Lightning beat Hurricanes 6-3 for 7th straight victory
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Ryan Callahan scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning picked up their seventh straight win with a 6-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.
Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists and Tyler Johnson, Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Ryan McDonagh all scored for the Lightning, who scored four unanswered goals in the third period to erase a 3-2 deficit.
Victor Hedman had three assists and Louis Domingue stopped 25 of 28 shots for his 13th win in his past 14 starts. Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov became the first player to reach 120 points in a season since 2006-07 with his assist on Johnson’s first-period goal.
Nino Niederreiter, Dougie Hamilton and Jordan Staal scored for the Hurricanes. Staal’s short-handed, go-ahead goal in the second period came after he returned from hit to the head from Lightning center Yanni Gourde, who was given a match penalty and ejected.
Curtis McElhinney made 26 saves for the Hurricanes, who are in a race for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
MONTREAL (AP) — Carey Price stopped 27 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and Montreal beat New York to remain in the hunt for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Joel Armia, Shea Weber, Jonathan Drouin and Jordan Weal also scored for the Canadiens (39-28-7), who won their second straight after dropping two in a row.
Thomas Greiss gave up four goals on 22 shots for the Islanders (42-25-7) before being pulled in the second period. Robin Lehner made 12 saves in relief.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Patrice Bergeron scored twice and reached the 30-goal mark for the fifth time and streaking Boston beat injury-ravaged New Jersey to open a six-point lead over Toronto in the race for second place in the Atlantic Division.
David Pastrnak, Danton Heinen and David Backes also scored for the Bruins, who are 16-3-1 in their last 20 games. Tuukka Rask made 22 saves to improve to 18-2-3 in his last 23 games.
Drew Stafford scored for the Devils, ending a 34-game goal-scoring drought. Cory Schneider made 22 saves as New Jersey lost for the ninth time in 12 games (2-9-1).
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Aleksander Barkov scored two goals and Jonathan Huberdeau had three assists as Florida won for the first time in three games.
Mike Hoffman and MacKenzie Weegar also scored goals for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo made 32 saves and broke a five-game losing streak. Evgenii Dadonov added two assists.
Brad Richardson and Michael Grabner scored for the Coyotes, who lost their third straight. Darcy Kuemper stopped 18 shots.
