Eric Fehr scored the tiebreaking goal against his former team with about 4½ minutes remaining Saturday night, giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a 2-1 victory over the Capitals in Washington that tied the Eastern Conference second-round playoff series at a game apiece.

Fehr redirected a pass out of a corner from Evgeni Malkin, sending the puck off the right post and past goalie Braden Holtby. Fehr played parts of nine seasons in Washington across two stints before leaving as a free agent last summer to join Pittsburgh.

Carl Hagelin had put Pittsburgh ahead in second period of Game 2, before Marcus Johansson pulled Washington even on a power play with about 16 minutes to go in the third.

The series shifts to Pittsburgh for Game 3 on Monday night.

The Penguins improved to 43-0 this season, including the playoffs, when leading after two periods. They have not lost two consecutive games in 3½ months — since dropping a pair in overtime against Carolina and Tampa Bay on Jan. 12 and 14.

This time, Pittsburgh recovered quickly from its 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1 on Thursday night, and did it in part by again shutting down Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, who led the NHL with 50 goals this season.

While Penguins star Sidney Crosby didn’t factor in Saturday’s scoring, either, Malkin did provide a spark on the go-ahead goal, and 21-year-old rookie goalie Matt Murray made 23 saves. Holtby had 33 stops.

The tone for the scrappy game was established less than 4½ minutes in, when Washington’s Brooks Orpik leveled Olli Maatta with a high hit, and the Penguins defenseman fell backward, his helmet slamming to the ice. Maatta was helped off and did not return — his total ice time for the game limited to 31 seconds.

Twelve of the game’s first 13 shots on goal were taken by Pittsburgh. The Penguins did not generate much in the way of truly dangerous chances, however, and the Capitals began to look more active at the offensive end in the closing minutes, when Murray blocked a backhand by T.J. Oshie — he of the hat trick in Game 1 — from the top of the crease during a power play.

Hagelin put Pittsburgh ahead at the 7:08 mark of the second period, taking a pretty behind-the-net feed from Nick Bonino after Orpik lost the puck in the corner.

Washington had all of five shots on goal all game to that point — and zero in that period. Washington’s first — courtesy of Ovechkin, naturally — came with barely 5 minutes left in the second and was easily gloved by Murray. That doesn’t count Jason Chimera’s shot that found the right post and bounced away harmlessly.

The home team — and, of course, the home fans — thought the score was tied with about 2 minutes remaining in the second, when defenseman Nate Schmidt sent a shot in over a prone Murray. Here’s the thing, though: Murray was face-down in his crease because Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov essentially sat on the goalie’s back.

Not only was the goal waived off, but Kuznetsov was sent to the penalty box for goalie interference. Schmidt yelled, ‘‘Come on!’’ Coach Barry Trotz told an official there shouldn’t have been a penalty.

Still, the Capitals managed to shut down Pittsburgh’s power play yet again. Through two games in this series, Washington’s penalty kill is 7 for 7; through eight games in this postseason, it is 30 for 31.

Trotz continued to plead his case to the officials before his players had made it to the bench area for the third period — and not much later, a call went against Pittsburgh, with defenseman Kris Letang sent to the box for tripping.

Sure enough, Washington capitalized on its second power play of the evening to make it 1-all. Johansson’s goal was Washington’s first with an extra man since getting five in Game 3 of the first round against Philadelphia.

Lightning 4, Islanders 1 — Tyler Johnson had two goals and an assist and host Tampa Bay beat New York to even the second-round series at a game apiece.

Johnson has six career playoff multi-goal games, including two this season. The 5-foot-8-inch center scored an NHL-leading 13 goals in helping the Lightning reach the Stanley Cup final last season.

Lightning goalie Ben Bishop rebounded after being pulled in second period of Game 1 to make 19 saves. He gave up four goals on 13 shots Wednesday night in a 5-3 loss.

‘‘Game 1, a couple of unlucky bounces there,’’ Bishop said. ‘‘You just come back the same way in Game 2. You don’t change anything. That’s just kind of been the way I do it.’’

Jonathan Drouin and Victor Hedman each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay.

‘‘This was one we absolutely needed,’’ Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. ‘‘They came down here probably saying, ‘Hey, if we can split it’s all good for us,’ and we’re probably a little disappointed that we split. But if you look at us after losing Game 1, we’re sitting there saying, ‘We have to have Game 2,’ and we got it.’’

Nikolay Kulemin scored for the Islanders, and Thomas Greiss 27 stopped shots.

‘‘I thought it was closer than it indicated,’’ Islanders coach Jack Capuano said of the final score. ‘‘We’ve just got to bounce back. Guys have got to play a little better.’’

Game 3 is Tuesday night in Brooklyn.

‘‘It’s always disappointing when you do get the first one and that you can’t go out and do it again,’’ Islanders center Frans Nielsen said. ‘‘But going here, I think we would have taken it coming home 1-1.’’

After Islanders teammates Cal Clutterbuck and Nick Leddy collided at the Tampa Bay blue line, the Lightning got an odd-man rush that resulted in Johnson’s backhander that opened the scoring 6:03 into the game.

‘‘It gets the confidence going,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘We were trying to get that first goal. We were able to do that and extend it.’’

Johnson extended the Tampa Bay advantage to 4-1 with a late empty-netter. Drouin made it 2-0 on another backhander that trickled past Greiss at 11:55 of the first. It was the first career playoff goal, coming in his 13th game, for the third overall pick in the 2013 draft.

Kulemin’s deflection cut the deficit to 2-1 on the Islanders’ third power play with 4:45 left in the first.

.   .   .

The last-place Toronto Maple Leafs held firm by winning the NHL Draft lottery, putting them in position to take US center Auston Matthews with the first pick.

The Winnipeg Jets made the largest jump, moving from the sixth to the second selection. The Columbus Blue Jackets moved up one spot to third.

The Bruins will pick 14th, where they were originally slotted.

The draft will be held in Buffalo on June 24-25.