Predators win 10th straight, Golden Knights blank Red Wings
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Austin Watson scored a short-handed goal late in the second period and the Nashville Predators beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 on Thursday night to extend their franchise-record winning streak to 10 games.
The Predators also matched Colorado for the longest winning streak in the NHL this season. The victory kept Nashville's edge at six points ahead of Winnipeg and Vegas for the Western Conference lead.
Pekka Rinne made 31 saves to improve to 18-1-1 over his last 20 games. Craig Smith, Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson each scored. Filip Forsberg had two assists for Nashville, which honored David Poile before the game for becoming career wins leader among NHL general managers with his 1,320th victory last week.
Rickard Rakell scored twice in the third period for the Ducks.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, RED WINGS 0
DETROIT (AP) - Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 shots, Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch each scored two goals and the Vegas Golden Knights dominated the Detroit Red Wings.
The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights had lost four of five, their worst stretch during their inaugural season since losing five of six early on. The victory at Little Caesars Arena was their 19th on the road, tying Anaheim's 1993-94 team for the most by an expansion team.
Fleury got his third shutout of the season and the 47th of his career.
Jimmy Howard had 28 saves for the Red Wings, who have lost five straight games for the third time this season.
PANTHERS 5, CANADIENS 0
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) - Roberto Luongo made 40 saves in his second shutout of the season, Nick Bjugstad scored his fourth goal in two games, and the Florida Panthers beat the Montreal Canadiens for their seventh straight home win.
Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist, and Vincent Trocheck, Micheal Haley and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for the Panthers, who have points in eight straight games. Keith Yandle added three assists, and Aleksander Barkov had a pair.
Charlie Lindgren stopped 27 shots for the Canadiens, who lost their second straight.
BLUE JACKETS 5, AVALANCHE 4, OT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Seth Jones scored 59 seconds into overtime to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets over the Colorado Avalanche in a matchup of teams fighting to stay in the playoff mix.
Jones added two assists, Thomas Vanek scored twice and Zach Werenski also tallied for the Blue Jackets, who have won three straight for the first time since November.
Colorado got third-period goals from Gabriel Landeskog and Carl Soderberg to force overtime. Soderberg had two in the game, and Tyson Barrie also scored for the Avs.
HURRICANES 3, BLACKHAWKS 2
CHICAGO (AP) - Sebastian Aho snapped a tie with a power-play goal in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Chicago Blackhawks in their first game since Ron Francis was forced out as general manager.
Justin Williams had a goal and an assist as Carolina stayed four points back of Columbus for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Scott Darling made 22 saves in his return to Chicago after he was traded to Carolina in April, and Elias Lindholm added two assists.
Tomas Jurco and Patrick Sharp scored for last-place Chicago (29-31-8), which had won two of three. Jean-Francois Berube made 37 stops.
JETS 3, DEVILS 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Patrik Laine extended his point-scoring streak to 10 games and Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves as the Winnipeg Jets won their fourth straight game.
Joel Armia and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored as the Jets posted their ninth win in the last 11 games. It also extended the Jets' streak to 7-0-1 in their last eight road games. Hellebuyck posted his 35th win, setting the franchise single-season record, passing Kari Lehtonen who went 34-24-9 for the Atlanta Thrashers in 2006-07.
Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier scored for New Jersey, which lost for the fourth time in five games. Taylor Hall also saw his 19-game point-scoring streak end.
BRUINS 3, FLYERS 2
BOSTON (AP) - Brad Marchand scored with 22 seconds left to lift the Boston Bruins over the Philadelphia Flyers for their fifth straight win.
Marchand and David Pastrnak swiped at the rebound off a shot from the point by Zdeno Chara, and the puck slowly trickled behind goalie Alex Lyon.
Chara and Pastrnak had two assists each, and Riley Nash and Brian Gionta also scored for Boston, which won despite getting outshot 33-27 by the slumping Flyers.
Jakub Voracek and Jori Lehtera scored for Philadelphia, which is 0-4-1 in its last five and is clinging to third place in the Metropolitan Division.
SABRES 4, SENATORS 3, SO
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - Jacob Josefson scored the winner in the shootout to lead the Buffalo Sabres past the Ottawa Senators.
Marco Scandella, Sam Reinhart and Scott Wilson had goals in regulation for the Sabres, who got 37 saves from Robin Lehner.
The Sabres, who are last in the Eastern Conference, were coming off a 5-1 loss to the Calgary Flames, who will play Ottawa on Friday. The Senators are only two points ahead of Buffalo in the conference.
Ryan Dzingel led the way for the Senators in regulation with two goals, and Thomas Chabot scored his sixth of the season. Craig Anderson made 31 saves.
LIGHTNING 5, RANGERS 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Anthony Cirelli had a goal and two assists and the Tampa Bay Lightning chased Henrik Lundqvist with a barrage of shots in a win over the New York Rangers.
League-leading Tampa Bay had 17 shots on goal before the Rangers got their first nearly 11 minutes into the game. Lundqvist kept New York's deficit to 2-0 through one period, but was pulled after allowing two more goals in the second period.
Cirelli, playing his fourth career game, helped the Lightning improve to 8-0-1 in their past nine games. Adam Erne, Cedric Paquette. Tyler Johnson and Chris Kunitz also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for his league-leading 40th victory, which ties the franchise record.
OILERS 2, ISLANDERS 1, SO
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - Connor McDavid tied the game late in the third period, and then won it in the shootout as the Edmonton Oilers edged the New York Islanders.
Edmonton ended Christopher Gibson's shutout bid with just 1:50 to play in the third period when McDavid banked a shot off of New York defenseman Brandon Davidson and into the net for his career-high 31st goal of the season.
McDavid was hooked on a breakaway three minutes into overtime and was awarded a penalty shot, but hit the post on the attempt. New York's Jordan Eberle also came close in overtime, but Cam Talbot came across to make a pad save.
Thomas Hickey had the lone goal for the Islanders, who have lost eight straight - their longest skid in more than four seasons.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Mikkel Boedker scored San Jose's first power-play goal in a month, helping lift the Sharks past the St. Louis Blues.
Tomas Hertl added an empty-net goal in the closing seconds, and Martin Jones made 16 saves for the Sharks, who won their third in four games. San Jose has also won five of six at home.
Jake Allen recorded 34 saves and was the only healthy goalie with NHL experience available to the Blues. Carter Hutton was a late scratch and Ville Husso, whom the Blues recalled from the AHL will join the team in Los Angeles.
KINGS 3, CAPITALS 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Trevor Lewis scored on his own rebound for the go-ahead goal in his first game in two months to lead the Los Angeles Kings over the Washington Capitals.
Jeff Carter also had a goal, Kyle Clifford scored into an empty net and Jonathan Quick made 29 saves as the Kings moved one point ahead of Colorado for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
With the game tied at 1 in the second period, Lewis charged down the left side and sent a wrist shot that Holtby deflected - but right to Lewis. Lewis fired in the rebound and Holtby deflected it again, but this time it popped up in the air near the post and Lewis batted in the puck as he skated by. For Lewis, who had missed 12 games with an upper-body injury, it was his 14th goal.
Rookie Jakub Vrana scored for the Capitals, his 12th on the season. Braden Holtby stopped 24 shots.
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