Sidney Crosby began a rush into the Rangers' end with a pass to Pascal Dupuis, who attempted to give it back to Crosby. The puck trickled away but ended up on Hossa's stick, and the former Atlanta Thrasher beat Henrik Lundqvist from the slot for his fifth goal of the playoffs to end New York's season. The Penguins won the series 4-1.
Pittsburgh, the Eastern Conference's worst team only two years ago, will meet the cross-state Philadelphia Flyers, the conference's worst team last season, in the first-ever all-Pennsylvania conference final.
The Rangers, down 2-0 but desperate to swing the series back to New York for what would have been Game 6 today, got back into the game by scoring twice in less than 90 seconds to tie it early in the third.
Lauri Korpikoski, a 2004 first-round draft pick playing in his first NHL game on a hunch by coach Tom Renney, scored 2:03 into the period with only the second Rangers shot in nearly 17 minutes.
Korpikoski's wrist shot from the right circle may have deflected off Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney, who chose not to come out to challenge only Korpikoski's second career shot.
The Rangers came back to tie it 1:22 later, as Nigel Dawes scored on a backhander.
Hossa, casting aside his image of being a player who can't score in the playoffs, made it 1-0 with a hard wrist shot from below the right circle 8:45 into the second.
Evgeni Malkin made it 2-0 about 4 minutes later with his fourth goal of the series and sixth in nine playoff games.
