MacKinnon powers Avalanche past Blackhawks 5-2
CHICAGO (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Friday.
J.T. Compher added a goal and two assists for Colorado, which earned its second straight win. Cale Makar, Ryan Graves and Valeri Nichushkin also scored in the first of a home-and-home set.
Patrick Kane and Zack Smith scored for the Blackhawks, who have dropped four of five. Defenseman Duncan Keith left with a groin injury midway through the second period.
Pavel Francouz made 34 saves. The Avalanche scored on three of their first seven shots against Corey Crawford, who blocked 18 for the game.
BOSTON (AP) — David Krejci scored 1:40 into overtime, David Pastrnak scored his league-leading 24th goal and Boston earned its sixth straight win.
Krejci’s goal, his fifth of the season, came on a left-circle wrist shot against an out-of-position Henrik Lundqvist after Pastrnak created space with a deke in the right circle.
Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves for the Bruins. Boston matched its longest winning streak of the season and its longest point streak at 10 games (7-0-3).
Pavel Buchnevich and Filip Chytil scored for the Rangers, who had won three in a row. Lundqvist had 24 saves.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves for his second shutout, leading Winnipeg to its third consecutive win.
Neal Pionk had a power-play goal for the Jets, who improved to 10-2-1 this month with one game to play. Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor also scored, and Blake Wheeler had two assists.
John Gibson made 17 saves for the Ducks.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Martin Jones made 33 saves for San Jose, and Noah Gregor scored his first career NHL goal.
Logan Couture, Patrick Marleau and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored to help San Jose rebound from a lackluster effort Wednesday night against Winnipeg.
The Sharks beat the Kings for the second time in five days. But unlike Monday, when San Jose blew a 3-0 lead before winning in overtime, the Sharks kept the pressure up in the rematch.
Kyle Clifford scored for Los Angeles with 1:49 left. Jonathan Quick made 18 stops.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Defenseman Jared Spurgeon had a goal and two assists, and Minnesota scored three goals in a 4:13 span of the second period.
The Wild had their highest-scoring game of the season, beating the Senators for the eighth straight time since November 2016. It was the first time Minnesota scored seven goals since a Dec. 11, 2018, victory over Montreal.
Alex Stalock made 33 saves to improve to 6-3-2 as starter Devan Dubnyk takes more family leave to deal with his wife’s undiagnosed illness.
Brady Tkachuk and Nick Paul scored for Ottawa, which dropped the opener of a five-game trip for its third consecutive loss. Anders Nilsson made 28 stops.
SABRES 6, MAPLE LEAFS 4
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Jack Eichel had two goals and an assist, powering Buffalo to the victory.
Jimmy Vesey, Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and Victor Olofsson also scored for the Sabres. Linus Ullmark made 25 saves.
The high-scoring game was the first half of a home-and-home series. The sides meet again Saturday night in Toronto.
John Tavares had two goals for the Maple Leafs, and Dmytro Timashov and Kasperi Kapanen also scored. Michael Hutchinson made 30 saves.
It was Toronto’s first loss under new coach Sheldon Keefe, who replaced Mike Babcock on Nov. 20.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton each had a goal and an assist, and Philadelphia earned its third straight victory.
Kevin Hayes, Oskar Lindblom, Shayne Gostisbehere and James van Riemsdyk also scored. The Flyers haven’t lost in regulation during the regular season to Detroit since Jan. 25, 1997, going 16-0-1 over that stretch.
Robby Fabbri scored for the slumping Red Wings. They have lost eight in a row to drop to an NHL-worst 7-18-3.
