ice hockey

Wild hold off Isles for its 12th straight victory

Jonathan Marchessault #81 of the Florida Panthers takes a shot on Al Montoya #35 of the Montreal Canadiens

during a game at BB&T Center on Dec 29, in Sunrise, Florida. (AFP) WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Dec 30, (AP): Alexander Wennberg had two goals and Brandon Saad also scored, helping the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Thursday night to extend their franchise-record winning streak to 14 games.

Columbus has tied for the fourth longest winning streak ever in the NHL and is closing in on the record 17 set by Pittsburgh in 199293. The Jackets next play at Minnesota on Saturday night, and the Wild have won 12 straight, setting up the first meeting between clubs with such long streaks.

Nick Foligno and Lukas Sedlak also scored for Columbus, and Foligno and Zach Werenski each had a pair of assists.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for his 23rd win of the season.

Shawn Matthias, Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault scored for Winnipeg, and Michael Hutchinson turned aside 30 shots.

Wild 6, Islanders 4 In St Paul, Minn, Erik Haula scored midway through the third period to help Minnesota hold off New York for its 12th victory in a row.

Marco Scandella, Chris Stewart, Jared Spurgeon, Jordan Schroeder and Mikael Granlund also scored for Minnesota, which had a franchise-record three goals in 80 seconds in the second period.

The Wild’s Devan Dubnyk allowed more than three goals for the first time this season but made 23 saves to win his 10th straight start.

Rangers 6, Coyotes 3 In Glendale, Ariz, Matt Puempel got two of his three power-play goals late in the third period to help New York avert a collapse and beat Arizona.

Puempel scored 2:24 into the game for a 1-0 edge and New York built a 3-1 lead over the next 20 minutes. Arizona rallied to tie it on Tobias Rieder’s goal 7:32 into the third, but then Puempel made it 4-3 with a power-play score with 5:20 remaining.

After a goal by J.T. Miller with 26.7 seconds left made it 5-3, Puempel completed his hat trick with 16.7 seconds to go by redirecting a pass from Brandon Pirri.

Devils 2, Capitals 1, SO In Washington, Keith Kinkaid made 43 saves and stopped two attempts in the shootout, helping New Jersey beat Washington.

New Jersey’s backup goaltender was the best player on the ice for the entire game and cracked only on a short-handed goal by Daniel Winnik. Jacob Josefson returned from a five-game absence caused by a concussion to score the shootout winner.

PA Parenteau scored in the second period as the Devils snapped a sevengame skid against the Capitals. New Jersey beat Washington for the first time since Nov. 14, 2014.

Oilers 3, Kings 1 In Edmonton, Alberta, Eric Gryba broke a tie at 6:58 of the third period and Jordan Eberle had two assists in Edmonton’s victory over Los Angeles.

Patrick Maroon and Ryan NugentHopkins also scored for the Oilers. They are 4-0-1 in their last five and 19-12-6 overall.

Cam Talbot made 28 saves, allowing only Nick Shore’s goal. The Kings have dropped three straight to fall to 17-15-4.

Blackhawks 3, Predators 2 In Nashville, Tenn, Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist to lead Chicago over Nashville.

Artem Anisimov and Jonathan Toews also scored and Corey Crawford made 36 saves to help Chicago snap a threegame losing streak, the Blackhawks’ longest skid of the season.

Filip Forsberg and Mike Fisher scored for Nashville, and Ryan Johansen had two assists. The Predators have lost three straight.

Canadiens 3, Panthers 2, OT In Sunrise, Fla, Phillip Danault scored 39 seconds into overtime after Brendan Gallagher tied it late in the third period,

Kevin Hayes #13 of the New York Rangers attempts to control the puck ahead of Lawson Crouse #67 of the Arizona Coyotes during the second period of the NHL game at Gila River Arena on Dec 29, in

Glendale, Arizona. (AFP)

leading Montreal over Florida.

Gallagher ended a 13-game goal drought with 2:37 remaining when his shot from the right circle went over James Reimer’s glove, and then Danault came in on a breakaway and beat Reimer for his seventh goal of the season.

Max Pacioretty also scored for Montreal, and Al Montoya made 31 saves.

Ducks 3, Flames 1 In Calgary, Alberta, Jakob Silfverberg scored the go-ahead goal 5:37 into the third period to lead Anaheim over Calgary.

On a 2-on-1 with Andrew Cogliano, Silfverberg hung onto the puck and whipped a 40-foot wrist shot over Chad Johnson’s shoulder. Silfverberg has scored in three straight games.

Bruins 4, Sabres 2 In Buffalo, NY, Ryan Spooner scored twice in the final four minutes and Boston beat Buffalo.

Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci also scored in the opening game of a home-and-home series. Krejci also had an assist, and Tuukka Rask made 31 saves to help the Bruins snap a twogame losing streak.

Spooner broke a tie with 3:53 remaining. He took a cross-ice pass from Krejci and beat Robin Lehner with a straightaway slap shot. Spooner scored again into an empty net in the final minute.

Stars 4, Avalanche 2 In Dallas, Tyler Seguin had two goals and an assist and Dallas beat lowly Colorado for its first three-game winning streak of the season.

Seguin’s 12th goal of the season, a one-timer from the middle of the left circle on a pass from captain Jamie Benn, put the Stars up 2-0 in the first period. He added his 13th into an empty net in the closing seconds.

Seguin and Benn assisted on Jamie Oleksiak’s wrister from the right circle for a 3-1 lead early in the second period, right after Benn had a shot ricochet off the crossbar.

Red Wings 3, Senators 2, OT In Ottawa, Ontario, Anthony Mantha scored at 1:07 of overtime after Bobby Ryan’s turnover to give Detroit a victory over Ottawa.

The Senators retired Daniel Alfredsson’s No. 11 before the game. The 20,011 fans, making it the first sellout of the season, kept the celebration going as they cheered for their former captain and also a former Red Wing at the 11:11 mark of every period. Maple Leafs 3, Lightning 2, OT In Tampa, Fla, Nazem Kadri scored on a power play 3:37 into overtime to give Toronto a victory over Tampa Bay.

With Valtteri Filppula serving a penalty for goalie interference, Kadri beat Andrei Vasilevskiy from in-close.

Auston Matthews and Tyler Bozak also scored, and Antoine Bibeau stopped 25 shots in his second career NHL game and first victory. myself ‘I’ll finish my career quietly’. But it’s not my philosophy. I’m not mediocre, but a competitor, I want to win.

“I want to know what the club’s real ambitions are for the coming years.”

Parisse added that he hoped to end his career at Stade — “No one loves this club more than me”, but insisted that there had to be a core of senior players to lead the squad.

“The squad’s been shuffled but it hasn’t exploded, that’s the most important thing,” the Argentinian-born player told L’Equipe.

Parisse admitted that the club’s next three games, starting with a home match against Brive on Saturday, and followed by Toulouse and Grenoble, would be the “turning point of the season”.

Ex-All Black Cooper, capped seven times by New Zealand and who arrived at Stade at the season’s start as backs coach before being named in the head job for next season, said he was not “panicked” by the loss of senior players from his squad.

Top 14 leaders Clermont, who thumped Stade Francais 46-10 last time out, travel Saturday to Toulouse, who this week signed All Black prop Charlie Faumuina for the start of the next European season.

But Clermont will be without four big names, France internationals Camille Lopez, Damien Chouly, Scott Spedding and Noa Nakaitaci all handed an extra week’s holiday. Prop Aaron Jarvis, winger David Strettle and flanker Julien Bardy are also all out, injured.

Second-placed Montpellier are away at Pau while La Rochelle, in third, entertain Grenoble on Sunday.

The final game of the weekend pitches Toulon against Racing 92 in a battle for fourth spot.