Lightning beat Senators 5-1 for 50th win of season
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist to help the Tampa Bay Lightning earn their 50th victory of the season in their 66th game by beating the Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Saturday night, tying the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings as the fastest teams in NHL history to reach the mark.
The Lightning got goals from four defensemen — Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Erik Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev — and set a franchise record with nine points overall from the defense.
Kucherov reached 75 assists on the season to become the first player since Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin in 2010-11 to record at least that many in a season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 shots for his 30th victory.
Anthony Duclair scored the lone goal for the Senators, who lost their seventh consecutive game a day after firing coach Guy Boucher and replacing him with Marc Crawford on an interim basis. Craig Anderson finished with 29 saves.
HURRICANES 4, PANTHERS 3, OT
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sebastian Aho scored at 1:46 of overtime and Carolina beat Florida for its fifth straight win.
Aho tipped in the puck from the edge of the crease for his team-leading 27th goal.
Brett Pesce, Greg McKegg and Brock McGinn also scored for the Hurricanes. Petr Mrazek stopped 31 shots, including three breakaways in overtime.
Henrik Borgstrom had two goals and an assist, and Mark Pysyk also scored for the Panthers. Sam Montembeault made 22 saves in his NHL debut.
BOSTON (AP) — Brad Marchand scored a power-play goal early in the opening period and Tuukka Rask made it stand up with 20 saves for his third shutout of the season.
The victory improved the Bruins‘ streak of at least one point in every game to 16 straight (12-0-4) and they haven’t lost in regulation since a 3-2 setback to the New York Rangers on Jan. 19. It’s their longest since 18 games (14-0-4) last season.
Rask is 14-0-3 in his last 17 starts.
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 29 shots for the Devils, including Marchand’s penalty shot. New Jersey has lost five of seven.
OILERS 4, BLUE JACKETS 0
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, Mikko Koskinen made 30 saves and Edmonton used a three-goal second period to pull away from Columbus.
Koskinen improved to 18-15-4 with his fourth career shutout — all this season.
Zack Kassian and Alex Chiasson also scored for the Oilers, who are 4-1-1 in their last six after a five-game losing streak. Connor McDavid had three assists.
Sergei Bobrovsky had 15 saves for Columbus before being pulled after two periods. Joonas Korpisalo stopped the five shots he faced.
KINGS 6, BLACKHAWKS 3
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist, and Los Angeles stopped a 10-game losing streak.
Dustin Brown scored twice for the Kings, who avoided tying the longest losing streak in team history, an 11-game slide from March 16-April 4, 2004. Ilya Kovalchuk and Brendan Leipsic each had a goal and an assist, and Sean Walker scored a power-play goal. Jonathan Quick made 29 saves.
Brendan Perlini scored twice for the Blackhawks, who have dropped three of four. Corey Crawford made 19 saves.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, SABRES 2
TORONTO (AP) — John Tavares had a goal and two assists, leading Toronto past Buffalo.
Mitch Marner also had a goal and two assists, and Morgan Rielly, Nic Petan and Nikita Zaitsev each scored as the Maple Leafs won for the fourth time in five games. Frederik Andersen made 35 saves.
Jason Pominville and Conor Sheary scored for Buffalo, and Linus Ullmark stopped 27 shots.
MONTREAL (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored two goals and had two assists and Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists to lead Pittsburgh.
Evgeni Malkin and Jared McCann also scored for Pittsburgh, and Matt Murray stopped 36 of 37 shots.
Brendan Gallagher scored the only goal for the Canadiens. Carey Price gave up four goals on 24 shots and remained one victory away from tying Jacques Plante’s franchise record with 314.
