Robert Thomas had a goal and three assists as the St. Louis Blues edged the visiting Colorado Avalanche 5-4 on Saturday night for their team-record 12th straight victory.
Zack Bolduc scored twice for the Blues, who improved to 19-2-2 in their last 23 games. Jake Neighbours and Pavel Buchnevich also scored, Cam Fowler had three assists and Jordan Binnington made 35 saves.
St. Louis holds the top spot in the Western Conference wild-card chase, four points ahead of the Minnesota Wild. Minnesota has a game in hand on St. Louis.
Ross Colton, Miles Wood, Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Malinski scored for the Avalanche, who suffered just their second regulation loss in their last nine games (6-2-1). Mackenzie Blackwood made 17 saves.
Golden Knights 3, Flames 2 (OT)
Reilly Smith’s second goal of the night was the overtime winner to lift visiting Vegas over Calgary.
Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for the Golden Knights, who snapped a two-game skid and have a three-point lead on the Los Angeles Kings for first place in the Pacific Division. Vegas clinched a playoff spot as well. Goaltender Akira Schmid made 21 saves in his first start of the season, and Shea Theodore collected three assists.
Joel Hanley and Matt Coronato scored for the Flames, who erased a two-goal deficit to gain a valuable point. Goalie Dustin Wolf stopped 31 shots in another strong performance. The Flames are four points back of the Minnesota Wild for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot with six games remaining. Calgary has one game in hand on the Wild.
Kings 3, Oilers 0
Host Los Angeles Kings increased its chances of securing home-ice advantage in the playoffs after blanking undermanned Edmonton.
Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves to earn his fifth shutout of the season as the Kings moved four points ahead of the Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division. Los Angeles is within three points of the first-place Vegas Golden Knights, who defeated the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
Kevin Fiala, Andrei Kuzmenko and Trevor Lewis scored for Los Angeles, while Calvin Pickard stopped 26 shots for the Oilers, who were without superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Devils 4, Rangers 0
Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt scored on special teams 87 seconds apart in the second period as New Jersey beat New York in Newark, N.J.
Meier’s power-play goal and Bratt’s short-handed marker gave the Devils their third win over the Rangers in four matchups this season. Meier added his second goal of the contest with 4:59 remaining to effectively seal matters for the Devils. Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves, including four on New York’s first power play in the second period shortly before New Jersey went ahead.
New York was denied its first three-game winning streak since Nov. 14-19. The Rangers failed to win three straight for the eighth time since mid-November, and their path to the postseason has become murkier, as they trail the Montreal Canadiens by four points for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Penguins 5, Stars 3
Sidney Crosby posted his 14th career hat trick as Pittsburgh rallied with a four-goal third period to defeat Dallas on the road.
Crosby’s second goal of the game evened things up 2-2 just 20 seconds into the third. After the Stars’ Evgenii Dadonov netted a score less than three minutes later, Bryan Rust and Blake Lizotte scored to push the Penguins in front. Crosby tallied an empty-netter soon after to ice the win.
Dadonov finished with a hat trick of his own, the second of his career. His first also came against Pittsburgh in 2018.
Sabers 3, Lightning 2 (SO)
Tage Thompson scored his 40th goal and James Reimer made 22 saves and stopped both shootout attempts to lead host Buffalo past Tampa Bay for its third straight win.
Jason Zucker also scored for Buffalo, which extended its home win streak to five games. Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch each scored in the shootout to give the Sabres their sixth win in the last seven games.
Brayden Point and Gage Goncalves scored for Tampa Bay, which increased its second-place lead in the Atlantic Division to two points over the Florida Panthers. Ex-Sabre Jonas Johansson made 36 saves for the Lightning, who clinched a playoff spot for the eighth consecutive season earlier Saturday when the New York Rangers lost 4-0 to the New Jersey Devils.
