Senators hold on to beat Red Wings
DETROIT (AP) — Thomas Chabot and Tim Stutzle scored in the first period for Ottawa and the Senators held off the Detroit Red Wings in a 4-3 victory Thursday night.
Linus Ullmark made 31 saves and David Perron and Michael Amadio also had goals for the Senators, who have won eight of their last 11 while holding the first wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings, who scored three times in the third period but lost for the fourth time in five games. Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for Detroit.
Alex Lyon allowed three goals on 10 shots and was replaced by Cam Talbot, who made 21 saves.
SABRES 7, PENGUINS 3
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Jiri Kulich scored twice as part of a five-goal second period, and Buffalo routed Pittsburgh in an outing where Penguins captain Sidney Crosby broke an NHL record for point-per-game consistency he shared with Wayne Gretzky.
Buffalo won its fourth-straight home game with Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, Tyson Kozak each securing a goal and assist. Mattias Samuelsson also scored, and backup James Reimer made 22 saves in winning his third consecutive start.
Crosby’s goal 8:49 in to cut Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 was his 80th point, to assure he’ll finish his 20th NHL season averaging at least a point per outing. The 37-year-old surpassed Gretzky, who finished all but his 20th and final NHL season in 1998-99 averaging a point a game.
Kevin Hayes and Blake Lizotte also scored for Pittsburgh, which dropped to 1-3-1 in its past five.
LIGHTNING 8, UTAH 0
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Guentzel and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored two goals each, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for his sixth shutout of the season, and Tampa Bay routed Utah.
Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Gage Goncalves and Victor Hedman also scored for Tampa Bay, which won its second in a row and has won five of its last seven games. Kucherov also had three assists.
It was the fourth time this year Tampa Bay has scored eight goals in a game.
Utah starting goalie Karel Vejmelka — who had started 15 straight games — had a rough night, giving up four goals on 11 shots before being lifted after Kucherov made it 4-0 midway through the second period. He was replaced by Jaxson Stauber, who gave up four goals on 10 shots.
FLYERS 6, CANADIENS 4
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Matvei Michkov had two goals and an assist and Philadelphia got off to fast start in their first game after coach John Tortorella’s morning firing, beating Montreal.
With Brad Shaw serving as interim coach, Philadelphia ended a six-game losing streak and handed Montreal its fourth straight loss.
Michkov opened the scoring at 1:55 of the first period, assisted on the first of Sean Couturier’s two goals and added his 22nd goal in the third. Tortorella came under scrutiny when he scratched Michkov or benched him for long periods, explaining it was part of a tough-love approach toward with the Russian rookie.
Nicolas Deslauriers and Tyson Foerster also scored, and Samuel Ersson made 26 saves.
Alex Newhook, Cole Caufield, Patrik Laine and Christian Dvorak scored for Montreal. Jakub Dobes stopped 24 shots.
WILD 4, CAPITALS 2
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Matt Boldy had the go-ahead goal and an assist in the second period for Minnesota n a victory over Washington.
Frederick Gaudreau had two goals, Jon Merrill scored and Filip Gustavsson made 28 saves for the Wild, the only NHL team this season that hasn’t lost (28-0) when leading after two periods.
Matt Roy and Brandon Duhaime scored for the league-leading Capitals, who lost their second straight after a 9-1 stretch.
Alex Ovechkin had a third-period breakaway thwarted by Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin and stayed at 889 career goals. He needs six to pass Wayne Gretzky on the NHL’s career list with 10 regular-season games remaining.
Minnesota got a big boost for its playoff push, having entered the game with a five-point cushion above the cut for the last West wild-card spot.
BLUES 3, PREDATORS 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dylan Holloway scored two goals to lead St. Louis to a comeback victory over Nashville for their season-best eighth straight win.
Cam Fowler also scored and Joel Hofer made 16 saves for the Blues. Robert Thomas had two assists.
Fedor Svechkov and Brady Skjei scored and Juuse Saros made 18 saves for Nashville, which has dropped two of three.
Nashville’s Jonathan Marchessault appeared to tie it late in the third, but a video review determined that time had expired before the puck entered the net.
STARS 5, FLAMES 2
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Casey DeSmith made 46 saves, Roope Hintz and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist and Dallas beat Calgary.
Wyatt Johnston and Mikael Granlund also scored and Matt Duchene added an empty-net goal for the Stars, winners of four games in a row.
DeSmith got the start for Dallas after Jake Oettinger made 42 saves in the previous night’s 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Nazem Kadri scored twice for the Flames.
Flames starter Dustin Wolf stopped 14 of 18 shots in the loss. Calgary captain Mikael Backlund returned to the lineup after six games out with an upper-body injury.
AVALANCHE 4, KINGS 0
DENVER (AP) — Martin Necas had two goals and an assist, Jonathan Drouin and Logan O’Connor also sored, and streaking Colorado beat Los Angeles for their fourth straight win.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves for his third shutout with Colorado and fourth overall this season. Cale Makar had two assists.
O’Connor and Necas scored goals 1:32 apart early in the second, Necas added a power-play goal later in the period, and Drouin had another on a man-advantage in the third.
Nathan MacKinnon had the primary assist on Drouin’s goal to extend his home point streak to 23 games.
David Rittich had 20 saves for Los Angeles, which had its four-game winning streak stopped.
KRAKEN 6, OILERS 1
SEATTLE (AP) — Jaden Schwartz scored twice, linemates Jani Nyman and Matty Beniers scored 16 seconds apart and Joey Daccord made 36 saves to help Seattle beat Edmonton and snap a three-game skid.
Andre Burakovsky and Jared McCann also had goals for the Kraken, who scored five times in the second period.
Zach Hyman had Edmonton’s only goal. Calvin Pickard, who played 11:07 the previous night in relief of Stuart Skinner, made 24 saves. Olivier Rodrigue took over in the third period and stopped seven shots.
Edmonton stars Connor McDavid (lower-body injury) and Leon Draisaitl (undisclosed) sat out for the third straight game.
MAPLE LEAFS 6, SHARKS 5, OT
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Tyler Toffoli scored two goals and had an assist and San Jose defeated Toronto in a shootout after blowing a late lead.
Collin Graf, Alexander Wennberg and William Eklund also scored for the Sharks, who led 5-3 with less than a minute left.
John Tavares cut Toronto’s deficit to one with 59 seconds remaining and William Nylander tied it 45 seconds later with his second goal of the game.
Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini scored in the shootout and Alexandar Georgiev stopped Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to seal the win after allowing Nylander to score on Toronto’s first shootout shot. Georgiev made 30 saves in regulation.
Matthews and Scott Laughton had second-period goals for Toronto. Joseph Woll made 30 saves.