotto quickly found Stepan with a diagonal pass to the left post, where Stepan scored while down on a knee.

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 27 shots for his seventh win. Holtby made 38 saves to earn third star of the game honors.

“I thought we were a lot better than them in the first period, but they had the lead,” Lundqvist said. “The key for us was to stay patient, and we did.”

The Capitals’ power play, which has been surging recently, was held in check on four chances. Its final opportunity came with under 7 minutes left when Nash was called for tripping. Washington had scored a power-play goal in each of its previous six games, connecting on 8 of 15 opportunities.

The Capitals put instant pressure on the Rangers and Lundqvist and nearly scored even before Carlson’s second goal of the season at 1:19. Mike Ribeiro got the puck to Carlson for a hard drive from the right circle that got past Lundqvist.

The Rangers dominated in shots in the first period, but had nothing to show for it despite three power plays that generated five shots. New York registered a season-high 20, but was denied each time by Holtby.

Marian Gaborik had perhaps the Rangers’ best scoring chance during Washington’s lone power play of the period, but he was stuffed twice in front.

Frustration swirled throughout Madison Square Garden as the Rangers consistently passed the puck all around the offensive zone during the multiple man-advantages without producing many quality scoring opportunities.

“Shooting the puck is something that we’ve tried to focus on — just getting pucks and bodies to the net,” Stepan said. “If we play that way and we have shots like that and chances like that, eventually they’re going to go in.”

Game notes

Capitals D Mike Green missed his first game of the season because of an undisclosed lower-body injury. … The Rangers’ previous season-high for shots in a period was 17 in the third on Jan. 26 when they scored four goals against Toronto. … Ribeiro, the Capitals’ leading scorer with 18 points this season, earned his 400th NHL assist on Carlson’s goal. … Rangers C Darroll Powe was helped off the ice by teammates Arron Asham and Stepan after a center-ice collision with Washington’s Matt Hendricks in the second period. Powe was woozy after flipping over and striking his head on the ice. He didn’t return.

The post Derek Stepan’s power-play goal snaps tie, gets Rangers by Caps appeared first on IdealCapper.

When the game resumed 34 minutes later, the San Francisco 49ers were the ones playing lights out.

Instead of a blowout, the blackout turned the big game into a shootout.

The Ravens survived the frenzied comeback by the 49ers for a thrilling 34-31 win at the Superdome on Sunday night and their second NFL championship in 11 years.

“How could it be any other way? It’s never pretty. It’s never perfect. But it’s us,” coach John Harbaugh said after winning the sibling showdown with younger brother Jim. “It was us today.”

Barely.

Leading by 22 points when most of the Superdome lights and the scoreboards went dark early in the third quarter, the Ravens used a last-gasp defensive stand to hold on after the momentum strangely swung to the 49ers. San Francisco receiver Michael Crabtree was bumped in the end zone on the 49ers’ final offensive play — the contact appeared incidental — but coach Jim Harbaugh insisted a penalty should have been called.

“There’s no question in my mind that there was a pass interference and then a hold,” Jim Harbaugh said.

As for the foul-up at America’s biggest sporting event, officials revealed that an “abnormality” in the power system triggered an automatic shutdown, forcing backup systems to kick in. But no one was sure what caused the initial problem.

Everything changed after that, though, until Ray Lewis and Co. shut it down. But there were plenty of white-knuckle moments and the Ravens (14-6) had to make four stops inside their 7 at the end.

“I think it speaks to our resolve, speaks to our determination, speaks to our mental toughness,” John Harbaugh said. “That is what wins and loses games.”

For a Super Bowl with so many subplots, it almost had to end with a flourish.

Flacco’s arrival as a championship quarterback coincides with Lewis’ retirement — with a second Super Bowl ring no less. The win capped a sensational month since the star linebacker announced he was leaving the game after 17 Hall of Fame-caliber years.

At 4 hours, 14 minutes, it was the longest Super Bowl ever.

The loss of power left players from both sides stretching and chatting with each other. It also slowed Baltimore’s surge, and that was considerable after Jacoby Jones’ 108-yard kickoff return and Flacco’s three touchdown passes made it 28-6.

Flacco’s big start boosted him to the MVP award.

“They have to give it to one guy and I’m not going to complain that I got it,” said Flacco, who soon will get a rich new contract. His current deal expired with this win.

Down by three TDs, back came San Francisco (13-5-1) in search of its sixth Lombardi Trophy in as many tries.

“As far as the power going out, that didn’t change anything for us,” tight end Vernon Davis said.

Yet they got back in the game almost immediately.

Michael Crabtree’s 31-yard touchdown reception on which he broke two tackles made it 28-13. A couple minutes later, Frank Gore’s 6-yard run followed a 32-yard punt return by Ted Ginn Jr., and the 49ers were within eight.

