Wilson scores 2 as Caps beat Islanders, ex-coach Trotz 4-1
NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Wilson scored twice, Braden Holtby stopped 32 shots and the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders and former coach Barry Trotz 4-1 Monday night for their season-high sixth straight win.
Nic Dowd and Alex Ovechkin also scored for Washington, which won after giving up the first goal for the fifth time during its win streak that has catapulted the defending champions to first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Valtteri Filppula scored and Thomas Greiss finished with 20 saves for the Islanders, who lost for the third time in five games.
Trotz was facing the Capitals for first time since leading them to the franchise's first Stanley Cup title in June. Trotz also guided Washington to the Presidents' Trophy for the league's best record in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and then resigned in a contract dispute and subsequently signed with Islanders.
Todd Rierden — who was on Trotz's staff during his four years in Washington, including the last two as associated head coach — then took over.
NEW YORK (AP) — Marc Staal, Lias Andersson, Chris Kreider, and Mika Zibanejad scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves for New York.
The Rangers extended their dominance at Madison Square Garden, improving to 8-1-0 at home in their last nine games.
Mark Stone scored twice, Brady Tkachuk had two assists and Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots for Ottawa, which fell to 2-8-1 in road games this season.
BLUE JACKETS 7, RED WINGS 5
DETROIT (AP) — Pierre-Luc Dubois scored two goals as Columbus raced to a three-goal lead in the first period and held on for the win.
Josh Anderson, Artemi Panarin, Markus Nutivaara, Boone Jenner and Seth Jones also scored for Columbus. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots for the Blue Jackets, who had lost two of three.
Detroit rallied with three straight goals and pulled within one twice in the third period.
Anthony Mantha had two goals and Dennis Cholowski, Mike Green, Gustav Nyquist also scored for Detroit.
Jimmy Howard gave up three goals on 16 shots in the first period and was replaced by Jonathan Bernier, who finished with 12 saves.
Detroit has lost three straight after winning six of seven.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Mike Hoffman scored 1:28 into overtime to lift Florida.
With their goalie pulled for an extra skater, the Panthers tied it 3-all on Jonathan Huberdeau's 100th career goal with 1:29 left in the third period. Huberdeau also had two assists.
Aleksander Barkov added a goal and an assist, and Jared McCann also scored for Florida. James Reimer stopped 29 shots.
Jesper Bratt, Blake Coleman and Miles Wood scored for the Devils. Keith Kinkaid made 30 saves, and Sami Vatanen had two assists.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, BRUINS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Mitch Marner had three assists and Patrick Marleau added another in his 1,600th NHL game to lead Toronto to the win in the 672nd meeting between the two Original Six teams in a rivalry that dates to 1924.
Travis Dermott, Igor Ozhiganov, Josh Leivo and Zach Hyman scored for Toronto (17-8-0).
David Pastrnak, who had a hat trick in a 5-1 win over Toronto on Nov. 10, scored twice for Boston (13-7-4).