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

Kim O'Reilly, CBS Sports

The second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs certainly has gotten off to a thrilling start. The action continued Tuesday with a pair of games that certainly weren't short on excitement.

The Boston Bruins entered Game 5 a tad shorthanded as captain Brad Marchand was out due to a upper-body injury. Still, the Bruins were able to able to put their best foot forward and ended up coming away with a 2-1 win against the Florida Panthers. After Bruins forward Morgan Geekie and Panthers star Reinhart exchanged goals, defenseman Charlie McAvoy scored what ended up being the game-winning goal at the 10:25 mark of the second period. Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman came up huge for his team as he stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced, including registering a huge save in the final seconds. The Panthers still hold a 3-2 lead in the series.

Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers were looking to even up their series against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 4. The Oilers jumped all over the Canucks and grabbed a 2-0 lead courtesy of goals from Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. However, the Canucks were able to battle their way back into the contest with third-period goals from Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua to tie it up. Joshua's goal tied the game with under two minutes to go. Still, the Oilers didn't waver as defenseman Evan Bouchard found the back of the net with just 39 seconds remaining in regulation. The Oilers were able to come away with a hard-fought 3-2 win and evened the series at 2-2.

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.