SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Roberto Luongo made 41 saves for his first playoff win in five years, and the Florida Panthers evened their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series by beating the New York Islanders 3-1 on Friday night.
Reilly Smith and Nick Bjugstad each had a goal and an assist for Florida, which salvaged a split in the series-opening back-to-back. Dmitry Kulikov added an empty-netter with 9.3 seconds left to clinch the win.
John Tavares scored with 3:33 left for New York, and Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots for the Islanders.
It was Luongo’s first playoff win since Game 5 of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals, snapping a streak of seven consecutive lost postseason starts. And he was victimized by Florida defensive breakdowns in Game 1 on Thursday, a big part of why he yielded five goals on 26 New York shots.
Game 3 is in Brooklyn on Sunday.