Capitals win their fourth straight, beating Penguins 4-1
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jakob Chychrun, Aliaksei Protas and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored, Logan Thompson made 18 saves and the NHL-leading Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 on Saturday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Thompson came up just short of becoming the first player in franchise history to record three shutouts in a row, when he allowed Bryan Rust to score midway through the third period. His shutout streak ended at 198 minutes, 22 seconds, the longest in the league this season and third in team history.
Brandon Duhaime sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:30 left. The Capitals are 7-0-3 in their past 10 games, picking up points despite not playing their best during this stretch.
The Penguins lost for an eighth time in 10 games. Pittsburgh goaltender Joel Blomqvist allowed three goals on 32 shots.
FLYERS 3, DEVILS 1
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny scored in the third period, and Philadelphia beat New Jersey.
Matvei Michkov also scored for Philadelphia in the first meeting of the season between the Metropolitan Division rivals. Tyson Foerster had two assists, and Samuel Ersson made 12 saves.
Brink’s power-play goal made it 2-1 with 7:16 left. It was his sixth of the season.
Konecny added an empty-netter in the final seconds. He has 21 goals on the year.
Dougie Hamilton scored for New Jersey in the first period. It was the first goal for the defenseman since Dec. 2 and No. 6 on the season.
Jake Allen made 15 saves for New Jersey in his first start since Jan. 1.
SENATORS 6, BRUINS 5, SO
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Tim Stutzle scored in the shootout to lift Ottawa to a win over Boston.
Leevi Merilainen, who made 23 saves in regulation and overtime, turned away all three Bruins skaters in the tiebreaker.
Josh Norris had two goals for Ottawa, and Stutzle had a goal and an assist in regulation. Nick Jensen and Adam Gaudette also scored.
Boston had won two in a row since a six-game slide. David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists for the Bruins, and Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha each had a goal and an assist.
Ottawa scored twice in the final 3:13 to force overtime. Norris got his 17th goal of the season with 12 seconds remaining, tying it at 5.
Boston had opened a 5-3 lead on Vinni Lettieri’s first goal of the season 11:23 into the third period.
Jeremy Swayman made 39 saves for the Bruins.
AVALANCHE 6, STARS 3
DENVER (AP) — Artturi Lehkonen had two goals and two assists, Cale Makar also scored twice and Colorado beat Dallas.
Jonathan Drouin and Casey Mittelstadt each had a goal and two assists, and Josh Manson also had two assists for the Avalanche. Scott Wedgewood stopped 26 shots.
Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, Matt Duchene also scored, and Wyatt Johnson had three assists for the Stars. Casey DeSmith finished with 30 saves.
PANTHERS 3, DUCKS 0
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Spencer Knight made 34 saves for his second shutout of the season and Florida beat Anaheim to open a home-and-home set.
Jesper Boqvist, Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling scored. Boqvist opened the scoring midway through the second period with his career-high 11th of the season. Lundell scored in the third, and Forsling added an empty-netter.
The Ducks dropped their third straight to finish 1-4-1 on their six-game trip. John Gibson stopped 42 shots.
Florida scoring leader Sam Reinhart received a game misconduct for a kneeing major against Isac Lundestrom in the first.
LIGHTNING 5, RED WINGS 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel each had a goal and two assists, helping Tampa Bay beat Detroit.
Darren Raddysh had a goal and an assist as Tampa Bay won for the third time in four games. Brayden Point and Mitchell Chaffee also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 39 saves.
Lucas Raymond scored for Detroit. Cam Talbot allowed five goals on 16 shots before being replaced by Alex Lyon to start the third period. Lyon finished with six saves.
Tampa Bay blew the game open early in the second, scoring three times in a span of 3:52 on goals from Guentzel, Kucherov and Chaffee.
FLAMES 3, JETS 1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Dustin Wolf made 38 saves, Blake Coleman had a goal and two assists and Calgary beat Winnipeg.
Matt Coronato and Andrei Kuzmenko — on a power play — also scored for the Flames. Coleman had an empty-net goal with 1:05 left.
