Stars win sixth straight with 4-1 victory over Flyers
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Casey DeSmith stopped 27 shots to lead the Dallas Stars to their sixth straight victory, 4-1 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
The Stars won for the seventh time in eight games as they continue their run up the Western Conference standings. Mavrik Bourque and Roope Hintz scored in the first period. Wyatt Johnston made it 3-0 in the second.
Miro Heiskanen added an empty-netter in the third period to help the Stars win for the ninth time in their last 11 games in Philadelphia dating to March 27, 2018.
Morgan Frost scored the lone goal for the Flyers. The Flyers are stuck on 17 wins with only nine in regulation and were forced to hear “E-A-G-L-E-S! E-A-G-L-E-S!” chants from a thinned-out crowd in the waning moments of another loss.
PENGUINS 5, OILERS 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists to move into ninth on the NHL’s career scoring list as Pittsburgh beat Connor McDavid and Edmonton.
The Penguins captain tied Hall of Famer Joe Sakic at 1,641 points with an assist on Bryan Rust’s first-period goal. Crosby then moved past Sakic with an assist on Drew O’Connor’s sixth goal of the season later in the period as the Penguins raced to a 4-1 advantage.
Rust also had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh, which snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Oilers for the first time since Dec. 20, 2019. Alex Nedeljkovic made 40 stops for the Penguins and Rickard Rakell scored his team-high 21st goal as Pittsburgh won without injured center Evgeni Malkin.
McDavid finished with three assists. Leon Draisaitl scored twice to boost his season total to an NHL-best 31, but the Penguins beat Stuart Skinner four times in the first 14 minutes. Skinner settled down to finish with 21 saves but it wasn’t enough as the Penguins ended Edmonton’s four-game winning streak.
BLUE JACKETS 6, KRAKEN 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Denton Mateychuk and Luca Del Bel Belluz, both recent callups from the AHL, each had a goal and an assist to help lift Columbus over Seattle.
Zach Werenski also added a goal and an assist, extending his home point streak to 16 games, as the Blue Jackets won their third straight.
Sean Kuraly, Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko also scored. James van Riemsdyk contributed two assists, and Elvis Merzlikins made 29 saves for Columbus. Mateychuk’s goal was the first of his NHL career.
Eeli Tolvanen scored twice for Seattle, which has lost four straight. Philipp Grubauer stopped 14 shots before being replaced late in the second period by Joey Daccord, who saved all four shots he faced in his first game action since suffering an upper-body injury on Dec. 22 against the Colorado Avalanche.
RANGERS 3, DEVILS 2, OT
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Carrick scored in overtime and Igor Shesterkin made 21 saves as New York beat New Jersey.
Carrick one-timed a pass from Reilly Smith past Devils netminder Jacob Markstrom 2:48 into the extra session.
Carrick’s third goal this season and gave the Rangers a much-needed home win before a three-game road trip.
Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin also scored for the Rangers, who have won two of their last three games.
Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes scored for the Devils, who lost for the fifth time in their last six games.
After Fox scored on the power play at 12:05 of the first, Hughes scored his 16th at 4:03 of the second.
Bratt put New Jersey ahead at 8:28, whipping a high shot past Shesterkin for his 15th goal. Hughes assisted for this team-leading 50th point.
LIGHTNING 4, BRUINS 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brayden Point reached 600 career points with a power-play goal, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves and Tampa Bay beat Boston.
Brandon Hagel had a goal and an assist, Michael Eyssimont and Anthony Cirelli scored goals 5:03 apart in the second period, and Ryan McDonagh had two assists.
Tampa Bay has won back-to-back games after dropping dour in a row. The Lightning moved past the Bruins into third place in the Atlantic Division.
Mason Lohrei scored for Boston, and Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves. The Bruins are 0-5-1 in their last six.
HURRICANES 6, MAPLE LEAFS 3
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jordan Staal scored a hat trick to lead Carolina to a win over Toronto.
Eric Robinson, Jackson Blake and Seth Jarvis also scored for the Hurricanes while Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 30 shots for his first home win since Dec. 17.
Nicholas Robertson, William Nylander and Auston Matthews scored for Toronto, which had won five in a row. Joseph Woll made 28 saves.
The Maple Leafs took an early 2-0 lead but the Hurricanes evened it at 2-all with Staal’s first goal with 5:45 left in the first period. Staal scored 35 seconds into the second period for a 3-2 lead and 20 seconds into the third period to extend Carolina’s lead to 5-3.
SABRES 4, SENATORS 0
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 35 saves, Jack Quinn scored twice and Buffalo spoiled Ottawa Senators’ homecoming with a victory.
Dylan Cozens and Ryan McLeod also scored for the Sabres.
Anton Forsberg stopped 17 shots for Ottawa. The Senators returned to the Canadian Tire Centre after a nine-game trip and nearly a month away because of the world junior hockey championship.
Quinn buried his first midway through the first period to open the scoring. He made it 2-0 later in the frame, taking Peyton Krebs’ pass at center ice as he stepped out of the penalty box before going bar-down for his seventh of the season.
AVALANCHE 6, WILD 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and his NHL-leading 53rd assist of the season to help Colorado rout Minnesota.
Mikko Rantanan and Logan O’Connor also each had a goal and an assist, Ross Colton, Parker Kelly and Artturi Lehkonen also scored, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 24 saves.
Zach Bogosian scored for the second straight game for the Wild. Filip Gustavsson stopped 21 of 27 shots.
Leading 2-1 in the second period, MacKinnon fed a pass into the slot on a 2-on-2 rush. Rantanen converted on a wrist shot past a screened Gustavsson for his 25th goal of the season.
Rantanen returned the favor when MacKinnon scored Colorado’s third goal in a span of 4:25 of the third period to put the Avs on top 6-1.
BLUES 6, DUCKS 2
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Robert Thomas scored twice and St. Louis beat Anaheim.
Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich each had a goal and an assist, and Tyler Tucker and Dylan Holloway also scored for St. Louis. Brayden Schenn had two assists and Joel Hofer stopped 22 shots.
Nikita Nesterenko and Sam Colangelo scored for the Ducks. Lukas Dostal gave up six goals on 22 shots before he was replaced midway through the second period. John Gibson stopped all 12 shots he faced.
The Blues scored three goals on their first six shots as Thomas, Tucker and Kyrou tallied in the first 6:40 of the game. The fourth goal came on the Blues’ 13th shot by Holloway with 6:05 remaining in the first period.
Thomas scored again at 4:45 of the second, and Buchnevich made it 6-1 at 8:02. That ended Dostal’s night.
Colangelo got his first goal of the season — and second of his career — with 5:22 left in the middle period to close the scoring.