100th win for Bernier as Ducks stop Blackhawks
>> CHICAGO: Jonathan Bernier made 43 saves for his 100th NHL win as the Anaheim Ducks cooled off the Chicago Blackhawks with a 1-0 victory on Thursday night.
Corey Perry scored in the second period as Anaheim ended Chicago’s seven-game winning streak despite being outshot 43-26 on the night.
Corey Crawford stopped 25 shots for the Blackhawks. They lost for the second time in their past 14.
Bernier’s second shut-out this season and 14th of his career helped the Ducks pull ahead of idle Edmonton for second place in the Pacific Division. Bernier made his sixth straight start with John Gibson sidelined by a lower-body injury.
Perry stopped a 10-game scoring drought with his 12th goal at 17:44. He hadn’t connected since scoring twice on Feb 9 at Buffalo.
SHARKS 4, CAPITALS 2
In San Jose, Logan Couture scored two power-play goals as San Jose beat Washington in a matchup of division leaders.
Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski also scored for the Sharks, who have won five of their past six games. Jannik Hansen, acquired in a Feb 28 trade with Vancouver, appeared in his first game with the Sharks and recorded the first assist on Thornton’s goal.
Daniel Winnick and Brett Connolly scored for the Capitals, who lost their second straight since winning five of six.
Martin Jones had 25 saves for the Sharks. Braden Holtby stopped 20 shots for Washington.
LIGHTNING 4, WILD 1
In Tampa, Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, the first on a power play less than seven minutes into the game, helping Tampa Bay beat Minnesota.
Kucherov assisted a goal by Andrej Sustr, giving him nine goals and eight assists in his past eight games. Victor Hedman also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves. Vasilevskiy is 4-0-1 since the trade of Ben Bishop to Los Angeles, and the Lightning are 9-2-3 in their past 14 games.
Marco Scandella scored for Minnesota with 3:58 remaining, only the Wild’s second goal in regulation time in their last three games. Western Conference-leading Minnesota has lost three of four for the first time since early December. The loss also broke the Wild’s streak of 10 straight wins after a loss.
FLAMES 5, CANADIENS 0
In Calgary, Brian Elliott had 24 saves for his first shut-out of the season while Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and three assists as Calgary beat Montreal for its eighth consecutive victory.
Gaudreau has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) during the Flames’ streak. It’s the longest streak for Calgary since they also won eight in a row in November 2005.
Mark Giordano, Sean Monahan, Michael Stone and Micheal Ferland also scored.
Montreal had won six in a row.