Columbus slips past Hurricanes

Brandon Dubinsky ended a 17-game scoring drought with two goals, Boone Jenner had a goal and an assist and the host Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, Tuesday night.

Lukas Sedlak also scored for Columbus, and Ryan Murray and Cam Atkinson had a pair of assists each. All-Star Sergei Bobrovsky returned after missing the past three games because of illness and made 24 saves.

The Blue Jackets got their third win in seven games since ending a 16-game streak and pulled even with Washington atop the unforgiving Metropolitan Division.

Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes, who ended a four-game winning streak. Cam Ward was pulled after allowing four goals on 19 shots, and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped all 17 shots in his first NHL appearance.

Carolina got on the board first with less than two minutes left in the first period when Aho took a pinpoint pass from Teuvo Teravainen just to the right of the net and knocked it past Bobrovsky.

That seemed to uncork the Blue Jackets, who answered with two goals in 35 seconds to close out the period.

First Jenner swept the puck in from 8 feet while skating across the front of the net. Then Dubinsky snapped one past Ward to make it 2-1 at the break.

Other games

Stars 7, Rangers 6: Patrick Sharp scored twice, Jamie Benn and Patrick Eaves had a goal each and Dallas held on for a victory in New York.

Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 3: Auston Matthews, Leo Komarov and Matt Martin each scored in the second period as Toronto rallied to beat visiting Buffalo.

Senators 6, Blues 4: Ottawa scored three times in the third period, two by Mark Stone, as the Senators beat host St. Louis.

Flames 5, Panthers 2: Mikael Backlund scored two goals in the second period as Calgary beat visiting Florida.

Blackhawks 6, Avalanche 4: Tanner Kero scored two goals to lead visiting Chicago to a win in Colorado.