Blackwood earns 2nd shutout, Devils top Canucks 4-0
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Rookie goalie Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 25 shots to earn his second straight shutout and the New Jersey Devils defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 on Monday.
Blackwood is 3-1 since joining the Devils on Dec. 18. He blanked the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0 on Saturday, becoming the first rookie goalie in franchise history to post back-to-back shutouts
Brian Boyle, Miles Wood, Sami Vatanen and Pavel Zacha scored for the Devils. It was Zacha's second goal in two games.
Anders Nilsson stopped 19 shots for Vancouver.
The Devils have won three straight for the first time since their first three games of the season.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brayden Point scored 35 seconds into overtime and Tampa Bay topped Anaheim to finish December unbeaten in regulation.
The Lightning, who have won six straight, went 12-0-1 in December and are the eighth NHL team in the last 10 years to finish a calendar month without a regulation loss after playing a minimum of eight games. They go into the new year on a 14-0-1 run and with a league-high 64 points.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots for his 100th NHL victory.
Kucherov and Steven Stamkos are the first set of teammates to combine for 50 or more points in a calendar month since March 2001 when four pairs — three of which were combinations from Pittsburgh — accomplished the feat. Kucherov and Stamkos combined for 23 goals and 28 assists in December.
Nick Ritchie scored for the Ducks, and John Gibson made 33 saves.
DENVER (AP) — Dustin Brown scored on a breakaway 56 seconds into overtime and Los Angeles withstood a late comeback attempt by Colorado.
Brown gathered in a pass from Jake Muzzin in the Avalanche zone and skated between the circles before sending a wrist shot past the stick of goalie Semyon Varlamov.
Sean Walker and Drew Doughty also scored for the Kings. Jonathan Quick had 22 saves and earned his 299th career win. He has 17 wins in 24 career games against the Avalanche.
Nathan MacKinnon and Carl Soderberg scored for Colorado, which lost its fifth straight and was shut out in consecutive games.
DALLAS (AP) — Jeff Petry scored 14 seconds into overtime after Phillip Danault had both Montreal goals in regulation, and the Canadiens rallied to beat Dallas.
Danault's two goals came nine days after his hat trick in a 4-3 overtime win at Vegas, giving him five of his seven goals this season in that span.
After the opening faceoff of 3-on-3 overtime, Paul Byron skated up the left side and slipped the puck across the ice to Petry, who easily beat Ben Bishop for his eighth goal.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin were on the ice for the Montreal's winning goal in their first loss since the high-priced forwards were harshly criticized by their front office. Benn scored his team-leading 16th goal on an assist from Seguin for a 2-1 lead in the second period.
Radek Faksa also scored for the Stars.
Antii Niemi stopped 45 shots against his former team in his third straight start and second win since Carey Price was sidelined with a lower-body injury.
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk each scored twice and added two assists, propelling Calgary past San Jose.
Sean Monahan had five assists for the Flames. His five-point game was a career best, and Gaudreau tied his career high with four points.
Calgary finished the calendar year first in the Pacific Division, two points up on Vegas and three ahead of the Sharks.
Mikael Backlund scored twice and Elias Lindholm and James Neal also had goals for the Flames, who improved to 8-1-3 in their last 12 home games.
Joonas Donskoi scored twice to lead San Jose. Lukas Radil, Brent Burns and Joe Thornton also scored. The Sharks lost in regulation for just the second time in their last 11 games (7-2-2).
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Robin Lehner made 39 saves against his former team and the Islanders beat Buffalo as New York coach Barry Trotz moved into fourth place on the NHL's all-time win list.
Trotz picked up his 783rd career victory and moved passed Islanders franchise legend Al Arbour on the list.
Nick Leddy, Brock Nelson and Ryan Pulock scored for the Islanders, who won their four straight and for the seventh time in eight games.
Kyle Okposo scored and Carter Hutton stopped 30 shots for Buffalo, which has lost three in a row and five of six.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ryan Johansen had a goal and two assists, Viktor Arvidsson and Rocco Grimaldi each added a goal and an assist as Nashville scored five unanswered goals to break its six-game losing streak.
