Blues beat Penguins in OT for 11th straight win
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Robert Thomas scored a power-play goal in overtime and the St. Louis Blues tied a franchise record with their 11th consecutive win, 5-4 over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.
Jake Neighbours scored twice and Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou also scored for the Blues. Joel Hofer made 24 saves as St. Louis set a franchise record with its 10th straight home win.
Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and Rutger McGroarty each had a goal and an assist and Connor Dewar also scored for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry made 14 saves as Pittsburgh lost its fourth straight road contest.
Neighbours’ second goal was set up by Jimmy Snuggerud, who earned his first career point in just his second NHL game. Snuggerud, a first round pick by the Blues in the 2022 draft, was signed to an entry-level contract on Friday.
McGroarty tied the game for the Penguins with 23.8 seconds left with his first NHL goal.
SENATORS 2, LIGHTNING 1
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Linus Ullmark made 31 saves, Shane Pinto and Jake Sanderson scored and Ottawa beat Tampa Bay, with the Lightning wrapping up a playoff spot after the game when Colorado beat Columbus.
Pinto opened the scoring for the Senators with 6:15 left in the first period, and Sanderson made it 2-0 on a power play at 5:17 of the second. Brandon Hagel got one back for Tampa Bay at seven minutes of the second with his 34th of the season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 17 shots for Tampa Bay, playing the second game of a four-game trip. The Lightning had won four in a row.
CANADIENS 4, BRUINS 1
MONTREAL (AP) — Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher each had a goal and an assist, Sam Montembeault made 18 saves and Montreal beat Boston for their third straight victory.
Christian Dvorak and Cole Caufield — with his team-leading 35th — also scored for Montreal. The Canadiens hold the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the New York Rangers.
Suzuki assisted on Caufield’s goal for his 80th point of the season, then added an empty-netter for his 26th goal of the season. He’s the second Canadiens player in the past 25 years to reach the 80-point mark, joining Alex Kovalev (84 in 2007-08).
Elias Lindholm ended Montembeault’s shutout bid with 6:41 remaining.
Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves for Boston. Last in the Eastern Conference, the Bruins have lost seven in a row.
STARS 5, PREDATORS 1
DALLAS (AP) — Jake Oettinger made 28 saves and Dallas beat Nashville for their seventh straight victory.
Mikael Granlund, Mason Marchment, Roope Hintz and defenseman Lian Bichsel scored for Dallas. The Stars are second in the NHL behind Western Conference and Central Division rival Winnipeg.
Stars captain Jamie Benn sat out, with coach Pete DeBoer saying before the game it was for “maintenance.” Stuck on 399 career goals for nearly a month, the 35-year-old Benn had played 371 consecutive games.
Steven Stamkos opened the scoring for Nashville at 4:37 of the second with his 24th of the season. Granlund tied it with 36 seconds left in the second. Mason Marchment gave Dallas the lead 39 seconds into the third, Hintz scored at 5:47 and Bichsel with 7:18 to go.
Justus Annunen stopped 22 shots for Nashville.
AVALANCHE 7, BLUE JACKETS 3
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Cale Makar scored to become just the ninth NHL defenseman with 30 goals in a season and Colorado clinched a playoff berth with a win over Columbus.
Makar also had two assists while Charlie Coyle, Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews also had a goal and two assists each for the Avalanche, who scored five straight times after falling behind 3-2 in the second period.
Miles Wood, Parker Kelly and Brock Nelson also scored for Colorado while Mackenzie Blackwood made 27 saves.
Sean Monahan, Zachary Aston-Reese and Boone Jenner scored for the Blue Jackets and Elvis Merzlikins made 21 saves before being lifted with about 14 minutes to play.