Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Blues hand Kings their worst loss of season
LOS ANGELES — The struggling St. Louis Blues got goals from seven players and routed the Los Angeles Kings 7-2 on Saturday, handing them their worst defeat of the season.
Robert Bortuzzo, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Brodziak and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues, who had lost nine of 10. Jake Allen made 40 saves.
The loss left Los Angeles one point back of Colorado for the second Western Conference wild card, and two points ahead of St. Louis. The Kings had not lost by more than four goals all season.
Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 29 saves before he was pulled after the second period. Jack Campbell stopped 14 of 17 shots in the third.
The Blues, shut out in their previous game against San Jose, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period.
Bortuzzo opened the scoring during a 4-on-4, scoring from long range when the puck skipped under Quick's pads. It was only Bortuzzo's second goal of the season.
St. Louis made it 2- 0 when Parayko came up with the puck during a scramble in front and whipped it past Quick for his sixth goal.
After the Kings pulled within one in the second, the Blues answered with two quick goals to take a 4-1 lead into the final period.
Doughty put Los Angeles on the board, redirecting a pass from Anze Kopitar past Allen to cut it to 2-1. It was Doughty's ninth of the season.
St. Louis then came back with two goals in a 2½-minute span.
After a Kings turnover, Pietrangelo knocked in a rebound for his 12th goal. Storming down center ice alone, Barbashev split two Los Angeles defenders and squeezed another shot under Quick's pads for his fifth goal.
After the Kings pulled Quick to start the third with Campbell, the Blues scored two quick goals to put the game away.
Tarasenko scored off a crossing pass from Schwartz 26 seconds into the period, and Brodziak scored on a backhanded 32 seconds later. Schwartz completed the scoring with his 20th goal.
FLYERS 2, JETS 1 While the Philadelphia Flyers couldn’t prevent Patrik Laine from scoring his 40th goal, they were able to stop everyone else and end their slide. Claude Giroux and Andrew MacDonald scored in the second period and the Flyers overcame Laine’s milestone in a victory over the Winnipeg Jets that snapped a five-game losing streak. Laine moved into a tie with Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for the most goals in the league when he scored on a one-timer on the power play at 8:58 of the third period. The 19-yearold Finn has 15 goals and six assists during an 11-game point streak.
CAPITALS 2, SHARKS 0 Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves for his fifth career shutout and Nicklas Backstrom scored late in the second period to help the Washington Capitals salvage the final game of their California swing with a victory over the San Jose Sharks. Washington was outscored 7-1 in losses to Anaheim and Los Angeles to open the trip before a narrow win in San Jose moved the Capitals one point ahead of Pittsburgh for first place in the Metropolitan Division, pending the Penguins’ game in Toronto. Alex Ovechkin, two goals short of 600 for Washington, was held scoreless for the third straight game. Marc-Edouard Vlasic thwarted one chance for Ovechkin to get goal No. 599 with a strong back check and goalie Martin Jones robbed Ovechkin on a partial breakaway midway through the third period to keep San Jose’s deficit at 1-0. Lars Eller’s empty-net goal sealed the win for the Capitals. The Sharks were unable to get anything past Grubauer and fell to 3-2 on their six-game homestand. San Jose failed on two power-play chances, falling to 1 for 32 with the man advantage over the past 14 games..
AVALANCHE 5, COYOTES 2 Blake Comeau and Carl Soderberg each had a goal and an assist in a first-period burst, goaltender Jonathan Bernier won his ninth straight home game but left in the third period for an undisclosed reason and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Arizona Coyotes. Tyson Barrie also scored early as Colorado had three goals in the opening 4:22 to take a 3-1 advantage. The Avalanche rode the torrid start to another win at the Pepsi Center, where they’ve gone 14-1-1 since Dec. 29. Tyson Jost and Mikko Rantanen scored in the third to seal the win and help Colorado snap a streak of three straight overtime losses. The team remains in the thick of the playoff chase a season after finishing last in the league. LIGHTNING 3, CANADIENS 2, SO Nikita Kucherov scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of the shootout to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a victory against the Montreal Canadiens. Tyler Johnson scored his 20th of the season. Kucherov tied it late in the third with his 34th goal of the season. Louis Domingue made 27 saves and stopped three of four shooters in the shootout. Brayden Point also scored in the shootout for Tampa Bay, his 10th conversion in 15 career shootout attempts. Artturi Lehkonen and Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal. Charles Hudon set a career high with two assists. Antti Niemi finished with 32 saves, including all three in overtime.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2, SABRES 1, SO Erik Haula scored the decisive shootout goal and the Vegas Golden Knights set an NHL record for road victories by an expansion team following a win over the Buffalo Sabres. Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland forced overtime by scoring the tying goal from a bad angle with 4:14 left in regulation. Marc-Andre Fleury won his 399th career game by stopping 31 shots through overtime. After both teams traded shootout goals, Haula scored in the fifth round by driving up the right side and beating goalie Robin Lehner on the short side. Justin Bailey scored for Buffalo. Lehner finished with 31 saves in the loss.
BRUINS 7, BLACKHAWKS 4 Brian Gionta and Rick Nash each scored a power-play goal and the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks to complete a 6- 0 homestand. Their goals came during a double-minor penalty on Chicago’s Patrick Kane. Jake DeBrusk set up two power-play goals by David Krejci. David Pastrnak scored, Noel Acciari had a shorthanded tally and Sean Kuraly added an empty-netter for Boston. Tuukka Rask made 23 saves on his 31st birthday. Erik Gustafsson had a goal and two assists, and Jonathan Toews, John Hayden and Matthew Highmore scored for Chicago, which lost for the fifth time in seven games. Highmore’s was his first in the NHL. Gionta, the captain of the U.S. team at the Seoul Olympics, scored the goahead goal 8:02 into the third by tapping in a rebound at the edge of the crease. Nash redirected a shot from the top of the crease 76 seconds later.