Ray Rice’s fumble at his 24 led to David Akers’ 34-yard field goal, but Baltimore woke up for a long drive leading to rookie Justin Tucker’s 19-yard field goal.

San Francisco wasn’t done challenging, though, and Colin Kaepernick’s 15-yard TD run, the longest for a quarterback in a Super Bowl, made it 31-29. A 2-point conversion pass failed when the Ravens blitzed.

Tucker added a 38-yarder with 4:19 remaining, setting up the frantic finish.

Kaepernick couldn’t get the 49ers into the end zone on the final three plays, and Ravens punter Sam Koch took a safety for the final score with 4 seconds left. Koch’s free kick was returned by Ginn to midfield as time ran out.

The Harbaughs then met at midfield amid the Ravens’ confetti-laden celebrations.

“It’s very tough,” John Harbaugh said, referring to their conversation. “It’s a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. It’s very painful.”

Only one other championship game in the NFL’s 80-year title game history, Pittsburgh’s 35-31 win over Dallas in 1979, featured both teams scoring at least 30 points.

In the first half, Flacco was as brilliant as Tom Brady, Joe Montana or Terry Bradshaw ever were in the NFL’s biggest game. The only quarterback to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons — his coach holds the same distinction — was nearly perfect. Overall, Flacco threw for 11 touchdowns to tie a postseason record, and had no interceptions.

The Ravens stumbled into the playoffs with four defeats in their last five regular-season games as Lewis recovered from a torn right triceps and Flacco struggled. Harbaugh even fired his offensive coordinator in December, a stunning move with the postseason so close.

But that — and every other move Harbaugh, Flacco and the Ravens made since — were right on target. Just like Flacco’s TD passes of 13 yards to Anquan Boldin, 1 to Dennis Pitta and 56 to Jones in the first half, tying a Super Bowl record.

New Orleans native Jones, one of the heroes in a double-overtime playoff win at Denver, seemed to put the game away with his postseason record 108-yard sprint with the second-half kickoff.

Soon after, the lights went out — and when they came back on, the Ravens were almost powerless to slow the 49ers.

Until the final moments.

“The final series of Ray Lewis’ career was a goal-line stand,” Harbaugh said.

Lewis sprawled on all fours, face-down on the turf, after the end zone incompletion.

“It’s no greater way, as a champ, to go out on your last ride with the men that I went out with, with my teammates,” Lewis said. “And you looked around this stadium and Baltimore! Baltimore! We coming home, baby! We did it!”

It was a bitter loss for Jim Harbaugh, the coach who turned around the Niners in the last two years and brought them to their first Super Bowl in 18 years. His team made a similarly stunning comeback in the NFC championship at Atlanta, but couldn’t finish it off against Baltimore.

“Our guys battled back to get back in,” the 49ers coach said. “I thought we battled right to the brink of winning.”

The 49ers couldn’t have been sloppier in the first half, damaging their chances with penalties — including one on their first play that negated a 20-yard gain — poor tackling and turnovers. Rookie LaMichael James fumbled at the Baltimore 25 to ruin an impressive drive, and the Ravens converted that with Flacco’s 1-yard pass to Pitta for a 14-3 lead.

On San Francisco’s next offensive play, Kaepernick threw behind Randy Moss and always dependable safety Ed Reed picked it off. A huge scuffle followed that brought both Harbaughs onto the field and saw both sides penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness.

Reed, also a New Orleans native, tied the NFL record for postseason picks with his ninth.

Baltimore didn’t pounce on that mistake for points. Instead, Tucker’s fake field goal run on fourth-and-9 came up a yard short when Chris Culliver slammed him out of bounds.

The Ravens simply shrugged, forced a three-and-out, and then unleashed Jones deep. Just as he did to Denver, he flashed past the secondary and caught Flacco’s fling. He had to wait for the ball, fell to the ground to grab it, but was untouched by a Niner. Up he sprang, cutting left and using his speed to outrun two defenders to the end zone.

Desperate for some points, the 49ers completed four passes and got a 15-yard roughing penalty against Haloti Ngata, who later left with a sprained knee. But again they couldn’t cross the goal line, Paul Kruger got his second sack of the half on third down, forcing a second Akers field goal, from 27 yards.

When Jones began the second half by sprinting up the middle virtually untouched — he is the second player with two TDs of 50 yards or more in a Super Bowl, tying Washington’s Ricky Sanders in 1988 — the rout was on.

Then it wasn’t.

“Everybody had their hand on this game,” 49ers All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis said. “We point the fingers at nobody. We win together and we lose together, and today we lost it.”

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Harbaugh’s message to the team was simple: This is the way we got to the Super Bowl, and this is the way we win the Super Bowl.

