Byfuglien’s late goal lifts Jets
Dustin Byfuglien said everything he wanted to say during another win for Winnipeg. The veteran defenceman got his 500th career point when he snapped a tie with 6:45 left, helping the Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Friday night.
Winnipeg (7-3-1) won for the fourth time in five games. Kyle Connor scored in the second period, and Laurent Brossoit stopped 27 shots.
“I’m pleased to get a 2-1 road win and we don’t give anything up five-on-five. Our goalie was good and their goalie was outstanding at times,” coach Paul Maurice said. “It was a night you had to battle for every inch and we did a real good job of that.”
Byfuglien skated in from the point and beat Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard from the bottom of the right circle. Byfuglien did not talk to reporters after the game.
“He’s a great teammate. He brings a lot of energy. He keeps the mood light,” Brossoit said. “On the ice, he takes charge. He goes rover sometimes but it gives the other team a bit of unpredictability that they have to deal with.”
Howard got some of the shot but the puck dropped into the net.
“He came in, he got a good shot off, went off my shoulder actually,” Howard said. “But then it hit me in the side of the helmet and just dropped in.”
It was Byfuglien’s second goal of the season.
Andreas Athanasiou scored for Detroit (1-7-2). Howard had 38 saves.
“Good through the first and parts of the third but not very good in the second,” Howard said of his team’s play.
Red Wings defenceman Mike Green made his season debut after recovering from a virus that attacked his liver.
Connor tied it at 1 with a power-play goal with 3:46 remaining in the middle period. He backhanded a loose puck into an empty net from in front.
It was the fifth goal for Connor, who is a native of the Detroit suburb of Shelby Township.
“It was a good road win. We really came on in the second period and just stuck with it,” Connor said. “We kept playing the same game and we got rewarded.”
The Jets outshot the Red Wings 21-4 in the second. Howard stopped Bryan Little on a breakaway with 7:38 left and made a spectacular glove save on Little’s tip with 4:17 remaining in the period.
Athanasiou’s power-play goal gave Detroit a 1-0 lead with 4:33 left in the first. He converted a one-time slap shot from the top of the right circle. It was Athanasiou’s fourth goal and his second in two games.
Detroit’s Gustav Nyquist hit the crossbar early in the game and teammate Darren Helm hit a goal post on a short-handed rush with 2:25 remaining in the opening period.
LIGHTNING 3, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2
LAS VEGAS — J.T. Miller scored his third goal of the season, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves as Tampa Bay edged Las Vegas.
Tyler Johnson and Brayden Point also scored for Tampa Bay. The Lightning are 6-0-1 in their last seven to improve to 71-1.
Shea Theodore and William Karlsson scored for Vegas, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves.
HURRICANES 4, SHARKS 3, SO
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Brock McGinn scored in regulation and had the lone shootout goal in Carolina’s victory over San Jose.
Carolina outshot San Jose 23-6 from start of the second period to the midpoint of the third and finished with a 41-23 edge. It was the first time the Sharks had been outshot this season.
McGinn, Teuvo Teravainen and Dougie Hamilton scored for Carolina in the second period, and Teravainen assisted on Hamilton’s goal. Antti Suomela, Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks.
Petr Mrazek made 20 saves for Carolina, and Aaron Dell stopped 38 saves for San Jose.
AVALANCHE 6, SENATORS 3
DENVER — Gabriel Landeskog broke a tie with 13:46 remaining as part of Colorado’s four-goal third period to help Colorado beat Ottawa and spoil a twogoal performance from Matt Duchene in his return to Denver.
Landeskog gave Colorado the lead for good by knocking in his ninth goal of the season off a feed from Mikko Rantanen. Colorado outscored the Senators 6-1 after falling behind 2-0 midway through the first period.
Samuel Girard, Carl Soderberg, Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Nieto also scored for Colorado.
Colorado’s top line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantanen finished with a combined 10 points. Rantanen had three assists.
Ryan Dzingel scored the game’s first goal for Ottawa.