Dallas hangs on for wild escape from NY
Patrick Sharp scored twice, Jamie Benn and Patrick Eaves had a goal and two assists each and the Dallas Stars held on for a wild 7-6 victory over the Rangers last night in New York.
Cody Eakin had a goal and an assist, Antoine Roussel and Adam Cracknell also scored and the Stars won for the third time in nine games. Radek Faksa and Lauri Korpikoski each had two assists.
The Rangers trailed 7-3 after two periods and were booed leaving the ice for the intermission. New York then scored three times in a 4:15 span early in the third to pull within one.
Derek Stepan had two goals and an assist, Mika Zibanejad also scored twice and Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and two assists for the Rangers. Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist, Mats Zuccarello had three assists and Rick Nash had two helpers.
Antti Niemi made 22 saves on 28 shots for Dallas before being replaced in the third period by Kari Lehtonen, who finished with 12 saves.
New York’s Henrik Lundqvist gave up seven goals at Madison Square Garden for the first time in his career. He stopped 20 shots before being replaced to start the third by Magnus Hellberg.
Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 3 — Auston Matthews, Leo Komarov and Matt Martin each scored in a nine-minute span in the second period and host Toronto rallied to beat Buffalo for its 10th win in 13 games.
Kyle Okposo, Evander Kane and William Carrier each scored for Buffalo. Robin Lehner and Anders Nilsson allowed four goals combined on 32 shots.
Blue Jackets 4, Hurricanes 1 — Brandon Dubinsky ended a 17-game scoring drought with two goals, Boone Jenner had a goal and an assist and host Columbus beat Carolina.
Lukas Sedlak also scored for Columbus, and Ryan Murray and Cam Atkinson had a pair of assists each. All-Star Sergei Bobrovsky returned after missing the past three games because of illness and made 24 saves.
Devils 4, Wild 3 — In St. Paul, Minn., Beau Bennett scored with 2:17 remaining to lift New Jersey over Minnesota.
Pavel Zacha, Adam Henrique and Kyle Palmieri scored for New Jersey, which went 3-0-1 on its four-game road trip. Cory Schneider stopped 32 shots.
Senators 6, Blues 4 — Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone each scored twice as Ottawa beat host St. Louis.
Paul Stastny, Kevin Shattenkirk, Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund scored for the Blues.
Blackhawks 6, Avalanche 4— In Denver, Vinnie Hinostroza scored twice in the third period, including the go-ahead goal with 11:49 remaining, and Chicago rallied past Colorado.
Flames 5, Panthers 2 — Mikael Backlund scored twice in a 13-second span in the second period to break a tie and host Calgary beat Florida.
Ducks 2, Lightning 1 — Rickard Rakell scored a power-play goal off a faceoff 54 seconds into overtime, and surging Anaheim beat visiting Tampa Bay for its seventh win in nine games.
Canucks 1, Predators 0 — Henrik Sedin scored in the third period for his 999th NHL point, Ryan Miller made 30 saves and host Vancouver beat Nashville.
Elsewhere in the NHL — The struggling New York Islanders fired coach Jack Capuano, ending his tenure in the middle of its seventh season.
General manager Garth Snow named assistant GM/ coach Doug Weight as interim coach. Snow said the Islanders weren’t where they wanted to be in the standings.
The Islanders are 17-178 and in last place in the Eastern Conference with 42 points. The Islanders went 227-194-64 in seven seasons under Capuano, including back-to-back 100-point seasons, and made three playoff appearances. . . .
Nashville claimed defenseman Brad Hunt off waivers from St. Louis. The Predators assigned forward Kevin Fiala to AHL Milwaukee and placed defenseman Petter Granberg on injured reserve.