Viktor Arvidsson capped his third career hat trick with a penalty-shot goal on his 28th birthday to lead the visiting Nashville Predators to a 7-1 shellacking of the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
Erik Haula and Nick Cousins both collected one goal and one assist while Mikael Granlund and Yakov Trenin also scored for the Predators, who posted seven unanswered goals. Goaltender Juuse Saros made 25 saves to backstop Nashville to its third consecutive win.
Thanks to a stretch in which they’ve collected wins in nine of 10 games and 11 of 13 outings, the Predators strengthened their hold on the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division.
Darren Helm scored for the Red Wings, who sit last in the division and have one win in their past six games (1-3-2). Jonathan Bernier, in his first game since sustaining an injury March 18, stopped 25 shots.
Hurricanes 3, Panthers 0
Sebastian Aho, Vincent Trocheck and Martin Necas scored goals and Alex Nedeljkovic posted a 24-save shutout as Carolina beat Florida in Raleigh, N.C.
Nedeljkovic has three shutouts in his 20-game NHL career, all of them coming in his past 12 appearances. Necas and Trocheck each finished with two points.
Chris Driedger stopped 19 shots for Florida. The Panthers were shut out for the third time this season, each by a 3-0 score — against the Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks and now Carolina.
Jets 4, Canadiens 2
Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves and Winnipeg scored three goals in the first period en route to a victory over host Montreal.
Defenseman Josh Morrissey scored 18 seconds into the contest and Trevor Lewis and Nikolaj Ehlers also tallied in the first period for the Jets. Andrew Copp sealed the win by scoring into an empty net with 38 seconds remaining in the third period.
Phillip Danault and fourth-liner Paul Byron scored and Jesperi Kotkaniemi notched two assists for the Canadiens, who have lost three of their past four games.
Penguins 5, Rangers 2
Rookie Radim Zohorna was one of four players who had a goal and an assist in Pittsburgh’s win over New York.
Kris Letang, Evan Rodrigues and Jason Zucker also had a goal and an assist and Mark Jankowski scored for Pittsburgh, which earned a split of the teams’ two straight games. Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry, who got pulled after one period Tuesday, made 22 saves.
Colin Blackwell and Kevin Rooney scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves.
Bruins 4, Capitals 2
Brad Marchand and Craig Smith each finished with a goal and an assist as Boston beat host Washington.
The Bruins also were helped by another strong performance from rookie goalie Jeremy Swayman. He made his NHL debut Tuesday and won before registering 31 saves in this victory. Jeremy Lauzon and Anton Blidh also scored for Boston.
Alex Ovechkin scored once for the Capitals and became just the eighth player to register 16 or more straight 20-goal seasons. The power-play goal gave him 266 in his career and moved him past Brett Hull into second place all time. T.J. Oshie added a goal and an assist, and Ilya Samsonov made 28 saves.
Lightning 6, Blue Jackets 4
Blake Coleman tallied a goal and two assists in a four-goal, first-period outburst as Tampa Bay prevailed at Columbus.
Having won just twice in their previous seven games, the Lightning opened fast with markers from Coleman, Steven Stamkos and Barclay Goodrow inside the first six minutes. Ryan McDonagh registered the first of his two goals in the final second of the period for a commanding 4-1 edge. Ross Colton scored, and Yanni Gourde logged a career-high four assists.
Jack Roslovic produced a goal and two helpers, and Michael Del Zotto, Zach Werenski and Max Domi scored for the Blue Jackets, who slipped to 1-4-0 in their past five games.
Oilers 3, Senators 1
Kailer Yamamoto, Devin Shore and Jesse Puljujarvi each scored goals as Edmonton finished off a perfect 9-0-0 regular season against host Ottawa.
Shore’s go-ahead score came from just in front of the Senators’ goal with 7:02 remaining when he redirected Caleb Jones’s shot from near the blue line through the legs of Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg. Goaltender Mike Smith had 39 saves for Edmonton.
Connor Brown scored a goal for the Senators to extend his NHL-best active scoring streak to six games. Forsberg had 20 saves.
Devils 6, Sabres 3
Pavel Zacha scored twice and Jesper Boqvist netted the tiebreaking goal in the third period as visiting New Jersey snapped a four-game winless rut with a victory over Buffalo.
New Jersey’s Jack Hughes, Yegor Sharangovich and Janne Kuokkanen each had a goal and two assists. Aaron Dell made 24 saves to win for the first time in three starts for the Devils, who ended an 0-2-2 slide.
Victor Olofsson, Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner each scored for Buffalo, which saw its 3-0-1 stretch conclude. Ullmark stopped 32 shots as his three-game winning streak also ended.
Islanders 3, Flyers 2 (SO)
Brock Nelson scored the only goal of the shootout in the fifth round and Ilya Sorokin made five saves in the shootout as New York edged Philadelphia in Uniondale, N.Y.
The Islanders moved two points ahead of Washington into first place in the East Division.
The Islanders held a 2-0 lead 7:13 into the game when Nelson and Jordan Eberle scored 63 seconds apart. Nicolas Aube-Kubel tallied in the first period and Jakub Voracek scored early in the second to tie up the game for the Flyers.
Stars 5, Blackhawks 1
Roope Hintz had a goal and three assists for Dallas in a win at Chicago.
Blake Comeau scored two goals, Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen also scored and Anton Khudobin made 38 saves for the Stars, who ended a two-game losing streak.
Dominik Kubalik scored and Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves for Chicago, which dropped four points back of the fourth-place Predators in the Central Division.
–Field Level Media
