Panthers rout Capitals to even series
The bounce-back game that the Florida Panthers needed started, perhaps fittingly, with a puck that took a fortuitous bounce.
A burst here. A burst there. And just like that, series tied.
Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist as the Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night in Sunrise, Florida, to even their Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece.
Aaron Ekblad, Anton Lundell and Mason Marchment also scored for Florida, the top overall seed in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots.
Nicklas Backstrom scored for Washington. Vitek Vanecek gave up five goals on 19 shots in the first two periods, and Ilya Samsonov went into the Capitals’ net for the third period — stopping all 17 shots he faced in the final 20 minutes.
The series shifts to Washington, with Game 3 today and Game 4 on Monday night.
Rangers 5, Penguins 2: Artemi Panarin and Frank Vatrano each had a goal and two assists and host New York beat Pittsburgh in Game 2 to even their best-of-seven firstround series.
Chris Kreider, Andrew Copp and Ryan Strome also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin made
39 saves two nights after stopping 79 shots in a triple-overtime loss in Game 1.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist and Jake Guentzel also scored for the Penguins. Louis Domingue, getting the start after replacing the injured Casey DeSmith in the second overtime of Game 1, finished with 34 saves. Game 3 is tonight in Pittsburgh.
Avalanche 2, Predators 1 (OT): Cale Makar scored 8:31 into overtime, Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves on his 32nd birthday and Colorado beat Nashville in Denver to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Makar got the rebound in the middle of the offensive zone and lined it through traffic to touch off the celebration.
Nathan MacKinnon also scored for Colorado.
The series moves to Nashville for Game 3 today.
Stars 2, Flames 0: Jake Oettinger made 29 saves and got his first postseason shutout in his second career playoff start to lift visiting Dallas over Calgary to even their first-round series at a game each. Joe Pavelski scored and Michael Raffl added an empty-net goal for the Stars. The best-of-seven series heads to Dallas for tonight’s Game 3 and Monday’s Game 4 at American Airlines Arena.