Sharks take another bite out of Canucks’ season
SAN JOSE, California — Brent Burns and Chris Tierney each had a goal and an assist, and the San Jose Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 on Thursday for their third win in four games.
Mikkel Boedker and Marcus Sorensen also scored for the Sharks, who improved to 3-0-1 against the Canucks this season. Martin Jones stopped 29 shots.
Daniel Sedin scored for the Canucks, who lost their sixth in seven games. Anders Nilsson made 40 stops.
Boedker scored at 8:41 of the first period, picking up a soft rebound from Tierney’s shot.
Burns scored his 10th goal, tops among NHL defencemen, taking a pass from Joakim Ryan and sending a laser shot into the net just under five minutes into the second.
Sorensen scored his first goal since Dec. 23, punching it in with an assist from Justin Braun at 3:06 into the third. MarcEdouard Vlasic had an assist in his third straight game, getting the second assist on Sorensen’s goal.
Sedin scored at 6:43, taking a nice pass from Thomas Vanek that gave him clear shot into the net.
It was Sedin’s 14th goal, one shy of his total last season.
Coyotes 5 Canadiens 2
GLENDALE, Arizona — Brendan Perlini scored twice in a 19-second span in the second period, and the Arizona Coyotes stayed hot with their third victory in a row and fourth in five games, 5-2 over the Montreal Canadiens.
Perlini scored his first two goals since a four-game streak from Jan. 18-25. Tobias Rieder had a goal and assist in the third period to help the Coyotes hold off a late Montreal rally.
Clayton Keller had a goal and three assists, and Antti Raanta made 34 saves for the Coyotes. The have earned points in five straight games.
The Canadiens, on the second night of a back-to-back after playing at Colorado on Wednesday, lost their fourth straight. Brendan Gallagher scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season.
Flames 4 Predators 3
NASHVILLE — If the Flames were weary at the end of their long trip, it didn’t show against the Predators.
Matthew Tkachuk and Dougie Hamilton each had a goal and an assist in Calgary’s 4-3 victory over Nashville.
Mark Jankowski and Curtis Lazar also scored, and David Rittich made 29 saves. The Flames won two of their last three to finish 4-2 on their longest trip of the season.
“A little cliché-ish, but the big battle cry in there today was: ‘Who can do it the hardest the longest?’ ” Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I thought our guys did that tonight.”
Ryan Johansen, Yannick Weber and Nick Bonino scored for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne made 27 saves. The Predators had won two in a row, and Rinne was 10-0-1 in his previous 11.
“We’re not working hard enough, I don’t know what else to say,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “The stretches that aren’t going our way are the stretches that we’re getting outplayed.”