Matthews NHL-leading 50th goal leads Maple Leafs past Jets
>> Auston Matthews scored his NHLleading 50th goal of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 7-3 on Thursday night.
Matthews scored Toronto's sixth goal of the game into an empty net with 2:06 left in regulation. He moved past Leon Draisaitl (49 goals) of idle Edmonton for the league goal lead and became the first Maple Leafs player to reach the milestone since Dave Andreychuk scored 53 in 1993-94.
William Nylander had two power-play goals and an assist and Ilya Mikheyev scored short-handed and had a three-point game. Mark Giordano added a goal and an assist and John Tavares and Timothy Liljegren also scored Toronto, which got 20 saves from Erik Kallgren. Mitch Marner added three assists.
Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and an assist, Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny also scored for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie stopped 31 shots.
PANTHERS 4, BLACKHAWKS 0 >> Sergei Bobrovsky
stopped 37 shots for his third shutout of the season, leading Florida past Chicago.
Aleksander Barkov scored twice, Gustav Forsling had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Lomberg scored his fourth goal in three games as the Panthers won their 28th home game, a club record for a season.
Jonathan Huberdeau recorded his 71st assist, an NHL record for assists by a left winger. Huberdeau has 94 points, tied with Pavel Bure. He is closing in on the club record of 96 set by Barkov in the 201819
season.
The Panthers could clinch a playoff spot as early as Saturday.
Collin Delia stopped 40 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost their third straight game. HURRICANES 4, CANADIENS 0 >> Frederik Andersen made 32 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and Andrei Svechnikov scored twice as Carolina dominated Montreal.
Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen each had a goal and an assist as the Hurricanes stretched their points streak to six games with their third win in the last four outings. Svechnikov's second goal went into an empty net. Tony DeAngelo and Jaccob Slavin both assisted on two goals. Andersen faced 14 shots in the third period, when the Hurricanes killed off three penalties.
The Canadiens were blanked for the fifth time this season, the last coming on Dec. 30 in the same building against Carolina. Jake Allen stopped 40 shots for Montreal, which has won just once in its last six games (1-3-2).
BRUINS 8, DEVILS 1 >> Former Boston College captain Marc McLaughlin scored in his NHL debut, capping a five-goal second-period outburst that propelled Boston over New Jersey.
ISLANDERS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2>> Kyle Palmieri scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period to lift New York past Columbus.
PENGUINS 4, WILD 3, OT >> Evgeni Malkin scored 3:57 into overtime and Rickard Rakell had two goals as Pittsburgh halted Minnesota's seven-game winning streak.
Jake Guentzel added his 32nd goal of the season for Pittsburgh.