Eric Fehr scored the game-winning goal against his former team with 4:28 left to play and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Saturday night, evening their best-of-seven series at one game apiece.
Fehr, who spent nine seasons with Washington, deflected an Evgeny Malkin feed past Braden Holtby from the slot for his second goal of the playoffs.
The series now shifts to Pittsburgh for the Game 3 on Monday night.
Carl Hagelin also scored for the Penguins, and Matt Murray made 23 saves.
The Capitals trailed 1-0 after being outshot 28-14 through two periods, but tied it on a power-play goal early in the third.
With Kris Letang off for tripping, Marcus Johansson notched his second goal of the playoffs when he poked home the rebound of a John Carlson shot at 4:08.
Washington had gone 15 consecutive power plays without a goal before Johansson converted.
Fehr’s goal came minutes after Mike Richards missed an open net chance for Washington.
Pittsburgh, which went 0 for 5 on the power play, has not lost back-to-back games since a pair of overtime defeats on Jan 12th and 15th.
Holtby made 33 saves for the Capitals.  The Capitals mustered just one shot on goal during the first 15 minutes of the game.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh dictated the pace of play, finishing with a 14-5 shot advantage, but only tested Holtby a few times during the scoreless period.
The Penguins finally cracked the code at 7:08 of the second when Nick Bonino came away with the puck after a battle along the boards. He skated behind Holtby and fed in front to Hagelin, whose one-timer beat Holtby to the glove side.
It was Bonino’s seventh assist of the playoffs. The Capitals nearly tied it just over two minutes later when Jason Chimera hit a post.
Washington thought they had tied it after a furious scramble in front of Murray late in the second. Nate Schmidt got control of the puck and fired over the prone goalie, but the score was immediately waved off and Evgeny Kuznetsov, who had fallen on Murray knocking him to the ice, was penalized for goalie interference.
Penguins’ defenseman Olli Maatta was slow to get up after a high hit from Brooks Orpik four minutes into the game. Maatta was helped off the ice and didn’t return, and Orpik was penalised for interference.
 
Triplets line helps Lightning even series with Isles
Tyler Johnson was reunited with linemates Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat and it paid off Saturday, as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Islanders 4-1 in game two of their NHL second round playoff series. Johnson scored twice as the so called “Triplets” line helped the Lightning level the best of seven Eastern Conference series at one game each.
The Pittsburgh Penguins also knotted their second-round series with the Capitals at one game apiece with a 2-1 victory in Washington. Eric Fehr scored the game winner against his former team with 4:28 remaining, deflecting an Evgeny Malkin feed past Braden Holtby from the slot for his second goal of the playoffs. Carl Hagelin also scored for Pittsburgh, who had 23 saves from goalie Matt Murray.
The Caps, down 1-0 through two periods, tied it on a power-play goal early in the third, Marcus Johansson notching his second goal of the post-season.
The Penguins will try to maintain the momentum when they host game three on Monday.
In Florida, Jonathan Drouin and Victor Hedman scored goals for the host Lightning and Ben Bishop made 19 saves at Amalie Arena. Johnson scored at 6:03 in the first period to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.
Drouin scored his first career playoff goal at 11:55 in the first period to make it 2-0 as he was able to slip a backhand shot between the pads of Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss.
The Islanders cut the deficit to 2-1 on a powerplay goal from Nikolay Kulemin at 15:15 of the first period. Defenseman Travis Hickey took a shot deflected by Kulemin past Bishop.