Lightning get back to winning, stop Sabres
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves in his second shutout this season, and the Tampa Bay Lightning ended a two-game skid with a 2-0 victory against the Sabres last night in Buffalo.
Defenseman Dan Girardi and rookie Mikhail Sergachev had goals for the Lightning in the third of a four-game trip. The have the most points in the NHL (36) and visit the Bruins tonight.
Tampa Bay is off to the best start in franchise history (17-5-2) but had lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
Vasilevskiy leads the NHL with 16 wins and has six career shutouts in 101 starts.
Robin Lehner stopped 24 shots for the Sabres, who were held scoreless for the second straight game and have lost 9-of-10.
Sharks 3, Flyers 1 — Joe Thornton scored the goahead goal late in the first period, and visiting San Jose extended Philadelphia’s longest losing streak in nearly 10 years to nine games.
Chris Tierney and MarcEdouard Vlasic also scored, and Logan Couture had two assists for the Sharks, who began a four-game trip with their second straight win.
Claude Giroux scored 48 seconds in before the Flyers were blanked the rest of the way by backup Aaron Dell, who made 22 saves.
San Jose was without top goalie Martin Jones, who sustained an unspecified injury near the end of his shutout of Winnipeg on Saturday.
The Flyers are 0-4-5 since their last win, Nov.9 against Chicago. It’s the longest skid since an 0-8-2 stretch in February 2008.
Islanders 5, Canucks 2 — Calvin de Haan and Jordan Eberle scored goals one minute apart in the first period to spark host New York past Vancouver.
The Islanders remain the only team in the league not to have lost a game in regulation on home ice.
Vancouver dropped its third straight. Thomas Vanek and Bo Horvat scored, while Anders Nilsson stopped 31 shots.
Panthers 5, Rangers 4 — Denis Malgin scored with 1:09 left and Florida recovered after giving up two three-goal leads to beat host New York.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and an assist, and Aleksander Barkov, Jamie McGinn and Micheal Haley also scored for Florida. James Reimer finished with 33 saves.
Chris Kreider had two goals and an assist, Pavel Buchnevich added a goal and two assists, and J.T. Miller also scored for the Rangers, who snapped an eight-game winning streak at home and lost for just the third time in their last 13 games overall.
Blue Jackets 3, Hurricanes 2 — Cam Atkinson and Artemi Panarin scored in the shootout to lift host Columbus past Carolina.
Predators 3, Blackhawks 2— Pekka Rinne made 37 saves to lead host Nashville past Chicago. Filip Forsberg, Austin Watson and Roman Josi scored goals for the Predators, who have won 10-of-12.
Kings 4, Red Wings 1 — Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar scored 2:10 apart late in the second period to put Los Angeles ahead to stay in a victory against host Detroit.
Maple Leafs 4, Flames 1 — Roman Polak scored his first goal of the season and Frederik Andersen made 19 saves as visiting Toronto beat Calgary.
Oilers 3, Coyotes 2 — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored 4:20 into overtime as host Edmonton defeated Arizona.
Stars 3, Golden Knights 0 — In Las Vegas, Radek Faksa scored three goals and Ben Bishop registered his second shutout of the season, as Dallas defeated Vegas.
Elsewhere in the NHL — Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray is out indefinitely with a lowerbody injury after he left Monday night’s 5-4 overtime win against Philadelphia following a collision with Flyers forward Jakub Voracek. The team placed Murray on injured reserve, meaning he will be out at least seven days . . . .
The NHL fined Chicago Blackhawks right winger Patrick Kane $5,000 for slashing and Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct.