Rinne gets shutout, Preds win franchise-best 9th straight
NASHVILLE — Pekka Rinne stopped 26 shots, Ryan Hartman scored at 5:33 of the third period and the Nashville Predators beat the Dallas Stars 2-0 Tuesday for a franchise-record ninth straight victory.
The Predators extended the NHL’s longest active winning streak. The defending Western Conference champs also padded their lead atop both the conference and the Central Division.
Rinne earned his seventh shutout this season, tying Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy for most in the NHL. Rinne now is 17-1-1 over his last 19 games.
Kari Lehtonen made 32 saves for Dallas. BRUINS 6, RED WINGS 5, OT BOSTON — Brad Marchand completed his hat trick 34 seconds into overtime and Boston escaped with the victory after twice squandering a two-goal lead in regulation.
It was a team-record 11th regularseason overtime goal for Marchand, who also had two assists.
Torey Krug had two goals and two assists, and David Pastrnak had three assists for the Bruins, who won for the fourth game in a row.
Anton Khudobin made 30 saves for Boston, which led 2-0 after 52 seconds and never trailed but needed overtime after Martin Frk made it 5-5 midway through the third.
Anthony Mantha had two goals and two assists for Detroit, which has lost four straight.
WILD 6, HURRICANES 2 ST. PAUL, Minn. — Eric Staal’s second goal of the night capped a franchise-record flurry to start the second period, and Minnesota cruised past Carolina.
Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for his fifth win in his last six starts, and the Wild raised their home record to an NHL-leading 24-5-6.
Nino Niederreiter, Zach Parise, Daniel Winnik and Staal scored in a span of 3:28, the fastest four-goal stretch in Wild history less than four minutes after the first intermission ended.
Staal, the second overall pick in the 2003 draft by the Hurricanes who spent 13 years with the club until a trade, has 64 goals in 149 games with the Wild.
JETS 3, RANGERS 0 NEW YORK — Patrik Laine got his fourth hat trick and set a career high with his 38th goal.
The 19-year-old star had been the youngest ever with three hat tricks — getting there at 18 years, 302 days — but it had been over a year since his last three-goal game. Laine is now two goals behind Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for the NHL lead.
Laine has at least a point in nine straight games (13 goals, six assists) and has scored multiple goals in four of his past five contests.
Steve Mason made 31 saves as the Jets extended their winning streak to three. Henrik Lundqvist made his 798th career appearance and stopped 31 shots as the Rangers lost for the first time in four games.
DEVILS 6, CANADIENS 4 NEWARK, N.J. — Taylor Hall extended his point-scoring streak to 19 games, Travis Zajac scored two power-play goals and New Jersey snapped a three-game skid.
Hall’s consecutive-points streak is the longest in the NHL this season. Hall, who had two assists, has recorded points in his last 26 appearances dating to Jan. 2. He missed three games before the AllStar break with a thumb injury during that span.
Jacob de la Rose scored twice for the Canadiens, who had picked up at least one point in their previous seven games (3-0-4). Brendan Gallagher and Byron Froese had the other goals.