Johansen's seventh goal of the season beat Braden Holtby to tie the score at 3 as the Predators scored three goals in 4:33 to take a 4-3 lead.
Miikka Salomaki, Frederick Gaudreau and Ryan Ellis add goals, and Pekka Rinne stopped 22 shots for the Predators, who ended their longest skid since an eight-game slide from April 4-19, 2013.
Braden Holtby stopped 28 shots for the Capitals. Michal Kempny, Jakub Vruna and Chandler Stephenson scored for Washington, which had its four-game winning streak halted.
HURRICANES 3, FLYERS 1
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Lucas Wallmark, Jordan Martinook and Andrei Svechnikov scored for Carolina, which won for the second time in six games.
Curtis McElhinney stopped 22 shots for the Hurricanes.
Jakub Voracek scored for Philadelphia, which lost for the third time in four games and fell to 3-3-1 under interim coach Scott Gordon. Carter Hart started in the nets for the Flyers, but allowed three goals on 10 shots and was replaced by Michal Neuvirth, who stopped all 23 shots he faced.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists, and Sidney Crosby added a goal and assist for surging Pittsburgh.
Casey DeSmith made 31 saves for Pittsburgh, which tied its season high with its fourth straight road win.
Kessel has three points in each of his past three games and Crosby has four straight games with multiple points for the Penguins, who have won eight of their past 10 games, a season-high six games in a row and finished December 11-3-1.
Mikko Koivu scored for the first time in 15 games and Zach Parise added his 17th goal of the season for the Wild. Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for Minnesota, which has lost eight of its past 11 games.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves and New York got goals from Mats Zuccarello and Boo Nieves.
New York has won consecutive games for the first time since taking three in a row from Nov. 17-21.
The Rangers had allowed at least four goals in eight of their past 11 games before shutting down St. Louis. The Blues have 11 home losses in regulation this season, tying them with the Coyotes and Kings for most in the NHL.
The only goal Lundqvist gave up came at 10:08 of the first period when the Blues went ahead 1-0. David Perron fed Ryan O'Reilly, who fired a slap shot from the left faceoff circle for his 15th goal. O'Reilly has six points (three goals, three assists) in his last seven games against Rangers.
BLUE JACKETS 6, SENATORS 3
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Zach Werenski broke a tie late in the game with the second of his two goals and Sergei Bobrovsky had 22 saves as Columbus beat struggling Ottawa.
Pierre-Luc Dubois had a career-high two goals and two assists as the Blue Jackets won for the sixth time in seven games and moved within two points of Washington atop the Metropolitan Division. Cam Atkinson and Josh Anderson got empty-net goals in the final minute to turn it into a rout for surging Columbus.
Ryan Dzingel scored twice and Bobby Ryan added a goal for Ottawa, which lost its fifth in a row.
Rookie Marcus Hogberg — who made his first career start Saturday against Washington — didn't play badly, finishing with 32 saves.
DETROIT (AP) — Jonathan Huberdeau scored the only goal in a shootout to give Florida a comeback win over struggling Detroit.
Jared McCann, Henrik Borgstrom and Jayce Hawryluk scored in the second period for the Panthers, who have won six of eight. Roberto Luongo allowed three goals on eight shots before being replaced by James Reimer to start the second. Reimer stopped 12 shots and all three attempts in the tiebreaker.
Andreas Athanasiou, Gustav Nyquist and Thomas Vanek scored for the Red Wings, who led 3-0 after one but have lost their last five games (0-3-2). Jimmy Howard made 24 saves.
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Brendan Lemieux scored twice and Winnipeg defeated slumping Edmonton.
Brandon Tanev and Blake Wheeler also scored for the Jets (25-12-2), who snapped a two-game skid.
Leon Draisaitl had a pair of goals and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the other for the Oilers (18-18-3), who lost all five games on their homestand and have dropped six in a row overall.
Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck robbed Draisaitl in tight with 23 seconds left to preserve the win.