The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs continued Friday night with four games, highlighted by an overtime affair in Montreal.
Game 2 between the Senators and Canadiens wasn't nearly as chippy as Wednesday's series opener, but it still was dramatic. Alex Galchenyuk scored the game-winner 3:40 into the extra period to give the Habs a 2-0 series lead.
MORE: Must-see photos | Watch Flames, Canucks brawl late | First-round results, TV
The Capitals scored three unanswered goals, including two in the third period, to even their series with the Islanders at a game.
In Friday's late games, the Predators and Canucks evened their respective series with dominating victories.
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Canadiens 3, Senators 2, OT (Montreal leads series 2-0)
The Senators opened the scoring late in the first period on a Clarke MacArthur bullet fired over the left shoulder of Habs goalie Carey Price.
Max Pacioretty, playing in his first game since April 5, tied things up in the second on a wrister.
Fans at the Bell Centre were quite pleased with Pacioretty's return.
P.K. Subban, who was ejected from Wednesday's game for a slashing penalty that broke the wrist of Ottawa's Mark Stone, gave Montreal the lead with a rifle shot from the left side of Andrew Hammond, who wanted no part of it.
Ottawa evened the score when Patrick Wiercioch tallied a power-play goal against Price, who made 29 saves. Hammond stopped 39 shots for the Senators but could not stop Galchenyuk's decider, which deflected off Hammond's shoulder and hit the post before landing in the net.
Capitals 4, Islanders 3 (Series tied 1-1)
The Islanders struck first five minutes in when Cal Clutterbuck snapped a shot past Capitals goalie Phillip Grubauer. They added to their lead early in the second when John Tavares fed Ryan Strome for a one-timer.
The Capitals finally got on the board when Karl Alzner’s shot from the right side sneaked past Jaroslav Halak after hitting the goalie’s pad. Halak had stopped the previous 32 shots he had faced, going back to Wednesday's Game 1.
It didn’t take the Islanders long to respond. Kyle Okposo scored three minutes later to put New York up 3-1 with 5:51 remaining in the second.
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin answered with his first goal of the postseason, picking up a rebound and slapping it off Halak’s right leg.
Following a Strome slashing penalty, Washington tied the game early in the third on a power-play goal from Nicklas Backstrom, his first goal since Feb. 19. The Caps then took the lead on Jason Chimera's goal with just over 12 minutes remaining.
Predators 6, Blackhawks 2 (Series tied 1-1)
It didn't take Nashville long to light the lamp. It went up 1-0 less than three minutes in on a power-play goal from Colin Wilson following a Kris Versteeg charging penalty.
Chicago, which came back from a 3-0 deficit Wednesday to beat the Predators in two overtimes, tied the game with 3:47 remaining in the first period on a Patrick Sharp wrist shot. The Predators regained the lead with 3.6 seconds left in the period on Roman Josi's goal.
The Blackhawks tied it in the second period when Patrick Kane, who missed the last 21 games of the regular season, slapped a shot past Pekka Rinne. It was the 38th career playoff goal for Kane, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NHL Draft.
MY GOD, THAT’S PATRICK KANE’S MUSIC! pic.twitter.com/XzgCSBgF3c
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) April 18, 2015The goal was controversial because the Blackhawks appeared to have too many men on the ice, something Nashville coach Peter Laviolette noticed.
The Predators regained the lead on Craig Smith's wrister, then killed a penalty late in the second to preserve their one-goal advantage heading into the final period. Nashville had a goal early in the third waved off because of contact with Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford.
That didn't matter because Nashville blew the game open with three goals in 139 seconds, the last Mike Santorelli's wrist shot with five minutes remaining. That's the fastest a team has scored three goals in postseason history.
Canucks 4, Flames 1 (Series tied 1-1)
The Canucks took control of Game 2 early with a pair of goals within the first eight minutes. Daniel Sedin scored at 2:56, and Chris Higgins made it 2-0 with a goal at 7:06.
Later, there was a lengthy scrum in front of the Canucks net, something Vancouver goalie Eddie Lack didn't appreciate.
Enter Lack's crease - we dare you... (Vine by @VanCanucks) https://t.co/0OrSEkCwtb
— Faheem Kamran (@faheemk) April 18, 2015Lack stopped 22 shots in the win. Kris Russell scored a power-play goal to help Calgary avoid the shutout, but the Canucks replied with a Radim Vrbata empty-netter with 2:01 remaining.
Once play resumed, emotions boiled over and into a line brawl behind the Canucks net.
There were eight misconduct penalties in the game, which had a combined 101 penalty minutes assessed.
Three stars
3. P.K. Subban, D, Canadiens: One game after receiving his game misconduct, Subban's rocket shot over Hammond gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead in the second period. Subban played more than 29 minutes and had a pair of hits to go with five shots.
2. Nicklas Backstrom, C, Capitals: Backstrom had a goal and two assists to help Washington even its series with the Islanders. Backstrom's third-period goal tied the game at 3-3. Chimera followed with his game-winner less than four minutes later.
1. Pekka Rinne, G, Predators: Not only did Rinne make 18 saves, he added an assist in the third period when Nashville blew the game open.
Injury report
Pacioretty returned to the lineup after missing Montreal’s past three games with an upper-body injury. He scored a goal Friday night to help the Canadiens beat the Senators.
Blackhawks right winger Patrick Kane scored his first goal in over two months after missing the final 21 games of the regular season with a broken collarbone.
Gotta see it
Price's pad save in the first period off a Mika Zibanejad shot was definitely a thing of beauty.
Of course, that game was ended on Galchenyuk's spinning game-winner.
Rinne got just enough of this Patrick Sharp shot to deflect it off the crossbar.
Saturday’s games
(All times Eastern)
Red Wings at Lightning, 3 p.m.
Wild at Blues, 3 p.m.
Penguins at Rangers, 8 p.m.
Jets at Ducks, 10:30 p.m.