NHL playoffs: Hurricanes beat Capitals to even series; Blues rally to beat Jets; Sharks start fast to beat Golden Knights

Teuvo Teravainen scored the go-ahead goal with 27.9 seconds left in the second period, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Thursday night to even their playoff series at two games apiece.

Warren Foegele scored 17 seconds in, giving him three goals in two home games, and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for Hurricanes. They lost another key forward to injury yet fed off the energy of the largest hockey crowd in PNC Arena history to win their second straight on home ice after routing Washington 5-0 in Game 3.

Alex Ovechkin scored a power-play goal and Braden Holtby finished with 22 saves for the Capitals, who hadn’t lost consecutive games in regulation since late January.

And in what has emerged as a theme of the first four games of the best-of-seven series, the road teams have yet to lead.

The Capitals’ best chance to tie down the stretch came when Foegele drew a boarding minor with 5:08 remaining after his hit on T.J. Oshie left the Washington forward doubled over in pain as he skated to the dressing room. Mrazek stopped a pair of bang-bang shots from Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson as the penalty expired.

Oshie — who had been moved to Ovechkin’s top line before the game in an attempt to shake things up after that Game 3 rout — went hard into the boards after being hit by Foegele. The Capitals also moved Wilson down to Evgeny Kuznetzov’s second line.

St. Louis 3, Winnipeg 2

Jaden Schwartz scored with 15 seconds remaining in the third period to cap St. Louis’ three-goal third period in a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, giving the Blues a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.

Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn scored earlier in the final period for the Blues, who host Game 6 of the best-of-seven series on Saturday. Jordan Binnington stopped 29 shots.

On the winning goal, Tyler Bozak sent a pass over to Schwartz, who redirected it out of the air past Hellebuyck.

Winnipeg was up 2-0 after the first period on goals by Adam Lowry and Kevin Hayes. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves as the Jets lost their sixth straight at home, including the regular season.

The Blues’ win marked the first time in 15 years, and fourth time overall, the road team has won each of the first five games in a seven-game series. According to a league stat, when a best-of-seven NHL playoff series is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 takes the series 78.8 per cent all time (205-55).

San Jose 5, Vegas 2

Tomas Hertl got San Jose off to the fast start that had been missing the past three games, Martin Jones came up with the big saves and the Sharks staved off elimination by beating the Vegas Golden Knights 5-2 in Game 5 of their first-round series Thursday night.

Hertl scored his first of two goals just 76 seconds into the game to give the Sharks their first lead since Game 1. Logan Couture, Barclay Goodrow and Joe Pavelski also scored to cut the Golden Knights’ lead in the series to 3-2 heading into Game 6 in Vegas on Sunday night.

Jones made 30 saves after getting pulled in two of the past three games, including a brilliant pad save midway through the third period to rob Reilly Smith’s attempt at the tying goal on a 2-on-1 after Vegas had cut it to 3-2 on Jonathan Marchessault’s power-play goal.

The Sharks then responded on a power-play of their own when Marchessault was called for high-sticking Couture in the face. The referees initially didn’t make a call before huddling together after Couture rushed to the locker room holding his face.

Hertl capitalized when he knocked a rebound past Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 4-2.

Pavelski sealed the win with an empty-net goal.