The San Francisco 49ers’ final meeting Saturday night, meanwhile, featured speeches from coach Jim Harbaugh and wide receiver Randy Moss, who knows the emotional pain of losing the Super Bowl, as he did with the Patriots in failing to complete a perfect season in 2007.

Jim Harbaugh also introduced the 49ers to Col. Jim Minnick, a friend he’s had since the eighth grade. Minnick encouraged the players to leave it all on the field for their teammates, play together and be prepared to overcome adversity because nothing ever goes as planned, offering examples from his military career.

Visitors for the Ravens included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and newly-inducted Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden, who played for the Ravens from 1996 to 2007.

Christie met with quarterback Joe Flacco in the team hotel. Both are New Jersey natives and graduates of the University of Delaware. Ogden’s visit generated a lot of excitement in the lobby from fans and players alike.

One 49ers player told ESPN that everybody is well prepared and ready for the game.

“There is nothing but pure excitement,” the player said.

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The team will hold practice at the Saints’ facility at 5 p.m. ET, after the San Francisco 49ers complete their practice.

The Ravens will leave the team hotel at 2:45 p.m. ET and head to Tulane to get dressed and gather their equipment. The Ravens will then conduct their walk-through, which they call AACT (Alignment, Assignment, Cadence, Technique), outdoors for approximately 20 minutes.

After that walk-through, the Ravens will board the buses, in their practice uniforms and gear, and travel to the Saints indoor practice facility to conduct a full practice and special teams work.

“This wouldn’t have worked out if the coaches didn’t know each other,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh told ESPN.

Brother Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers practiced Wednesday at the Saints’ facility.

“The field at Tulane University was a little hard. The wind was OK, but we would rather be inside for the timing of our passing game,” Harbaugh told ESPN.

The Ravens practiced for nearly two hours on a makeshift 80-yard field stretching across the outfield at Tulane’s Greer Field baseball stadium and dealt with wind gusts up to 24 mph.

Besides getting approval from the 49ers, the NFL also had to give the Ravens approval to make this arrangement. After negotiations between the two teams and the league, the accommodations were made for Thursday and Friday. There is less of a conflict on Friday because both team’s practices are shorter.

Quarterback Joe Flacco told ESPN that the wind didn’t bother him too much, but said “If we are going to be playing in a dome we might as well practice inside.”

Rather than the heavy wind, Flacco said the “major issue” was the “pounding on the turf” the Ravens’ receivers and defensive backs were taking.

Baltimore had the option of working at the Saints’ indoor facility late in the afternoon or early Wednesday evening, after the 49ers finished. But John Harbaugh said Wednesday he and the players preferred to practice on schedule in mid-afternoon.

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Next stop, New Orleans.

After one final practice at their own training facility, the Super Bowl-bound Ravens will take Sunday off before heading for the Big Easy on Monday afternoon in anticipation of their matchup on Feb. 3 against the San Francisco 49ers.

“We’re right where we want to be,” wide receiver Torrey Smith said. “Now we have an opportunity to play in the big one. But at the end of the day, we’re still getting ready for a football game.”

Coach John Harbaugh conducted practice from Thursday through Saturday as if it was a normal work week. They went hard on Thursday and Friday and eased up Saturday.

“We’ve had a great week. We had an excellent practice,” Harbaugh said after the closed two-hour session. “The guys are very sharp and they’re excited. We’ll have to go down there and do just as well (or) do better.”

The next time the Ravens hit the practice field, it will be in New Orleans. This week, at least, there were no distractions.

“I think it’s always important to have a good practice no matter what,” Harbaugh said. “You’ve got to practice well to play well. You pretty much play the way you practice. That’s something that we learned when we were kids and that’s not going to change.”

It was final practice at the team’s training complex for Ray Lewis, who intends to retire after the Super Bowl. Center Matt Birk has made no such announcement, but there is a possibility the 36-year-old is also preparing for his last game.

“I don’t think like that,” Birk said. “I just try to live in the moment. That’s just kind of my mindset. I don’t think about the future or if this could be it. It drives my wife nuts, but that’s just not how I operate.”

Now in his 15th NFL season — the fourth with Baltimore — Birk’s knees are scarred from several operations and he had surgery during the offseason to repair varicose veins in his legs. But he played in all 16 games during the regular season and remained solid in the middle of the offensive line during the postseason.

“I’m not sure about Matt’s plans,” Harbaugh said. “If he decides to come back next year that would be awesome. He’s smart, he’s tough. To my eye, he’s playing the best football that he’s played since he’s been here, right now. To have that be true at the end of a (long) season is very impressive. We would not be where we are without Matt Birk.”

Looking ahead to the challenge next Sunday, Harbaugh called the 49ers “a very well-coached football team.” He said it with a grin, because San Francisco is coached by his little brother, Jim.

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