Avalanche beat Lightning for fourth straight victory
DENVER — Ryan Johansen scored twice, Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.
Cale Makar added a goal and an assist, while Valeri Nichushkin sealed the win with an empty-netter. Makar now has 20 assists in November, moving the Avalanche defenseman one away from matching the most in a month in franchise history. Peter Stastny holds the mark with 21 assists in October 1983.
Nathan Mackinnon suited up despite being under the weather and missing the morning skate. He recorded two assists to become the third player in Colorado/ Quebec history to notch at least a point in each of the opening 10 home games to start the season.
Anthony Cirelli scored for the Lightning. They had a goal from Michael Eyssimont negated in the second period when the Avalanche challenged the play for offside.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots in his second game back. He missed the start of the season after undergoing microdiscectomy for a lumbar disc herniation. The Lightning plan to carefully manage the workload of the 2018-19 Vezina Trophy winner.
The short-handed Avalanche remain without forward Artturi Lehkonen
(upper body) and defenseman Samuel Girard (entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program). They dodged another potential scary injury with defenseman Josh Manson, who appeared to catch a skate near his chin while down on the ice. He later had a bandage on his face.
■ Blue Jackets 5, Bruins 2: At Columbus, Ohio, Yegor Chinakhov had a goal and an assist to hand Boston its third straight loss. Spencer Martin stopped 31 shots for Columbus, which has won three of its last four games.
■ Panthers 5, Senators 0: At Ottawa, Ontario, Sam Reinhart scored two goals to back Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 20 saves. Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist for Florida, which had dropped two in a row.
■ Sharks 2, Capitals 1: At San Jose, Calif., Luke Kunin scored his sixth goal of the season, matching a career best, set last season in 67 games played for San Jose.
■ Sabres 5, Rangers 1: At New York, Alex Tuch scored two goals to back UkkoPekka Luukkonen, who made 25 saves, Luukkonen has won three straight starts.