San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Sharks: Couture scores twice in win in St. Louis
Logan Couture scored his second goal of the game midway through the third period, and the Sharks held off the Blues 54 on Saturday night in St. Louis.
After the Blues overcame deficits of 30 and 41 to tie it in a wild second period, Couture scored on a wrist shot with 8:09 left in the third. The puck deflected off goalie Jordan Binnington’s back and in. It was Couture’s teamleading ninth goal.
“I’m counted on to score goals and produce offensively,” Couture said. “I want to score and help our team. ”
The Sharks entered on an 071 run against the Blues dating to the 2019 playoffs.
Brayden Schenn, Zach Sanford, Ryan O’Reilly and Jordan Kyrou scored for St. Louis. The Sharks also got goals from Evander Kane, Rudolfs Balcers and Patrick Marleau.
“When you score five goals on the road, you don’t expect this much trouble,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “It’s easy to get rattled when you give up a threegoal lead. We just kept coming. We played a really good (third) period.”
Sharks goalie Devan Dubnyk, who had not started since Feb. 6, made 28 saves to improve to 131.
“We figured we’d make it exciting,” Dubnyk said. “It was disappointing to be 44, but we went and got it in the third period. There was desperation out there, and we worked extremely hard.”
Avalanche 3, Golden Knights 2: In a game at Lake Tahoe that featured an 8-hour, 8-minute intermission between the first and second periods, Nathan MacKinnon scored the goahead goal in the second as Colorado beat Vegas. The NHL paused the game, which began at noon, after the first period because the sun led to poor ice conditions that caused players and officials to fall. The league also moved Sunday’s Boston-Philadelphia game at Lake Tahoe from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Oilers 7, Flames 1: Connor McDavid had an assist on each of host Edmonton’s first two goals before scoring his team’s next three in a rout of Calgary. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added two goals and Mikko Koskinen made 43 saves for the Oilers.
Red Wings 2, Panthers 1: Mathias Brome scored his first NHL goal late in the second period and host Detroit held off Florida. Patrik Nemeth added his first goal of the season for the Red Wings, and Jonathan Bernier made 38 saves.
Wild 5, Ducks 1: Kevin Fiala had two goals and an assist, Kaapo Kahkonen made 26 saves and visiting Minnesota defeated Anaheim. Joel Eriksson Ek, Victor Rask and Mats Zuccarello also scored for the Wild. Anaheim lost its third straight game.
Penguins 3, Islanders 2: Sidney Crosby had two assists in his 1,000th NHL game for visiting Pittsburgh. Kris Letang scored twice, with a tiebreaking goal in the third, as the Pens won for the fourth time in five games.
Rangers 4, Capitals 1: Alexis Lafreniere scored his second NHL goal, Artemi Panarin had two assists and visiting New York made the best of a new-look lineup, beating Washington for its second consecutive victory. Lafreniere, the top pick in the 2020 draft, cashed in on his promotion to New York’s top line by scoring for the first time in eight games.
Predators 4, Blue Jackets 2: Calle Jarnkrok scored in the first and third periods, Pekka Rinne made 21 saves and visiting Nashville won. The game was tied 2-2 before the Predators scored twice in the first 45 seconds of the third period. Jarnkrok beat Elvis
Merzlikins from the slot 16 seconds in, and Filip Forsberg followed with his team-leading eighth goal.
Sabres 3, Devils 2: Sam Reinhart scored two goals and visiting Buffalo snapped a four-game losing streak. Kyle Palmieri and P.K. Subban scored in the third period for the Devils.
Hurricanes 4, Lightning 0: Rookie Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for first NHL shutout for host Carolina, which has won five of six.
Kings 4, Coyotes 2: Alex Iafallo scored two goals, Cal Peterson stopped 22 shots and visiting Los Angeles won its its fourth straight.
Maple Leafs 5, Canadiens 3: Auston Matthews scored twice to increase his NHL-best goals total to 18 and added two assists in host Toronto’s win. Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists as the NHL-leading Maple Leafs improved to 14-3-2.