Panthers extend win streak to 4
Patric Hornqvist scored twice, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped a season-high 47 shots and the host Panthers pushed their winning streak to four games by topping Calgary 6-2 on Tuesday night.
Joe Thornton got a historymaking go-ahead goal late in the first period for Florida, which improved to 18-3-0 on home ice. Anthony Duclair, Ryan Lomberg and Lucas Carlsson also scored for Florida, and Brandon Montour had the second three-assist game of his career.
Johnny Gaudreau got his 14th goal of the season for Calgary, and Blake Coleman also scored for the Flames, who led 2-1 early before the Panthers — now with 24 goals in their past four games — got rolling.
Carter Verhaeghe had two assists for Florida, which is 19-0-0 when scoring at least four goals this season.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 39 shots for Calgary.
And for Thornton, a deflection — a power-play tip of a shot by Montour — late in the first period for a 3-2 Florida lead only added to his resume.
His first goal came Dec. 3, 1997, and he has now scored in every calendar year since — 26 consecutive years and counting.
Thornton’s best calendar year for goals was 2001, when he scored 38. That was part of a 21-year run — 1999 through 2019 — in which he scored at least 12 goals annually. The former Sharks center had six in 2020, nine in 2021 and has lit the lamp again in 2022.
Bobrovsky’s previous high this season for saves was 43. It was the fourth time in his career that he stopped at least 47 shots — and ended the game stopping the last 41 shots that he saw.
Lightning 7, Blue Jackets 2:
Ondrej Palat had two goals and an assist as visiting Tampa Bay trounced Columbus to break a three-game losing streak.
Brayden Point added a goal and two assists for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, who scored three powerplay goals. Corey Perry and Patrick Maroon each had a goal and an assist, Anthony Cirelli contributed two assists, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Alex Killorn also scored.
Gus Nyquist provided a goal and an assist for an illnessthinned Columbus team, which dropped its fourth in a row against the Lightning. Dean Kukan also scored for the Blue Jackets.
Briuns 5, Devils 3: David Pastrnak scored the tie-breaking goal with 5:49 left in the third period and host Boston beat New Jersey.
Curtis Lazar had a goal and an assist, Oskar Steen scored his first career goal and the Bruins won their third straight since returning to the ice after they had six consecutive games postponed because of COVID-19 issues.
Trent Frederic also scored for Boston, and Brandon Carlo sealed it on a goal with 23 seconds to play. Linus Ullmark finished with 23 saves for the Bruins, who ended New Jersey’s three-game winning streak.