Panthers pull out OT win, tie series

Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored his second of the game in overtime and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 4 on Monday night, tying the first-round series.

Verhaeghe scored 4:57 into overtime to keep the NHL’s best regular-season team from getting pushed to the brink of elimination much earlier in the playoffs than expected.

The Panthers were just over two minutes away from facing the prospect of getting knocked out at home. Then, with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker, Reinhart collected a loose puck after it bounced off Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway and beat Ilya Samsonov with 2:04 remaining in the third period.

“Those are the kind of situations you want to be in as a hockey player,” Reinhart said.

Colorado 5, at Nashville

3: Cale Makar had a goal and an assist and Pavel Francouz stopped 28 of 31 shots in place of injured Darcy Kuemper as the Avalanche swept the Predators to become the first team to advance to the second round.

Valeri Nichushkin scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:58 left for Colorado.

at Pittsburgh York Rangers 2:

7, New

Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists to become the sixth player in NHL history to reach 200 career playoff points, and the Penguins chased Vezina Trophy-favorite Igor Shesterkin for the second time in three days to take a 3-1 series lead.

Calgary 4, at Dallas 1:

Rasmus Andersson scored the Flames’ first power-play goal since early in the playoff opener and Jacob Markstrom had 34 saves as Calgary evened the series 2-2.

Johnny Gaudreau converted a penalty shot with 12:13 left to make it 2-0.