Lightning 5, Devils 3

It's great to play well, even better to win.

That's how the Tampa Bay Lightning view a 2-0 series lead over the New Jersey Devils.

"As a coach, you care about everything. You'd like to say you played the perfect game, but somebody else has a vote out there," coach Jon Cooper said Saturday after a victory in Game 2 of the first-round matchup.

"When we wake up tomorrow, you look back and say: 'OK, which parts of the game did we do well.' And we'll be able to look at a lot of that tape and say we did really well. And we'll look at some and say that wasn't so good," Cooper added. "I'm pretty sure New Jersey is going to do the exact same thing. It's the playoffs. There's going to be battles, there's going to be swings of momentum, but the big thing for me is who won the game."

Alex Killorn scored twice during a four-goal second period, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots in the final period to hold off the pesky Devils.

"We did bend a little bit in the third but didn't break, so it's a good feeling to be up 2-0," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "You've got to win the game. That's the bottom line."

The Atlantic Division champions scored three times in a 2:47 span in the second period, and the reeling Devils pulled goalie Keith Kinkaid after Killorn's third goal in two games made it 5-1 with 6:48 remaining in the period.

Kinkaid, whose stellar play since January helped New Jersey finish strong and claim its first playoff berth since 2012, yielded five goals on 15 shots.

Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson also scored for Tampa Bay, which is up 2-0 in the series after going 0-2-1 against the Devils during the regular season.

Game 3 is Monday night in Newark, New Jersey.

The Devils have played well in spurts, overcoming slow starts to keep both games interesting.

"There's a lot of good things in our game to like," Devils leading scorer Taylor Hall said. "It's a long series. They still have to win two more to put us out, and we're going to battle on home ice to get that back."

Devils coach John Hynes echoed that sentiment.

"We have to embrace the fact that we're down 2-0," Hynes said. "What I mean by that is we can say we had strong pushes in certain things, but I think we did take a step tonight. We have to win one game. We've got to play good once, and we've got to have that on Monday."

Vasilevskiy stopped 41 shots, while limiting the Devils to rookie Nico Hischier's unassisted goal in the opening period and Sami Vatanen's sixth career playoff goal late in the second before Blake Coleman's third-period tally trimmed Tampa Bay's lead to 5-3 with eight minutes left.

Goalie Cory Schneider came off the bench to help the Devils stay in the game with 10 saves, nine in the final period.

Hynes wasn't ready to discuss whether he'll change starting goaltenders for the next game. Kinkaid was a big part of New Jersey's success after Schneider went down with groin and hip injuries in January, earning the right to start his first playoff series.

"I thought Cory came in and played really well," Hynes said. "I'm not going to speculate on whether we're going to use him or not use him."

Five players scored in the Lightning's 5-2 victory in Game 1, with just one of the goals coming from the team's top line of Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and J.T. Miller — Kucherov's empty-netter with a little over a minute remaining.

Tampa Bay's second and third lines once again did most of the damage, with Point scoring at 12:15 of the first period and Killorn, Johnson and Kucherov adding goals during a three-minute stretch of the second to build a 4-1 lead.

Both of Killorn's goals came on power plays. Kucherov's second of the series deflected off Vatanen's stick into New Jersey's net.

Vasilevskiy stopped 29 of 31 shots in the opener and was outstanding again Saturday. New Jersey outshot the Lightning 44-25, including 19-9 over the final 20 minutes.

"We did a great job in the third period. Too little, too late, but I think we showed fight," Schneider said. "It is what it is. They're a good team at home. They protected home ice and now we have to try to go back and do the same in our building."

Sharks 3, Ducks 2

The Anaheim Ducks showed their embarrassment from their playoff-opening shutout loss with every bone-crunching hit they landed on the San Jose Sharks throughout Game 2.

The Sharks knew what to expect from their hard-nosed California rivals. Even after the Ducks scored in the opening minute, San Jose survived the storm quite well — and when Anaheim made minor mistakes, the Sharks capitalized for enough goals to take a major series lead back to San Jose.

Logan Couture had a goal and an assist, Martin Jones made 28 saves and the Sharks thrived on the road again, beating the Ducks to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Marcus Sorensen and Tomas Hertl also scored for the Sharks, who gave another disciplined, organized performance while moving halfway to their first playoff series victory since their Stanley Cup Final run in 2016.

"Nothing we haven't taken before," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said of the Ducks' physical style. "Maybe they are coming a little bit harder. Be poised. Make some plays. Stick to what we are trying to do."

They're not leaving Orange County without bruises, however: The Ducks attempted to make up for their listlessness in Game 1 with a series of big hits early in the rematch. Nick Ritchie, Hampus Lindholm and Francois Beauchemin all delivered early on, with Lindholm sending Game 1 hero Evander Kane to the bench with a mouth injury from an open-ice shoulder check.

The Ducks kept up that pressure until the final minutes, when Corey Perry clobbered Melker Karlsson with 3:43 to play. Instead of getting mad, the Sharks took the power play and salted away the win.

"We didn't shrink," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "We stood in there. That's one thing about our group: We don't get pushed out of games. We didn't ask the referees to fix it. We stood in there and came out of the first period up 2-1."

