Cale Makar scored the tiebreaking goal with 40.1 seconds left in regulation, and the Colorado Avalanche extended their point streak to 14 with a stunning 2-1 victory over the visiting St. Louis Blues on Saturday night in Denver.
After St. Louis failed to clear the puck out of its own zone, Makar picked it up off the board and drilled a slap shot that deflected off the stick of St. Louis’ Jaden Schwartz and found its way past Blues rookie netminder Ville Husso (32 saves) to break a 1-1 tie.
Nathan MacKinnon, who scored twice in Friday’s 3-2 victory over St. Louis, had another goal, and Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves for the West Division-leading Avs, who are amid a 12-0-2 stretch — the second-longest point streak in club history. Colorado is also 11-0-1 in its last 12 at home.
Ryan O’Reilly scored for St. Louis, which is mired in a season-high 0-5-1 rut, and has dropped four straight on the road.
Lightning 2, Red Wings 1
Brayden Point and Ross Colton each scored for the second consecutive game as Tampa Bay continued its mastery of Detroit on home ice.
In collecting its league-leading 26th win, Tampa Bay stretched its winning streak over the Red Wings at Amalie Arena in Tampa to 17 straight — the longest active home streak by any team over one opponent.
The NHL record is 25 consecutive home victories set by Anaheim against Calgary from 2004 to 2017.
Sabers 3, Rangers 2 (SO)
Tage Thompson scored the game-winning goal in the second round of the shootout and host Buffalo completed its comeback over New York, despite two goals from Artemi Panarin.
Buffalo won for the second time in three games following its 18-game losing skid (0-15-3). Thompson scored the only goal of the shootout when he slowed down as he approached the crease and lifted a wrist shot over Igor Shesterkin (27 saves) just inside the left post.
Linus Ullmark (28 saves) made a glove stop on Panarin in the first round and a diving pad save on Mika Zibanejad in the second round. The game ended when New York’s Kaapo Kakko lost control of the puck before releasing a shot in the third round of the shootout. The Sabres’ Victor Olafsson forced overtime when he scored with 3:41 remaining in regulation.
Islanders 3, Flyers 2 (SO)
Mathew Barzal scored the lone goal of the shootout for New York, which squandered a two-goal, third-period lead before edging Philadelphia in Uniondale, N.Y.
Goalies Ilya Sorokin (30 saves) and Carter Hart (22 saves) kept the first four combined shooters out of the net before Barzal descended upon Hart and shuffled the puck several times before he sent a shot over Hart’s pads. Sorokin then turned back Jakub Voracek to seal the win for the Islanders, who tied Washington for first in the East Division.
Anthony Beauvillier scored both regulation goals for the Islanders, and Claude Giroux scored twice in the third period for the Flyers, who lost for the sixth time in eight games (2-4-2) and fell four points behind the Boston Bruins in the race for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East.
Wild 2, Golden Knights 1
Third-period goals 55 seconds apart by Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek gave visiting Minnesota a comeback victory over Vegas.
Goaltender Cam Talbot made 27 saves for the Wild, who not only beat the Golden Knights in consecutive clashes in Vegas, but also moved within two points of Vegas for the second spot in the West Division.
Minnesota has won four of the six meetings between the teams this season, and four of seven overall, while Talbot has been outstanding in the last month, posting a 7-1-1 record in his last nine starts. Tomas Nosek scored in the first period for Vegas, while goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots.
Senators 6, Canadiens 3
Evgenii Dadonov scored twice as Ottawa defeated host Montreal to split a home-and-home series.
Brady Tkachuk, Connor Brown, Alex Formenton and Drake Batherson also scored for the Senators, who lost 4-1 at home to the Canadiens on Thursday. Goaltender Anton Forsberg made 35 saves to post his first victory of the season in just his second appearance.
Ottawa, which is in last place in the North Division, has points in seven of its past eight games (4-1-3). Montreal’s Josh Anderson scored twice and Tyler Toffoli also tallied. Carey Price stopped 26 of 31 shots as the Canadiens lost for the first time in three games since a nine-day pause because of coronavirus concerns. Montreal’s six-game point streak (4-0-2) came to an end.
Bruins 7, Penguins 5
Brad Marchand had a hat trick plus an assist and Boston scored five times in the second period en route to a wild win over visiting Pittsburgh, ending the Penguins’ five-game winning streak.
David Pastrnak had two goals and an assist and David Krejci a goal and an assist. Craig Smith and Nick Ritchie had two assists each for the Bruins, who split consecutive games against Pittsburgh at TD Garden. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves.
Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel each had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh. Mark Jankowski had a goal and an assist. Jared McCann and Cody Ceci also scored. Casey DeSmith made 21 saves.
Predators 3, Blackhawks 0
Juuse Saros made 41 saves for his second shutout of the season and Colton Sissons scored on a penalty shot as Nashville continued its dominance of visiting Chicago.
Eeli Tolvanen opened the scoring and Luke Kunin added a late goal for the Predators, who have won nine of the past 11 and improved to 5-0-0 against Chicago this season. Despite seeing a large volume of shots, Saros didn’t need to play above his head while winning for the eighth time in his past 11 starts.
Saros, who has allowed fewer than three goals in all but one of those 11 contests, did come up with a pair of key saves early in the third period when Nashville killed off Chicago’s 5-on-3 advantage.
Panthers 5, Blue Jackets 2
Alex Wennberg got his first NHL hat trick and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 44 saves for host Florida in a victory over Columbus.
MacKenzie Weegar and Frank Vatrano also scored for the Panthers, while Bobrovsky was honored by the Panthers for playing in his 500th NHL game during the 2019-20 season.
Oliver Bjorkstrand and Zach Werenski both scored for the Blue Jackets in the loss.
Stars 3, Hurricanes 2
Tanner Kero scored early in the third period and Dallas defeated Carolina in Raleigh, N.C., for its first two-game winning streak in more than two months.
Andrew Cogliano and Jamie Benn also scored for Dallas. Mark Pysyk had his first assist of the season. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger made 41 saves. The Stars hadn’t won consecutive games since capturing the first four games of the season.
Dougie Hamilton and Haydn Fleury had the goals for Carolina. It was Fleury’s first point of the season, coming in the defenseman’s 32nd game. Alex Nedeljkovic of Carolina stopped 22 shots. Carolina had won its previous four meetings with Dallas this season.
Sharks 3, Kings 2
Dylan Gambrell scored with 4:37 left and visiting San Jose held on to defeat Los Angeles in a thriller.
Kevin Labanc and Evander Kane each had a goal and an assist, and Martin Jones made 35 saves in his second start in two nights for the Sharks, who moved within one point of the fourth-place Arizona Coyotes in the West Division.
Trevor Moore scored short-handed, Dustin Brown also scored and Jonathan Quick made 20 saves for the Kings, who have lost five of six.
–Field Level Media
