Shutout for Talbot as Oilers creep up
Cam Talbot made 33 saves for his sixth shutout of the season and the host Edmonton Oilers topped the Vancouver Canucks 2-0 on Saturday night.
Connor McDavid and Mark Letestu scored for the Oilers, who moved into third place in the Pacific Division. They are two points behind the second-place Ducks and six points back of the first-place Sharks.
“These are the games that are playoff hockey coming down the stretch, 1-0 and 2-0 games,” Talbot said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of showing that we can win these tight games, too.”
Capitals 5, Lightning 3: T.J. Oshie had three goals and an assist, Justin Williams and John Carlson had early third-period goals, and visiting Washington clinched a playoff spot. Oshie scored twice, including an early power-play goal, as the Capitals took a 2-0 lead midway through the first. He completed the hat trick with an emptynetter during the final minute.
Blackhawks 2, Maple Leafs 1: Ryan Hartman scored with 17 seconds left in overtime, John Hayden notched his first NHL goal, and Corey Crawford stopped 25 of 26 shots for visiting Chicago, which holds the top spot in the Western Conference.
Blues 3, Coyotes 0: Jake Allen stopped 31 shots for his fourth shutout of the season for visiting St. Louis. Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo and David Perron scored in the Blues’ seventh win in eight games. Phoenix failed to earn a point from a game for the first time since March 5. Blue Jackets 3, Islanders 2: Cam Atkinson delivered the winner for visiting Columbus 1 minute, 19 seconds into overtime. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson scored 14:48 apart in the second period for Columbus, which won for the seventh time in March.
Rangers 3, Wild 2: Oscar Lindberg had a goal and an assist and Antti Raanta made 25 saves for New York, which also got goals from Brady Skjei and Jimmy Vesey and is 7-1 in its past eight road games. Eric Staal and Matt Dumba scored for Minnesota. Canadiens 4, Senators 3: Paul Byron and Alexander Radulov scored in the shootout to give visiting Montreal a win in the first half of the teams’ home-and-home series. Andrew Shaw, Philip Danault and Brendan Gallagher scored in regulation for Montreal, which extended its lead in the Atlantic Division to two points over second-place Ottawa. Red Wings 5, Avalanche 1: Tomas Tatar scored twice, including the go-ahead goal early in the third period for host Detroit. Tatar gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead at 5:20 of the final period. Less than two minutes later, he took a pass from Gus Nyquist and scored his 20th goal of the season. The Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin then scored his 15th goal on a power play and Nyquist added his 10th with less than four minutes left. Hurricanes 4, Predators 2: Jeff Skinner scored in each of the first two periods for host Carolina. Jordan Staal added a goal and an assist and Jaccob Slavin had two assists for Carolina, which snapped Nashville’s three-game winning streak.
Sidelined: Jets center Shawn Matthias needs shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the season, NHL.com reported. “He had a pre-existing labral tear that he’s been trying to deal with, and it just got to the point where he can’t,” coach Paul Maurice told the website.