Pominville empowers Sabres in OT victory
Jason Pominville scored on a power play at 1:26 of overtime to give the Buffalo Sabres a 2-1 victory against the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning last night in Tampa.
Pominville beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a onetimer from the left circle to give the Sabres their second straight victory over the Lightning.
Evan Rodrigues tied it for Buffalo in the third, and Chad Johnson stopped 21 shots.
Cory Conacher scored for Tampa Bay, and Vasilevskiy made 32 saves. With a point in the standings for the overtime loss, the Lightning became the first team to reach 90 points this season.
J.T. Miller, acquired from the New York Rangers ahead of Monday’s deadline, played 17:40 in his Lightning debut.
With NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov out with an undisclosed upper-body injury, the Lightning struggled to generate offensive chances and finished with 17 shots on goal while at even strength.
The gold medal-winning U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team was honored before the game. The team held residency camp in nearby Wesley Chapel, Fla.
Canadiens 3, Islanders 1 — Jonathan Drouin and Nikita Scherbak scored in the second period and host Montreal beat New York to extend its points streak to five games.
Paul Byron also scored and Antti Niemi made 27 saves to help the Canadiens improve to 2-0-3 in their last five.
Mathew Barzal scored his 18th of the season for the Islanders. New York is winless in the last four games and is 4-8-2 in the last 14.
Montreal coach Claude Julien said goalie Carey Price, who is recovering from a concussion, will not accompany the team for the rematch in New York on Friday.
Blues 2, Red Wings 1 — Carter Hutton made 35 saves, Scottie Upshall and Alex Pietrangelo scored and St. Louis snapped a seven-game losing streak with the win against visiting Detroit.
The Blues won for the first time since beating Winnipeg on Feb. 9. Hutton improved to 6-2-1 in his last nine starts and 167-2 overall, allowing only Andreas Athanasiou’s goal with 1:45 left.
Avalanche 4, Flames 2 — In Denver, Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie each had a goal and an assist in Colorado’s victory against Calgary.
Matt Nieto and Nikita Zadorov also scored, and Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves. The Avalanche have won 11 of 12 home games to tighten the Western Conference playoff race.
Colorado tied Calgary with 73 points and moved within a point of Anaheim and St. Louis for the second wild card.
Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik scored, and David Rittich stopped 29 shots for Calgary, which couldn’t rally with its leading scorer out for the last 11:55.
Rangers 6, Canucks 5 — John Gilmour scored 1:22 into overtime and visiting New York held off a comeback attempt by Vancou- ver.
Ryan Spooner, traded to the Rangers by the Bruins on Sunday, had three assists, including one on Gilmour’s game-winner. That goal came after Brock Boeser tied it for the Canucks with 46 seconds left.
Kevin Hayes scored twice and Vlaidislav Namestnikov, also ac- quired at the deadline in the blockbuster deal with Tampa Bay, added a goal
Elsewhere in the NHL — Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal and his wife, Heather, announced through the team that their infant daughter died Sunday of a terminal birth defect. Staal missed Tuesday night’s road game against the Bruins but returned to practice yesterday and is expected to play tonight in Philadelphia . . . .
The Vancouver Canucks signed defenseman Alex Biega to a two-year, $1.65 million extension.