Game 3 is Monday night in the Shark Tank.

Lindholm had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who are leaving Honda Center with an 0-2 series deficit for the third time in their last five playoff series. Jakob Silfverberg scored in the opening minute and John Gibson stopped 32 shots as Anaheim dropped to 3-6 in its last nine home playoff games overall.

"I know the resolve in our room," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "I guarantee you we're not going to lay down. We made some mistakes and basically gave them goals. When you gift things in the playoffs, you're usually going to end up on the wrong side of the score."

Anaheim undeniably showed more resolve and creativity than in its series-opening defeat, but its scorers still couldn't crack Jones and the San Jose defense when it counted. The Sharks' late-season slump hasn't hurt their ability to rise in the postseason, while the Ducks have retained little momentum from their ferocious second-half surge in the regular season.

But after getting shut out two days earlier, the Ducks scored on their first shot of Game 2. Just 40 seconds in, Silfverberg flung a long shot past a few defenders and got his 18th career postseason goal past Jones, who didn't appear to read it well.

The Sharks still evened it midway through the period when Brenden Dillon shot the puck off the back boards and it caromed perfectly to Sorensen at the far post for the tap-in. Couture then put San Jose ahead with a slick power-play score, badly faking Gibson before sliding home his 31st career playoff goal.

Honda Center grumbled when Hertl put the Sharks up 3-1 early in the second, and the Ducks finally responded with their first sustained stretch of control. Lindholm trimmed the deficit with a nasty wrist shot during a power play, and Perry barely missed tying it up moments later with his shot off the post.

"We have some strong shifts, then we take a couple off," Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour said. "We have some lapses, and they capitalized on those."

Predators 5, Avalanche 4

Ryan Hartman got a bit nervous with the puck so close to the empty net after a shot by P.K. Subban.

The Nashville forward wound up with not only the first playoff goal of his career but the winner with 1:09 left as the Predators held off Colorado for a 2-0 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.

Hartman's goal gave the Predators a 5-3 lead until Alexander Kerfoot pulled Colorado to 5-4 with 35.8 seconds left. But the Avalanche couldn't get another puck past goalie Pekka Rinne.

"I knew he made a shot toward the net, and I just wanted to be there in case he missed the net to beat out the icing," Hartman said. "Sometimes those pucks don't bounce far enough to the front of the net, luckily it did. Those are the ones you get nervous about, the ones that are laying right there. You just want to make sure you put it in."

The Presidents' Trophy winners gave up a goal on Colorado's first shot for a second straight game. Yet the Predators rallied again to take their first 2-0 lead when starting a best-of-seven series in their own building.

"It was nice to start here for sure in front of our fans, and it was nice to get the job done," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "We did what we're supposed to do. Now we got to go on the road and do what I said, you got to win some road games along the way too."

Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist, and Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen and Austin Watson scored a goal apiece. P.K. Subban and Mattias Ekholm each had two assists for Nashville, which has won 12 straight over the Avalanche.

"It's fun playing in this building," Watson said. "It's tough to come in here as an opposing team. For us to be able to hold up our end of the bargain and get the two wins is great."

Rinne made 26 saves for the win.

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, and Gabriel Bourque and Gabriel Landeskog each added a goal for Colorado.

Game 3 is Monday night in Denver.

"We're going to go put our best foot forward," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "To me, if we would clean up a couple of mistakes, we win that hockey game. That's the way I look at it. We're certainly capable of doing it."

Nashville struggled early yet again despite having country star Brad Paisley singing the national anthem and wrestler Jeff Jarrett revving up the fans before the game.

Bourque put Colorado up 1-0 on the Avs' first shot 2:34 into the game after a turnover in the defensive zone by Hartman.

The Avalanche scratched rookie defenseman Samuel Girard with an upper-body injury and replaced him with Duncan Siemens after coming into the series with defenseman Erik Johnson already missing with a knee injury. The corps thinned when Tyson Barrie was hit in the face by a puck that deflected off goalie Jonathan Bernier's stick, but he returned later in the period.

Fiala tied it with 3 seconds left on Nashville's first power play a minute into the second period. Fiala beat Bernier with a snap shot from the inside edge of the left circle, and that seemed to get the Predators going.

The Predators kept Colorado from taking a shot until Nathan MacKinnon put one on net at 9:48, and Rinne smothered that.

Arvidsson gave the Predators a 2-1 lead, skating up the right side and blasted a slap shot that went under Bernier's right arm for an unassisted goal. In a 4-on-4 situation, Predators defenseman P.K. Subban blocked a shot by Barrie. Johansen got the puck on a breakaway and beat Bernier with a backhander.

MacKinnon pulled the Avs within 3-2 just 36 seconds later with his first goal this postseason.

Watson scored off a Colorado turnover in the Predators' offensive zone in the third period for a 4-2 lead. But Nashville gave the Avalanche 1:46 of a 5-on-3 to rally, and MacKinnon's shot deflected off Landeskog to pull Colorado within 4-3. The Predators killed the rest of the penalty, and Rinne made a big pad save on Sven Andrighetto just after the advantage ended.