NHL Playoffs: Panthers Earn Road Win Over Islanders to Even Series

NEW YORK -- Alex Petrovic scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period and the Florida Panthers beat the New York Islanders 2-1 on Wednesday night to even their first-round playoff series at two games apiece.

Teddy Purcell also scored for Florida and Jaromir Jagr had an assist for his 200th career playoff point. Roberto Luongo stopped 26 shots.

John Tavares had his third goal of the series for New York, and Thomas Greiss finished with 27 saves.

The Panthers got their first playoff road win since April 17, 2012, against New Jersey in Game 3 of the first round.

Game 5 of the best-of-seven series is Friday night in Sunrise, Florida (see full recap).

Stars take 3-1 series lead over Wild
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Jason Spezza scored the go-ahead goal with his skate, Ales Hemsky and Patrick Eaves each scored on a second-period power play to give Dallas' lagging special teams a lift, and the Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Wednesday night to push their series lead to 3-1.

Antti Niemi assumed the net from Kari Lehtonen, who started the first three games, and made 28 saves for the Stars. They'll host Game 5 in Dallas on Friday.

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Jason Pominville and Charlie Coyle both gave the Wild the lead with second-period goals, but they weren't able to sustain the momentum from a spirited comeback in Game 3 for the entire night.

The Wild finished the game with a 6-on-4 after a high-stick penalty on Antoine Roussel with goalie Devan Dubnyk pulled, but the Stars tightened up and allowed only one shot on target over the 84-second two-man advantage (see full recap).

Sharks use power-play goals to beat Kings
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski scored power-play goals in the second period and the San Jose Sharks again moved to the brink of eliminating the Los Angeles Kings from the playoffs with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night in Game 4 of their first-round series.

Patrick Marleau added a power-play goal in the third period and Martin Jones made 26 saves against his former team to put San Jose up 3-1 in the series heading into Game 5 on Friday night in Los Angeles.

But knocking the Kings out is never easy. The Sharks blew a 3-0 series lead to Los Angeles in the first round two years ago, becoming the fourth NHL team ever to lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games.

Trevor Lewis and Luke Schenn scored and Jonathan Quick made 26 saves for the Kings (see full recap).

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