No. 1 Star: Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins

The Bruins struck first, edging the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime of Game 1. Marchand scored the winner, and added an assist on Torey Krug's powerplay goal to tie the game early in the third period.

No. 2 Star: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings

Doughty scored the Kings' second goal and was on the ice for the late powerplay marker that tied the game in their 4-3 comeback win over the San Jose Sharks. He was also the best skater on the ice for nearly half the game, leading all skaters with 28:28 of icetime.

The Los Angeles Kings won their sixth straight Thursday, shocking the San Jose Sharks with two goals 22 seconds apart -- in the final two minutes, no less -- to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 victory in Game 2.

Right up until the last 120 seconds of this one, the story was the San Jose Sharks and their impressive comeback. After going down two goals early in the second, San Jose refused to quit, storming back taking their first lead of the night midway through the third.

But then, 139 seconds from returning to San Jose with the series knotted at one, Marc-Edouard Vlasic turned a 5-on-4 penalty-kill situation into a 5-on-3 by putting the puck over the glass.

It was inadvertent -- they always are with this stupid penalty -- but there was no arguing the infuriating rule, and Vlasic was forced to watch his team's fortunes turn on a dime from the penalty box.

When he went in, the Sharks were up by a goal. He was released 58 seconds later, his team now down by a goal. All an incredulous, dismayed Vlasic could do was laugh.

The last time we saw the Boston Bruins, they came back from a third-period deficit and won a big game in overtime.

They have not forgotten how to do this. Brad Marchand was the hero Thursday night in Game 1 of Round 2, scoring the OT winner after 15:40 of bonus hockey.

It was the first goal of the postseason for the little guy with the big heart and even bigger nose.

That's Patrice Bergeron with the game-winning assist, as if you had to ask. If clutch were a real thing, he'd be the clutchest guy around. Bergeron was a force all through Game 1, winning 14 of 18 faceoffs, and playing 27 minutes, second on the Bruins to Zdeno Chara's absurd 38:02.

Henrik Lundqvist deserved better for the Rangers. He was outstanding, making 48 saves in the loss. 16 of those saves came in overtime, as the Bruins pressed all through the extra frame for the winner, and 7 of those 16 came on a dangerous-looking powerplay with Derek Dorsett in the box for interference.

"I thought it was pretty even going into overtime, but we got spanked in overtime," said John Tortorella. Fortunately, Lundqvist stood tall.

Ironically, it was the players most incapable of standing tall that did him in. After the Rangers took the lead just 14 seconds into the third period, rookie Torey Krug -- all 5'9" of him -- scored his first NHL goal to tie things up two and a half minutes later.

And in overtime, Lundqvist did his best to get over and stop Marchand on Bergeron's centring pass, but Marchand found a gap as the Rangers' netminder came across, sliding the puck through to end Game 1.

Game 2 goes Sunday.

As soon as the Department of Player Safety requested an in-person hearing for Raffi Torres, you knew the San Jose Sharks' winger was in trouble. I mean, sure, bringing Raffi to New York simply gave them the option of suspending him for five games or more, but this is Raffi Torres we're talking about. If they came away from the hearing with even an inkling that Torres had made the head the principal point of contact when he hit Jarrett Stoll, they were going to exercise the crap out of that option.

[Related: Repeat offender Raffi Torres risks last NHL chance with another dangerous head shot]

Sure enough, they did. Sort of. Rather than putting a number on the suspension, the NHL has gotten creative with Torres, suspending the San Jose Sharks' winger for the remainder of the semifinal series -- anywhere from 3 to 6 games.

Here's Brendan Shanahan to explain the decision:

A word on the floating suspension itself: It's a sneaky decision, as the players have the right to appeal any suspension of six games or more, and we won't know if Torres's ban is six games for awhile now. Was that calculated or what?

The night of the hit, we asked if Torres had gotten the shoulder first, or if the head was the principal point of contact. The answer, from the Department of Player Safety: yes.

Yes on both fronts. He caught Stoll's shoulder first, but as Shanahan says twice in this video, it was "a glancing blow" on his way to the principal point of contact, the head.

