There was a time early in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when Corey Crawford lost his job as starting goaltender of the Chicago Blackhawks. After the first two games of the Western Conference First Round, Crawford was replaced by Scott Darling after putting up a 6.75 goals-against average and .809 save percentage.

Crawford took back his job when he won in relief of Darling in Game 6 of the first round. He's been solid ever since, but never better than in Game 2 of the Western Conference Final against the Anaheim Ducks.

After Chicago finally finished off Anaheim with Marcus Kruger's goal at 16:12 of the third overtime to win 3-2 and even the best-of-7 series 1-1, Crawford was given a championship belt the Blackhawks use to honor their player of the game. Though Crawford passed it on to Kruger, his 60 saves qualified him as championship material.

"He could have kept it," Kruger told the Chicago Sun Times. "He deserves it. He was great tonight. He gave us a chance. We're happy to have him."

The Anaheim Ducks won the Pacific Division and owned the best record in the Western Conference powered by their one-two punch of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. But in the Ducks' 4-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final, they showed off their depth with the third line combining for two goals and two assists.

The win was especially sweet for third-line right wing Kyle Palmieri, who scored 14 goals in 57 regular-season games but none in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games. When Palmieri connected at 4:17 of the second period, it was his first goal since March 28.

Trailing by a goal, the Blackhawks were making a push until Nate Thompson collected the puck and found Palmieri, who made it 2-0 Anaheim with a sliding shot that beat goalie Corey Crawford.

"It started with [linemate Andrew Cogliano]," Palmieri said after the game. "He had some good speed on the entry. I threw a puck at the net and it bounced off their pads and it kind of just cycled off that. We got the puck low and Nate made a great play taking the puck to the net and throwing it from a bad angle. The puck popped out, I was lucky enough to get it over his shoulder."

The New York Rangers needed a spark trailing 1-0 in the second period of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Washington Capitals.

They got one from rookie Kevin Hayes, whose power-play goal at 6:22 of the second period tied the game and ignited a nervous crowd at Madison Square Garden.

After Capitals defenseman Mike Green went off for cross checking, his second penalty in a span of 3:39, Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh kept in a clearing attempt and found forward J.T. Miller at the top of the right circle. Miller poked a pass to an open Hayes, who beat goalie Braden Holtby for his first goal since his game-winner in overtime of Game 4 of the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Reeling from two straight losses that cut their lead in the Eastern Conference Second Round from 3-0 to 3-2, the Tampa Bay Lightning responded in Game 6 by dominating the Montreal Canadiens en route to a 4-1 victory to win the best-of-7 series 4-2.

The Lightning's best line, and one of the best in the NHL, provided the spark to the Eastern Conference Final. Two-thirds of "The Triplets," Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat, combined for three goals and two assists, including Palat's beauty of a power-play goal that essentially put away the Canadiens.

Shortly after Canadiens forward Devante Smith-Pelly went to the penalty box for holding, Palat passed the puck to Kucherov in the corner and cut to the net, completing a pretty give-and-go by shooting the puck past Canadiens goalie Carey Price for a 3-0 Lightning lead.

"[Kucherov] just found me," Palat told the Tampa Bay Times. "… I was lucky enough to put it through."

Chris Kreider helped save the New York Rangers' season last Friday when his goal tied Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Washington Capitals with 1:41 left in regulation. He wasted no time imposing his will in Game 6 on Sunday, scoring twice in the first period to spark the Rangers to a 4-3 win that evened the best-of-7 series at 3-3.

Game 7 is Wednesday at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m.; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports) and Kreider is a big reason why the Rangers have rallied from down 3-1 in the series. He scored 40 seconds into Game 6 after picking up a loose puck at the red line and powering past Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen before lifting a backhand shot over the blocker of goaltender Branden Holtby.

"When he gets the puck wide with speed like that, he's one of the tougher players to defend, and I hope I never have to do it, because it looks miserable," Rangers defenseman Marc Staal told the New York Post.

A fractured clavicle sustained in a game against the Florida Panthers at the end of February was supposed to sideline Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane until some point in the Western Conference Final, assuming they made it that far.

Kane instead returned for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, is second in the NHL with seven postseason goals and has at least a point in nine of 10 games to ensure the Blackhawks will be a part of the conference final for the fifth time in seven seasons.

"Deft, delicate, deadly."

Those words were used by Sportsnet announcers to describe the heroics of Calgary Flames rookie Johnny Gaudreau, whose goal with 19.5 seconds left in regulation tied Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round.

Forward Mikael Backlund's first Stanley Cup Playoff goal 4:24 into overtime gave the Flames a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, but it was Gaudreau who lit the fuse for Calgary to trim Anaheim's lead in the best-of-7 series to 2-1. After being outscored 9-1 in two losses at Anaheim, Calgary won its first second-round game since 2004, the most recent time it advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

To Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper, seeing his power play explode for four goals on four shots Sunday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Montreal Canadiens was a cure for indigestion.

Tampa Bay entered the game 2-for-34 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the man-advantage and 0-for-16 on the road before going 4-for-8 in their 6-2 win against the Canadiens at Bell Centre. Captain Steven Stamkos also scored his first goal of the playoffs to power the Lightning, who head home for Game 3 (7 p.m. ET; USA, CBC, TVA Sports) on Wednesday leading the best-of-7 series 2-0.

"I don't know if it was more relief for me that [Stamkos] scored or the power play scored," Cooper said. "It was a whole compilation of Alka Seltzer."

A three-goal lead had slipped away and the Chicago Blackhawks looked to be reeling.

Teuvo Teravainen picked that moment to make his first big impact in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Teravainen, the 18th pick in the 2012 NHL Draft and playing in only his third postseason game, stunned goaltender Devan Dubnyk and the Minnesota Wild when he fired a puck from along the left-wing boards that found its way into the net with 58.2 seconds left in the second period.

The first goal of Teravainen's playoff career proved decisive as the Blackhawks defeated the Wild 4-3 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round on Friday, their seventh straight playoff win against Minnesota over the past three years.

"I thought the way the game developed during the second period, they took over the game in the second totally," Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said. "They had pretty much everything, and it felt like the game was also slipping away there for a while, but then [Teravainen] scored the huge goal at the end of the period, and we got the momentum back and took care of business in the third."

The Tampa Bay Lightning didn't acquire defenseman Braydon Coburn prior to the NHL Trade Deadline for his offensive prowess. But on a night when their stars couldn't dent Detroit Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek, it was Coburn that solved him and lifted the Lightning into the Eastern Conference Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Coburn, who had one goal in 43 regular-season games, picked the precise time to strike when he one-timed Ryan Callahan's feed past Mrazek at 3:58 of the third period to lift Tampa Bay to a 2-0 win in Game 7. The Lightning rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the best-of-7 series to eliminate the Red Wings and will face the Montreal Canadiens in the second round beginning with Game 1 Friday at Bell Centre (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports).