Smith stellar, but Flames falter
Josh Anderson scores in OT, Blue Jackets win 5th straight
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Josh Anderson scored two minutes into overtime to give the Columbus Blue Jackets their fifth straight win, 1-0 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.
Sergei Bobrovsky had 22 saves for Columbus in his third shutout this season and 22nd of his career. Mike Smith turned away 40 shots for Calgary.
The Jackets outshot Calgary 2-1 for much of the game. The Flames, however, dominated puck possession in the first 90 seconds of overtime before the Jackets pushed into the offensive zone.
Calgary’s T.J. Brodie sought to set up play from behind his own net, but the puck rolled off onto the stick of Nick Foligno, who sent it to Anderson for the game-winner.
PREDS 3, CANADIENS 2, SO NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored a pair of powerplay goals and Kyle Turris had the only goal in a shootout to lead Nashville over Montreal.
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves in regulation and overtime, then denied all three Montreal shootout attempts as Nashville won for the eighth time in nine games.
Jordie Benn and Joe Morrow scored for the Canadiens, who have lost their last five. Morrow’s goal evened the score with less than a minute left in the third period.
In the tiebreaker, Turris beat Antti Niemi with a wrist shot between the pads.
Benn scored the game’s first goal at 12:47 of the opening period. Skating through the slot, he took a pass from Charles Hudon and beat Rinne with a wrist shot to the stick side.
Forsberg tied it at 1 with a second remaining in the first.
CAPITALS 5, SENATORS 2 WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal in seven games, Jakub Vrana had two goals for the first time in his career and the Washington beat Ottawa.
Ovechkin’s 14th goal came in his first game this season as linemates with Nicklas Backstrom, who led the team in assists last season. Backstrom assisted on the play.
Evgeny Kuznetsov added a goal and two assists, and Alex Chiasson had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who have earned at least a point against the Senators in nine consecutive meetings.
Braden Holtby made 29 saves to help Washington avoid its first set of back-to-back home losses this season.
Ryan Dzingle scored on a secondperiod power play for Ottawa before the Senators failed to capitalize later in the period on a 5-on-3 advantage that lasted 76 seconds.
PANTHERS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1 SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Nick Bjugstad scored Florida’s only goal in regulation and the game-winning goal in a shootout as the Panthers beat Toronto. Bjugstad skated in and held the puck until Toronto goalie Frederick Andersen was sprawled out, then moved to his right and flipped in his goal during the fourth round of the shootout.
The Panthers won the tiebreaker 2-1 after Aleksander Barkov scored for Florida, and Patrick Marleau was successful for Toronto. Vincent Trocheck and Henrik Haapala had assists for the Panthers (8-11-2).
Nazem Kadri netted a goal for Toronto (14-8-1), assisted by Connor Brown and Marleau. Florida goalie Roberto Luongo and Andersen each made 42 saves.
OILERS 6, RED WINGS 2 DETROIT (AP) — Jujhar Khaira scored to break a 2-2 tie in the second period, and Edmonton went on to beat Detroit.
Edmonton halted a three-game losing streak, while the Wings lost their second straight.
Patrick Maroon, Darnell Nurse, Drake Caggiula, Jesse Puljujarvi and Mark Letestu also scored for the Oilers. Niklas Kronwall and Tomas Tatar scored for the Wings.