Bloody brawl breaks out in Lightning Game 2 win – NBC Sports Philadelphia

TAMPA, Fla. -- Tyler Johnson scored a pair of third-period goals Friday night, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.

Ben Bishop had 30 saves for the defending Eastern Conference champions, who took the first two games at home despite playing without injured leading goal scorer Steven Stamkos and defenseman Anton Stralman.

A bloody brawl involving several players capped this one, with 14 penalties called -- including a game misconduct on Justin Abdelkader -- with 54 seconds left.

Game 3 is Sunday in Detroit, where the Red Wings won both regular-season meetings between the teams.

Johnson put Tampa Bay ahead for good barely two minutes after Detroit's Brad Richards made it 2-2 with a power-play goal. Nikita Kucherov and Brian Boyle also scored for the Lightning, who tacked on Alex Killorn's empty-netter with 2:14 remaining (see full recap).

Blackhawks score late to even series
ST. LOUIS -- Andrew Shaw stuffed home a rebound on a power play with 4:19 remaining, minutes after the Chicago Blackhawks won a coach's challenge to negate a goal, and the defending Stanley Cup champions pulled even with the St. Louis Blues in their first-round series with a 3-2 victory Friday night.

Corey Crawford had a strong game in net and Duncan Keith also scored for Chicago in his first game back from a six-game suspension for a dangerous high stick to Minnesota's Charlie Coyle. Keith assisted on rookie Artemi Panarin's clinching empty-net goal with 1:34 to go, and Patrick Kane also had two assists.

The series shifts to Chicago with Game 3 on Sunday.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Kevin Shattenkirk scored for St. Louis (see full recap).

Luongo makes 41 saves, Panthers even series
SUNRISE, Fla. -- Roberto Luongo made 41 saves for his first playoff win in five years, and the Florida Panthers evened their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series by beating the New York Islanders 3-1 on Friday night.

Reilly Smith and Nick Bjugstad each had a goal and an assist for Florida, which salvaged a split in the series-opening back-to-back. Dmitry Kulikov added an empty-netter with 9.3 seconds left to clinch the win.

John Tavares scored with 3:33 left for New York, and Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots for the Islanders.

It was Luongo's first playoff win since Game 5 of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals, snapping a streak of seven consecutive lost postseason starts. And he was victimized by Florida defensive breakdowns in Game 1 on Thursday, a big part of why he yielded five goals on 26 New York shots.

Game 3 is in Brooklyn on Sunday (see full recap).

Predators open with road win over Ducks
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Filip Forsberg got credit for the tiebreaking goal with 9:35 to play, and the Nashville Predators opened their first-round playoff series with a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

Pekka Rinne made 27 saves for the Predators, who got the early jump on the Pacific Division champion Ducks with a gritty road effort.

James Neal and Colin Wilson also scored, while Forsberg scored the go-ahead goal when his cross-ice pass to Craig Smith hit defenseman Shea Theodore's skate and trickled past John Gibson.

Forsberg was dangerous all night, and not just with the puck. His open-ice hit on Josh Manson at the first-period buzzer knocked the Anaheim defenseman out of the game.

Game 2 is Sunday night in Anaheim.

Captain Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler scored for the Ducks, who lost an opener for just the second time in seven playoff series under coach Bruce Boudreau (see full recap).