Lowly Rangers tame Panthers
Mats Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad each scored twice and the Rangers snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory against the Florida Panthers last night in New York.
Kevin Hayes also scored, Neal Pionk added two assists and Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves for New York, which collected its third win of the season.
Vincent Trocheck and Mike Hoffman each scored their third goals of the season, and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists for the Panthers, who fell to 1-3-3 despite holding the lead in each game.
Georgiev earned his first win of the season in his second appearance. The Russian netminder earned the backup job with an impressive 11-game run at the finish of the 2017-18 season.
Michael Hutchinson stopped 15 shots in his fourth game for Florida.
The Rangers benefited from strong special teams play, registering two powerplay goals and a shorthanded goal.
Stars 4, Kings 2 —
Jason Spezza and John Klingberg each had a goal and an assist, and host Dallas snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Los Angeles.
Blake Comeau and Tyler Pitlick scored their first goals of the season. Eight Dallas players had at least one point; Devin Shore finished with two assists. Ben Bishop made 31 saves for Dallas, which never trailed.
Anze Kopitar and Tyler Toffoli scored second-period goals for the Kings, who lost their fifth straight. Jonathan Quick stopped 19 shots for Los Angeles.
Canadiens 3, Flames 2 —
Jeff Petry and Jonathan Drouin each had a goal and an assist and host Montreal beat Calgary for its fourth victory in five games.
Brendan Gallagher also scored for the Canadiens, who have lost once in eight games this season. Carey Price made 21 saves and tied Patrick Roy for second place in team history for most wins by a goaltender with 289.
Michael Frolik and Elias Lindholm scored for the Flames, and David Rittich made 37 saves.
Coyotes 4, Blue Jackets 1 —
Christian Fischer scored his first career hat trick, Darcy Kuemper stopped 35 shots and Arizona rallied to beat host Columbus.
Fischer scored in all three periods to help the Coyotes beat Columbus for the first time in the past seven tries dating to 2015. Derek Stepan got the primary assist on all three.
Dylan Strome also scored for Arizona as backup Kuemper got his first win of the season in two starts.
Pierre Luc-Dubois scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 22 saves in what was mostly a lackluster game for the Blue Jackets, even though they had 10 more shots on goal.
Columbus defenseman Seth Jones made his season debut after spraining a medial collateral ligament in his right knee on Sept. 25. He was expected to miss up to six weeks but made it back in less than a month. He logged four shots on goal.
Blackhawks 3, Ducks 1 —
Patrick Kane scored in the third period, Corey Crawford made 24 saves and host Chicago handed Anaheim its third straight loss.
Brandon Saad also scored his first two goals of the season, helping Chicago improve to 1-1 on a threegame homestand.
The game was tied at 1 when Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson made a terrific play, slapping a pass to a wide-open Kane in the right circle. Kane converted the easy one-timer for his team-high eighth goal with 12:13 left.
Sharks 5, Predators 4 —
Brent Burns scored with 2:52 remaining to cap a rally from a late two-goal deficit, and San Jose won in Nashville.
The Sharks cooled off the NHL’s hottest team, ending the Predators’ five-game winning streak.
Burns’ one-timer from the left faceoff circle beat Juuse Saros high to the glove side. Joe Pavelski tied it at 4 when he scored with 7:44 remaining after Brenden Dillon’s shorthanded goal narrowed Nashville’s lead to 4-3 with 8:20 left.
Elsewhere in the NHL —
The New Jersey Devils have placed defenseman Ben Lovejoy and forward Drew
Stafford on injured reserve. The team recalled defenseman Eric Gryba and forward John Quenneville from the AHL.Lovejoy sustained a lower-body injury against Colorado on Thursday and missed Saturday’s game at Philadelphia.