Oilers rally for win at Boston despite injury to McDavid
The Edmonton Oilers escaped a scare when NHL scoring leader Connor McDavid limped off the ice late in Thursday night’s 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins, minutes after Darnell Nurse scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:49 remaining.
McDavid struggled to the bench after a knee-on-knee collision with teammate Derek Ryan. But the twotime NHL MVP returned to help the Oilers hold on when Boston pulled goalie Jeremy Swayman for an extra skater in the final minutes.
Boston led 2-0 after one, but Evan Bouchard scored in the second and Ryan McLeod tied it six minutes into the third. Stuart Skinner made 26 saves to snap Boston’s 10-game winning streak and deprive the Bruins of a chance to be the first team in the league to clinch a playoff berth.
Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak scored, and Swayman stopped 19 shots for the Bruins, who could have set an NHL record as the fastest-ever to 50 wins. HURRICANES 1, FLYERS 0 » Pyotr Kochetkov returned from the minor leagues and made 19 saves as Carolina blanked visiting Philadelphia. Andrei Svechnikov scored an early power-play goal and that was enough for the Hurricanes, who have won four games in a row and nine of their last 11. Kochetkov was recalled from Chicago of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis for his first NHL action since Jan. 15 after goalie Antti Raanta suffered an injury Tuesday night at Montreal.
DEVILS 3, CAPITALS 2, SO » Erik Haula and Dawson Mercer scored 37 seconds apart, trade deadline pickup Timo Meier had the shootout winner and New Jersey beat fading Washington to keep pace in the Metropolitan Division playoff race. Akira Schmid made 20 saves in regulation and overtime and was a perfect 4 of 4 in the shootout to pick up his seventh win in 10 starts this season. Washington has lost nine of 12 around the team’s first trade deadline selloff in more than a decade.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, LIGHTNING 3, OT » Alex Martinez scored 3:09 into overtime as Vegas won at Tampa Bay for the seventh time in 10 games since entering the NHL for the 2017-18 season Jack Eichel’s shot from the slot was stopped by Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, but the puck slipped through his pads and sat in the crease as Martinez dove and poked it into the open net for the win. STARS 10, SABRES 4 » Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists, Radek Faksa scored twice and Central Divisionleading Dallas enjoyed its best offensive output in 14 years with a win at Buffalo. The Stars improved to 5-1-1 in their past seven and 4-0-1 in their past five road games. RANGERS 4, CANADIENS 3, SO
WESTERN CONFERENCE
PACIFIC DIVISION
Vegas Kings Seattle Edmonton Calgary Vancouver Ducks
San Jose
CENTRAL DIVISION
Dallas Minnesota Colorado Winnipeg Nashville St. Louis Arizona Chicago
GP W
65 39 66 38 65 37 66 36 65 29 64 27 65 21 66 19
GP W
65 65 63 65 62 64 65 64 35 37 35 36 31 28 23 22
L OT Pts GF GA
20 20 22 22 23 32 35 35 6 8 6 8 13 5 9 12 84 208 182 84 227 219 80 229 207 80 254 221 71 203 201 59 217 251 51 165 265 50 191 252
L OT Pts GF GA
17 21 22 26 24 31 32 37 13 7 6 3 7 5 10 5
EASTERN CONFERENCE
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Boston Toronto Tampa Bay Florida Ottawa Buffalo Detroit Montreal
METROPOLITAN DIVISION
Carolina
New Jersey N.Y. Rangers N.Y. Islanders Pittsburgh Washington Philadelphia Columbus
GP W
63 64 65 65 64 64 64 65
GP W
63 64 64 67 64 66 65 64
Thursday’s results
Kings 5, Colorado 2
Carolina 1, Philadelphia 0
N.Y. Islanders 4, Pittsburgh 3, OT Dallas 10, Buffalo 4
N.Y. Rangers 4, Montreal 3, SO Vegas 4, Tampa Bay 3, OT
New Jersey 3, Washington 2, SO Edmonton 3, Boston 2
St. Louis 4, San Jose 2
Arizona 4, Nashville 1
Ottawa 5, Seattle 4
Today’s games
L OT Pts GF GA
Chicago at Florida, 4 p.m. Ducks at Calgary, 6 p.m.
Saturday’s games
49 39 38 32 33 32 29 26 43 42 36 34 32 31 24 20 83 225 175 81 186 171 76 203 179 75 202 183 69 179 184 61 197 235 56 181 230 49 161 229
L OT Pts GF GA
9 17 21 27 27 28 26 33 12 16 19 25 22 28 30 37 5 103 239 135 8 86 216 171 6 82 228 202 6 70 221 218 4 70 204 202 4 68 237 234 9 67 192 211 6 58 179 233 8 6 9 8 10 7 11 7 94 217 158 90 229 176 81 213 182 76 195 182 74 209 207 69 203 199 59 168 212 47 167 239
Detroit at Boston, 10 a.m.
Philadelphia at Pittsburgh, 12:30 p.m. N.Y. Rangers at Buffalo, 2 p.m.
Arizona at Colorado, 3 p.m.
Chicago at Tampa Bay, 4 p.m. Edmonton at Toronto, 4 p.m.
New Jersey at Montreal, 4 p.m.
St. Louis at Columbus, 4 p.m.
Vegas at Carolina, 4 p.m.
Winnipeg at Florida, 4 p.m.
Washington at N.Y. Islanders, 4:30 p.m. Dallas at Seattle, 7 p.m.
Ottawa at Vancouver, 7 p.m. Minnesota at San Jose, 7:30 p.m. Nashville at Kings, 7:30 p.m.
» Mika Zibanejad scored the shootout winner, giving New York the victory at Montreal.
Patrick Kane scored his first goal with the Rangers and Alexis Lafreniere and Jacob Trouba added goals in regulation. Artemi Panarin finished with three assists. Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves as New York snapped a two-game losing streak.
OT » Brock Nelson scored on a breakaway in overtime and New York rallied to win at Pittsburgh. Nelson beat Tristan Jarry to the blocker side at 2:13 of the extra period as the Islanders — who trailed 3-1 late in the third — swept the season series against the Penguins for the first time in franchise history.
COYOTES 4, PREDATORS 1 » Rookie Ivan Prosvetov stopped 39 shots, Brett Ritchie scored in his Arizona debut and the host Coyotes beat Nashville.
BLUES 4, SHARKS 2 » Jakub Vrana scored his first goal with St. Louis and highlighted the Blues’ victory over visiting San Jose.