Makar’s OT goal lifts Avalanche

Cale Makar scored 8:31 into overtime, Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves on his 32nd birthday and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the 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, which faced a more intense Nashville defense after winning 7-2 in Game 1. The Predators blocked 34 shots.

Yakov Trenin scored for Nashville.

Connor Ingram stepped in and stepped up in stopping 48 shots as he made his first postseason start. He allowed MacKinnon’s goal on the first shot of the game and turned back everything until Makar’s goal.

at Florida 5, Washington

1: Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist, and the Panthers beat the Capitals to even the 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.

at New York 5, Pittsburgh 2:

Artemi Panarin and Frank Vatrano each had a goal and two assists and the Rangers rebounded from Tuesday’s loss.

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.

Dallas 2, at Calgary 0:

Joe Pavelski scored midway through the first period and Michael Raffl added an empty-net goal as the Stars evened their series with the Flames. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger made 28 saves as he got his first postseason shutout. He had one shutout in the regular season.