Senators 3, Panthers 0
Anton Forsberg made 40 saves for his third shutout of the season and eighth of his career as host Ottawa defeated Florida.
Defenseman Jake Sanderson had a goal and an assist and Drake Batherson and Matthew Highmore also scored for the Senators, who won their second straight and lead the Eastern Conference wild-card race. Ottawa led 2-0 after the first period and is 32-6 when they score the first goal.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots for the Panthers, who have lost four in a row (0-3-1) and are two points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division. Florida’s Aleksander Barkov missed his second game and also won’t play Sunday at the Detroit Red Wings. Panthers coach Paul Maurice remains fourth all-time among coaches with 913 wins. He is one shy of tying Barry Trotz for third place.
Canucks 6, Ducks 2
Brock Boeser had a goal and an assist as Vancouver scored five straight goals to erase an early deficit to visiting Anaheim.
Elias N. Pettersson scored his first NHL goal, Filip Hronek, Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua and Max Sasson also scored, Quinn Hughes had two assists and Thatcher Demko made 30 saves for the Canucks, who ended a three-game skid (0-2-1). Vancouver is six points back of the second Western Conference wild-card spot.
Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras scored and Lukas Dostal made 20 saves for the Ducks, who have dropped three of four.
Bruins 5, Hurricanes 1
David Pastrnak recorded a hat trick and season-high five points as Boston ended its 10-game losing streak with an emphatic win over visiting Carolina.
Pastrnak had points in each period, reaching the 40-goal and 90-point plateaus on the night. Pastrnak, Geekie (one goal, three assists) and linemate Elias Lindholm (one goal, one assist) combined for 11 of Boston’s 13 points.
Jeremy Swayman made 14 of his 39 stops in the middle frame to help the Bruins to their first win since March 11. Carolina broke Swayman’s shutout bid when Justin Robidas scored his first NHL goal with 54.2 seconds left in the third. Frederik Andersen stopped 21 shots for the Hurricanes.
Maple Leafs 5, Blue Jackets 0
Nicholas Robertson and William Nylander each scored twice, Anthony Stolarz earned his 10th career shutout and Toronto Maple defeated visiting Columbus.
Stolarz made 27 saves to earn his second shutout of the season as the Maple Leafs tightened their grip on first place in the Atlantic Division. They lead the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning by four points. Auston Matthews also scored for Toronto, and Morgan Rielly added two assists.
Elvis Merzlikins stopped 22 shots for Columbus. The Blue Jackets trail the Montreal Canadiens by six points for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.
Canadiens 3, Flyers 2
Nick Suzuki scored and added an assist as Montreal erased a third-period deficit to edge the visiting Philadelphia.
The victory, coupled with the New York Rangers’ loss earlier Saturday, gave the Canadiens a four-point advantage toward the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot. Brendan Gallagher and Lane Hutson also scored for Montreal, and Sam Montembeault made 21 saves.
Ryan Poehling had a goal and an assist and Tyson Foerster also scored for Philadelphia, which had its three-game win streak snapped. Samuel Ersson stopped 23 shots.
Utah 4, Jets 1
Clayton Keller, Barrett Hayton and Kevin Stenlund each had a goal and an assist as the Utah Hockey Club defeated visiting Winnipeg.
Nick Bjugstad also scored for Utah, while Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther, Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, and Olli Maatta provided assists. Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves.
In the net for Winnipeg, Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 shots.
Kraken 5, Sharks 1
Jared McCann scored two goals and added an assist as Seattle defeated host San Jose.
Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist and Chandler Stephenson and Jaden Schwartz also tallied for the Kraken, who have won their past two games by a combined score of 10-1. Goaltender Joey Daccord made 23 saves.
Rookie Will Smith scored for the Sharks, who are winless in their past five games (0-4-1) and remained last in the NHL’s overall standings. Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals on 11 shots before being pulled at 11:36 of the second period. Georgi Romanov stopped 10 of 11 shots the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
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