2024 NHL Playoffs bracket: Stanley Cup Playoffs schedule, scores, start times for Friday's Round 2 games

The second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs continues to provide some thrilling action. Thursday's NHL action certainly had a flair for the dramatic to say the least.

The New York Rangers became the first team to advance to the conference final as they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 in comeback fashion. Despite trailing 3-1 entering the third period, the Rangers were able to erase that deficit thanks to a hat-trick performance from star forward Chris Kreider. Kreider scored three of the team's four goals in the period, including the game-winning goal at the 15:41 mark of the final frame. Now the Rangers are headed to the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three seasons.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers exchanged goals over the first two periods, and were tied 2-2 entering the third period. However, the Canucks were the beneficiaries of a fortunate bounce that resulted in star forward J.T. Miller scoring the game-winning tally with just 33 seconds remaining in regulation. Now the Canucks find themselves just one win away from advancing to the Western Conference Final.

The structure of the playoffs is as follows:

The division winner with the most points in each conference will face the second Wild Card team in the first round. The division winner with fewer points in each conference will match up with the top Wild Card team in the first round.
Each series will be a best-of-seven format.
Home-ice advantage goes to the team with the top seed in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The team with the most points in the regular season has home-ice advantage in the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final.

Below is how you can follow each series in the first round along with updating results and scores from each game. Bookmark this page for the duration of the playoff run to stay up to date with everything on the ice.