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TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- A day off in the Sunshine State worked wonders for the Philadelphia Flyers .

Mark Recchi and Michal Handzus each had a goal and an assist and defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson set up three tallies as the Flyers routed the Tampa Bay Lightning , 6-2, to even the Eastern Conference finals at one win apiece.

After his team was unable to take advantage of it scoring chances in a 3-1 loss in Game One, Philadelphia coach Ken Hitchcock made Sunday's practice optional. Many Flyers chose to relax in the Florida sun rather than figure ways to solve the Lightning's defensive system.

The decision proved the correct one as Philadelphia stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the first 11:17, then chased goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin early in the second period.

"The mind is as powerful as the body," said Flyers center Jeremy Roenick , who had an assist. "You don't necessarily have to go on the ice to be ready. It's the responsibility of the players to make sure they're ready. Hitchcock knows what he's doing."

Mired in an awful slump, John LeClair got the Flyers on the board less than two minutes into the contest and Recchi doubled the lead with a power-play tally seven minutes later. Sami Kapanen , who also had an assist, added a shorthanded goal to cap the first-period outburst.

"Whenever you go up a goal early in the game, it's going to give everybody a lot of emotion, and it definitely lifted us up pretty good today," Flyers goalie Robert Esche said.

"After the first shift, it was obvious the Flyers weren't going to stand back," Tampa Bay captain Dave Andreychuk said. "They were going to take it to us, and they did."

Defenseman Vladimir Malakhov 's tally 6:02 into the second spelled the end for Khabibulin, who allowed four goals on 12 shots after yielding just five in each of Tampa Bay's first two playoff series.

Handzus netted his fourth in as many games with 12 seconds left in the period and defenseman Mattias Timander completed his first career multi-point playoff effort with a goal 3 1/2 minutes into the third.

Esche made 29 saves for the Flyers, who have scored first in 11 of 13 playoff games.

Former Flyer Ruslan Fedotenko and Martin St. Louis tallied for Tampa Bay, which had an eight-game postseason winning streak snapped.

"This was not a collapse, it was a team loss," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Sometimes a good loss, a good spanking, is good for you."

The series shifts to Philadelphia for Game Three on Thursday and Game Four on Saturday afternoon.

After picking up a loose puck along the left boards, LeClair fired a wrist shot between Khabibulin's pads at 1:53 for his first goal since March 25, a span of 17 games.

"My teammates have been real supportive. They were happy to see me score," LeClair said. "Let's just say I feel a lot better now than before the game."

"It was good to see John get a goal," added Roenick, LeClair's roommate on the road. "He was fighting the demons. He would ask me, 'What do I have to do to score a goal?' He was pressing. His goal really lifted the team."

The Lightning nearly drew even less than four minutes later, but Esche denied St. Louis from alone in front to maintain the lead.

Philadelphia used excellent special teams play to open a 3-0 advantage. Recchi tipped Ragnarsson's slap shot past Khabibulin for a power-play goal at 8:50.

With the Flyers shorthanded, Kapanen pushed the puck around a defender in the neutral zone and carried down the right side. After drawing defenseman Darryl Sydor to the ice, Kapanen lifted a shot over Khabibulin's left shoulder at 11:17 for his second playoff goal.

"I saw a low side open there and decided to try to go higher," said Kapanen, who played most of the game on defense. "I guess it was more instinct than anything else."

Defenseman Dan Boyle had a chance to get Tampa Bay on the board with 7:39 to go, but his shot from the slot rang off the left goalpost.

Malakhov put a shot from the left point through a screen and behind Khabibulin just over six minutes into the second and Handzus tapped a rebound past John Grahame late in the period to make it 5-0.

Timander's one-timer from above the slot at 3:34 of the third established a six-goal cushion before Fedotenko and St. Louis spoiled Esche's shutout bid.

"It was pretty ugly," Boyle said. "We can throw that tape away."