BOSTON (AP) - Justin Florek and Reilly Smith scored in a three-minute span in the first period and the Boston Bruins evened their playoff series with a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings in the Game 2 on Sunday.
Showing more spark after not taking enough challenging shots on goal in their 1-0 loss Friday night, the Bruins had 18 shots in the first period after managing just 25 in the entire opener.
Luke Glendening cut Boston’s lead to 2-1 at 13:20 of the second period before Milan Lucic scored late in the second and Zdeno Chara added a power-play goal early in the third.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series between the top-seeded Bruins, who won the Presidents’ Cup with an NHL-high 117 points, and eighth-seeded Red Wings is set for Detroit on Tuesday night.
On Sunday, Boston didn’t take its first shot until 7:28 into the opening period. And it went in.
Florek, a rookie wing filling in for the injured Chris Kelly on the third line, scored after Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard and defenseman Brendan Smith missed connecting on a pass.
Howard came out of his crease to collect a loose puck and passed it toward Smith, who was skating back along the right boards. But the puck bounced off Smith’s right calf and into the circle where Florek shot quickly before Howard could get back.
It was Florek’s first career playoff goal after he scored one goal in four regular-season games.
FLYERS 4, RANGERS 2
NEW YORK (AP) - Luke Schenn scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, and backup Ray Emery made 31 saves for Philadelphia, which rallied to beat New York to even the first-round playoff series.
Schenn put Philadelphia in front after Game 1 goat Jason Akeson tied it 2-2 earlier in the period. That was enough for the Flyers to snap a nine-game losing streak at Madison Square Garden and send the series to Philadelphia tied at 1.
Game 3 is Tuesday night.
Jakub Voracek brought the Flyers within 2-1 in the first after Martin St. Louis and Benoit Pouliot staked New York to the early two-goal lead. Emery did the rest, looking especially sharp in the second and third periods while subbing for injured No. 1 goalie Steve Mason.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots after a 14-save winning effort in the opener. The Rangers had outscored the Flyers 35-10 during the winning streak and allowed two goals or fewer in each game.
CANADIENS 3, LIGHTNING 2
MONTREAL (AP) - Tomas Plekanec scored at 5:43 of the third period and Montreal moved one win away from advancing to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a victory over Tampa Bay.
Montreal leads the best-of-seven series 3-0 and can sweep the Lightning with a win Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
Rene Bourque scored 11 seconds into the game after a rousing pregame show and Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal. Ondrej Palat and Matthew Carle scored for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay got a scare at 16:09 of the second period when scoring star Steven Stamkos fell and was struck in the head by Alexei Emelin’s knee, but he returned for the third period.
And the Lightning were outraged when the officials waived off an apparent goal by Ryan Callahan at the 15:38 mark of the second because of Alex Killorn’s incidental contact with goalie Carey Price.
SHARKS 7, KINGS 2
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Fourth-liners Mike Brown and Raffi Torres scored second-period goals to spark a San Jose comeback and lead the Sharks to a victory over Los Angeles and a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.
Justin Braun, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton also scored for the Sharks, who overcame a two-goal deficit after the first period of a playoff game for just the third time in 26 tries in franchise history. Antti Niemi made 24 saves.
Jake Muzzin and Trevor Lewis scored first-period goals before Jonathan Quick allowed seven goals in the final two periods. Los Angeles heads home for Game 3 on Tuesday looking to get back into this series.
The Kings can take comfort in the fact that the home team has won 18 of the previous 19 games between these teams, including nine in the playoffs.
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