Adam Lowry scored for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie made 19 saves.
RANGERS 1, BLUE JACKETS 0
NEW YORK (AP) — Vincent Trocheck scored the only goal of the shootout, Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 shots New York beat Columbus.
Shesterkin got his second shutout of the season and 17th of his career as the Rangers won their second straight. New York improved to 6-1-2 in January.
Daniil Tarasov had 26 saves and Columbus snapped a six-game winning streak.
In the shootout, Trocheck scored on the Rangers’ attempt in the second round, and Shesterkin denied tries by Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko on the Blue Jackets’ final two shots to preserve the win.
Both teams clogged the neutral zone most of the game in an attempt to limit the other to shots from the outside. And the few chances either team got in close were stuffed by the goalies.
MAPLE LEAFS 7, CANDIENS 3
MONTREAL (AP) — Toronto scored seven unanswered goals to overcome a three-goal first-period deficit for a win over Montreal.
Bobby McMann, Nicholas Robertson, William Nylander, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Steven Lorentz, Auston Matthews and David Kampf found the back of the net for Toronto. Joseph Woll made 32 saves.
Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine, and Josh Anderson scored forst-period goals for Montreal. Sam Montembeault finished with 27 saves.
Montreal struck first on Dach’s goal at 5:08. Patrik Laine, on the power play, and Josh Anderson scored just nine seconds apart, giving Montreal a 3-0 lead.
Toronto pulled within 3-2 after two periods on goals from McMann and Robertson. Nylander scored 24 seconds into the third period on a breakaway to make it 3-all.
Ekman-Larsson scored a power-play goal at 4:31, Matthews scored a short-handed goal at 7:58, Lorentz scored at 14:45, and Kampf added a short-handed empty-netter at 18:26.
ISLANDERS 4, SHARKS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist and New York beat San Jose.
Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock also scored, Marcus Hogberg made 18 saves and the Islanders snapped a two-game skid.
Barclay Goodrow scored for San Jose and Alexandar Georgiev finished with 27 saves as the Sharks lost for the fifth time in six games (1-5-0).
Barzal scored on a breakaway for his sixth goal of the season at 8:47 of the second period to open the scoring.
Goodrow tied it with a wrist shot from the half wall that sailed past Hogberg’s blocker just past the midpoint of the period.
Nelson put the Islanders back ahead for good just 40 seconds later, and Dobson made it 3-1 with 27 seconds left in the period.
PREDATORS 6, WILD 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg had two goals and two assists to lead Nashville to their third consecutive victory, beating Minnesota.
Colton Sissons, Steven Stamkos, Fedor Svechkov and Brady Skjei also scored and Juuse Saros made 27 saves for the Predators. Roman Josi had two assists.
Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist, David Jiricek also scored and Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves for the Wild, losers of three straight and four of their last five.
After falling behind early in the first on Jiricek’s goal, Nashville took the lead on goals by Sissons and Forsberg. The opening period also featured three fights.
After Stamkos made it 4-1 early in the second, Boldy drew the Wild to within two, but they could not close the gap any further, as Forsberg scored his second of the night and sixth in his last five games late in the third. Skjei added an empty-netter.
BLACKHAWKS 5, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3
CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi scored two power-play goals and Chicago beat slumping Vegas to end a four-game losing streak.
Seth Jones had a goal and two assists, helping set up Bertuzzi’s team-leading 15th and 16th goals on deflections at the edge of the crease. Lukas Reichel and Taylor Hall also scored for the Blackhawks and Petr Mrazek stopped 32 shots as the Blackhawks won for just the third time in 13 games (3-9-1).
Tomas Hertl had two goals and an assist, and Victor Olofsson also scored for the Golden Knights, who have lost a season-high three straight and five of six. Ilya Samsonov had 18 saves.
Olofsson scored his 100th career goal 9:29 in to give Vegas an early 1-0 lead.
Reichel, Bertuzzi and Hall connected in the final 4 minutes of the first period to put Chicago ahead 3-1.