SUNRISE, Fla. — 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 and the Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night to even the Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece.
“It’s nice. It’s nice to win. That’s all we want to do,” Barkov said. “Obviously, we didn’t play the right way in the first game. This game, we kept building and we got better as the game went on.”
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.
“Bob kept us in the game, gave us a chance to win,” Barkov said.
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 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday night.
“We got a tied series going back to Washington,” Backstrom said. “Looking forward to playing in front of our own fans.”
RANGERS 5, PENGUINS 2
NEW YORK — Artemi Panarin and Frank Vatrano each had a goal and two assists and New York beat Pittsburgh in Game 2 to tie the 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. Game 3 is Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
AVALANCHE 2, PREDS 1, OT
DENVER — Cale Makar scored 8:31 into overtime, Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves on his 32nd birthday and Colorado beat Nashville 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. The series moves to Nashville for Game 3 on Saturday.
STARS 2, FLAMES 0
CALGARY, Alberta — Jake Oettinger made 29 saves and got his first postseason shutout in his second career playoff start to lift Dallas over Calgary and even their first-round series at a game each.
The quarterfinal series heads to Dallas for Saturday’s Game 3 and Monday’s Game 4 at American Airlines Arena. The Flames opened the series with a 1-0 win Tuesday.
Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 of 22 shots.