Both the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers are coming off of Game 7 victories in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

The Bruins became the first team in NHL history to rally from three goals down in the third period to win a Game 7 over the Leafs. The Rangers routed the Capitals in their Game 7 after a 1-0 win in Game 6.

Who takes this battle of Original Six teams for the right to play for the Conference crown?

(Ed. Note: We're proud to welcome back two of our favorite bloggers, Chuck and Pants from What's Up, Ya Sieve?, to the Puck Daddy fold as they author our weekly NHL Playoff Beard Watch every Thursday.)

By Chuck and Pants from What's Up, Ya Sieve?

Playoff beards come in all shapes and sizes. If we went for the burliest and baddest every week, we’d end up talking about the Kings and Sharks while waiting for everyone else to catch up.

But big games are for big names, and Round 2 is rife with star players gunning for the Cup.

This week we’re looking at one star from each team - are they leading their teams in the mirror, as well as on the ice?

Ottawa Senators: Daniel Alfredsson

When you require a headband under your helmet to keep your curls in check, we expect a certain level of beard accomplishment to follow. Alfie’s respectable scruff comes with a bonus feature for the Senators elder statesman: this beard, like his on-ice play, will never reveal his age. Redheads don’t turn salt and pepper, just gracefully fade to strawberry lemonade.

The IIHF world championships are a way for NHL players who have been eliminated from the playoffs to continue playing while representing their country. Like any international tournament, these players run the risk of suffering some kind of catastrophic injury in an exhibition game.

With that, watch Eric Staal of Team Canada in excruciating pain after a knee-on-knee collision with Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alex Edler of Team Sweden on Thursday in Helsinki:

You can also watch the clip on Vine.

After writhing on the ice for a few moments, the Carolina Hurricanes captain was helped to the back by his teammates.

This reverse angle from TSN’s coverage gives some clarity. There’s no effort to avoid the hit as Staal attempts to backhand the puck. But it may have just been a case where the two players were both in unfortunately positions. Edler's not known for his dirty play, for what it's worth. But from a certain angle, that sure didn't look like anything but an attempt to take out Staal.

After being bounced in the first round by the New York Rangers with a 5-0 loss in Game 7, Alex Ovechkin was upset. He was text-his-coach-upwards-of-20-times upset, which is, like, super upset.

But with the World Championships in full swing, there was an opportunity for quick redemption, so Ovechkin jumped on a plane to Helsinki to join Russia for the quarterfinals, hoping to put the five-goal elimination loss behind him.

In this, he was unsuccessful. On Thursday, Ovechkin saw the same result on the other side of the Atlantic, as Team Russia was eliminated from the tournament with an 8-3 loss to Team USA.

It was painful, especially towards the end. After the Russians trimmed the lead to 5-3, they fell apart completely. The Americans scored three times in 116 seconds to put this one away:

Deja 'vechkin, amirite? Har har har.

It was a historic loss for the Russians, who had never surrendered more than five goals to the Americans prior to this one.

You've got to feel for Ovechkin. Not only did he lose the last two games of the year by five goals each, but his KHL team during the lockout, Dynamo Moscow, won the Gagarin Cup without him.

Eliminated twice in a week in five-goal losses. The team that lost him won the championship. It's enough to make a man think he's the problem.

But lest you think the recipe for success is to be minus Ovechkin, the Capitals' winger was named Russia's best player in the loss, with a goal and an assist. So there's that.

UPDATE: Via the Washington Post, more Ovechkin news. He played on a fractured foot in Games 6 and 7 against the Rangers, and one assumes in this IIHF game as well:

In the first period of Game 6, Ovechkin blocked two shots by Rangers’ defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The first shot, at 14:29 of the first, struck his left foot. Replay of the game shows Ovechkin hesitant to get up after that block. Skating could not make the injury worse, the source said, so Ovechkin played with it through the rest of Game 6 and Game 7 against the Rangers. The fracture will only require rest to heal, the source said.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney