Detroit: Tyler Johnson led a stirring Tampa Bay rally late in regulation, then scored 2:25 into overtime to lift the Lightning to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, evening their play-off series at 2-2.
The Red Wings led 2-0 in the third period before Johnson scored with 5:26 remaining. He then assisted on Ondrej Palat’s tying goal 77 seconds later.
Early in the extra session, defenseman Victor Hedman led an odd-man rush from the right side and slid the puck across the goal mouth. It deflected ever so slightly off goalie Petr Mrazek, but Johnson was able to shoot into an open net from a tough angle for his fourth goal of the series.
Gustav Nyquist and Joakim Andersson scored in the second period for Detroit. Andersson’s goal came in fluky fashion when goalie Ben Bishop knocked it in off the crossbar.
Rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov scored twice, Karl Alzner added a goal and an assist, and Washington beat New York for a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.
Buoyed by a raucous crowd chanting “We are louder!” in reference to some back-and-forth among players about which team’s fans produce more noise, the Capitals controlled the action most of the evening after falling behind 1-0.
Dominating despite zero points from stars Alex Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom, Washington got goals from Kuznetsov, Brooks Laich and Jason Chimera in the third period, which they began ahead only 2-1.
Rookie Filip Forsberg, meanwhile, had his first career hat-trick and Nashville Predators forced a sixth game in their first-round Western Conference series. A triple-overtime loss in Chicago early Wednesday pushed the Predators to the brink of elimination, and these teams appeared headed for the third overtime game of this series tied at 1-1 after two.
