Joel Quenneville's decision to make a coach's challenge Friday night might have turned the opening-round series between the Chicago Blackhawks and the St Louis Blues.
With 7:46 to play in the third period of a 1-1 game, the Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko appeared to score his second goal of the game, putting the Blues on the verge of taking a 2-0 lead over the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Before play could resume, however, the Blackhawks' coach asked the referees to take a look at the play to determine if the Blues were offside.
"Somebody on the bench said it's offside," Quenneville said.
"A player got a coaches' attention and we were able to check it out and get the referee's attention. I was screaming like a mad man."
The review took several minutes but finally determined that Jori Lehtera had been offside on the play by a fraction of a step and the goal was disallowed.
A little more than a minute later, Tarasenko was called for slashing Andrew Shaw and with just seven seconds left in the penalty, Shaw knocked in his own rebound to put the Blackhawks up 2-1 with 4:19 to play in regulation.
An empty-net goal by Artemi Panarin made it a 3-1 lead for the Blackhawks before Kevin Shattenkirk scored with just two seconds left to make it a 3-2 final in favor of the Blackhawks, tying the series at one win each.
The series now moves to Chicago for the next two games, with game three set for Sunday afternoon.
Florida also tied up their series with a 3-1 win over the New York Islanders.
Reilly Smith and Nick Bjugstad ignited the offence and Roberto Luongo keyed the defence as the Panthers took the win before the series heads to New York.
Smith and Bjugstad each had one goal and one assist. The 37-year-old Luongo, who looked bad in allowing five goals in a loss to the Islanders on Thursday, was sharp 24 hours later with 41 saves.
In Tampa Bay, the Lightning got away to a 2-0 series lead over the Detroit Red Wings.
For the second game in a row, Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn combined for a go-ahead goal in the third period, sparking the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-2 win.
There was a major brawl in the final minute with the game's outcome long decided, clearing the ice as infractions were sorted out - a total of 77 minutes in penalties.
And finally the Nashville Predators got their playoff campaign off to a winning start over Anaheim.
Filip Forsberg got credit for the tiebreaking goal with 9:35 to play.
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves for the Predators, who got the early jump on the Pacific Division champion Ducks with a gritty road effort.
James Neal and Colin Wilson also scored, while Forsberg scored the go-ahead goal when his cross-ice pass to Craig Smith hit defenseman Shea Theodore's skate and trickled past John Gibson.
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