Strome scores twice to lead Rangers to win over Sabres
Kane scores two power-play goals to help Sharks top Canadiens
NEW YORK — Ryan Strome scored his first two goals this season and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves as New York snapped a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
The Rangers have been struggling since opening the season with two wins, followed by five defeats — the most recent in overtime to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. Against the resurgent Sabres, who had eight wins in their first 10 games, the Rangers came out with pace and received goals from Artemi Panarin, Brett Howden and Strome in the opening period.
Panarin, who signed a seven-year $81.5 million free agent contract last July, started the scoring with an unassisted goal at 11:41. Panarin corralled a loose puck along the right boards before swooping in and beating Sabres goaltender Carter Hutton for his fifth goal of the season. Panarin has points in last three games and five of the team’s eight contests this season.
Howden made it 2-0 when he tapped the puck past Hutton at 14:32 for his second goal this season. Strome added to the lead with a tip-in at 19:22 with assists to defensemen Brady Skjei and Tony DeAngelo. Strome’s goal represented the 200th point of his NHL career. SHARKS 4, CANADIENS
2: In Montreal, Evander Kane scored two powerplay goals and San Jose
beat Montreal to snap a two-game losing streak.
Kevin Labanc and Melker Karlsson also scored for the Sharks, Tomas Hertl had three assists, and Aaron Dell made 34 saves. The Sharks have won nine straight games against Montreal dating to March. 21, 2015.
Nick Cousins and Joel Armia scored for the Canadiens. BLUE JACKETS 4, HURRICANES 3, OT: In Columbus, Ohio, Cam Atkinson scored 3:28 into overtime to lift Columbus past Carolina.
Atkinson tapped in a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois to give the Blue Jackets a second straight victory in a fourth consecutive overtime game. Ryan Murray, Alexander Texier and Sonny Milano also scored, and Joonas Korpisalo stopped 21 shots.
Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Dzingel and Sebastian Aho scored for Carolina, and Petr Mrazek made 27 saves. ISLANDERS 4, COYOTES 2: In Uniondale, N.Y., Anders Lee scored the winner and Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves to help New York beat Arizona for its fifth straight victory.
Derick Brassard, Josh Bailey and Scott Mayfield also scored for New York.
Michael Grabner and Conor Garland scored for Arizona. The Coyotes had won four in a row. FLYERS 4, BLACKHAWKS
1: In Chicago, Kevin Hayes scored after he lost a goal because of an offsides challenge in Philadelphia’s victory over Chicago.
Claude Giroux, James van Riemsdyk and Oskar Lindblom also scored for Philadelphia, which beat Chicago 4-3 in Prague in the season opener on Oct. 4. Brian Elliott made 23 saves in his second straight start.
Brandon Saad scored for Chicago.
PREDATORS 4, WILD 0: In Nashville, Tenn., Pekka Rinne made 26 saves, Colton Sissons had a goal and an assist and Nashville beat Minnesota.
Rinne improved to 6-0-1 with his first shutout of the season and 56th overall.
BLUES 5, KINGS 2: In St. Louis, Alex Pietrangelo and Robert Thomas scored in a two-minute span of the second period in St. Louis’ victory over Los Angeles.
Brayden Schenn scored twice, including an emptynetter, Vince Dunn also scored, and Jordan Binnington made 33 saves. Jeff Carter and Alex Iafallo scored for the Kings.
STARS 2, DUCKS 1: In Dallas, Denis Gurianov ended a personal scoring drought with two first-period goals, and Ben Bishop made 29 saves to help Dallas beat Anaheim.
Gurianov hadn’t scored in 26 games since his first NHL goal on Nov. 18, 2018.
Max Comtois scored for Anaheim.
FLAMES 6, PANTHERS 5, SO: In Calgary, Alberta, Matthew Tkachuk scored twice in regulation and again in the shootout as Calgary recovered from squandering three leads and beat Florida.
Sean Monahan also scored in the shootout for Calgary, which converted both tiebreaking attempts on Sergei Bobrovsky. David Rittich thwarted Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander
Barkov to secure the victory.
Austin Czarnik, Mark Giordano and Sam Bennett scored in regulation for Calgary.
Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Josh Brown, Evgenii Dadonov and Mark Pysyk scored for Florida.
OILERS 4, CAPITALS 3: In Edmonton, Alberta, Leon Draisaitl scored two goals, including one in overtime, and Edmonton erased a two-goal deficit to beat Washington.
The Oilers got a 3-on-1 in extra time and Connor McDavid set up Draisaitl for a goal 1:18 in, giving the Oilers a 5-0 record at home this season.