Penguins win over reeling Canadiens
Penguins 5, Canadiens 2: Evan Rodrigues scored his ninth goal of the season and added two assists to lead host Pittsburgh over reeling Montreal on Tuesday night.
Rodrigues, who has been thrust into a higher-profile role due to injuries, matched a career-high of nine goals set during the 2018-19 season, when he needed 74 games to reach the total. He hit it in just 28 games this season.
Kasperi Kapanen, Mike Matheson, Brian Dumoulin and Brian Boyle also scored for Pittsburgh, which won its fifth straight.
Tristan Jarry finished with 28 saves to improve to 8-1-1 in his last 10 starts.
Golden Knights 4, Bruins 1: Max Pacioretty scored – twice – in his seventh straight game to lead visiting Vegas over COVID-depleted Boston.
Robin Lehner made 23 saves for the Golden Knights, who won for the fifth time in six games. Shea Theodore also scored for Vegas, and Jonathan Marchessault had a goal with 0.6 seconds left in the first period to send the Bruins to their locker room to the boos of the hometown crowd.
Hours after the Bruins put leading scorer Brad Marchand in the COVID-19 protocol, and one day after coach Bruce Cassidy returned from his positive test, the Bruins lost snapped a two-game winning streak.
Lightning 3, Kings 2 (OT): Mathieu Joseph scored with 1:35 left in overtime to give host Tampa Bay a win over Los Angeles.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves to win his 62nd game in 2021 regular-season and playoff games, tying Marc-Andre Fleury’s 2009 NHL record for a calendar year set with Pittsburgh.
Victor Hedman and Taylor Raddysh also scored for the Lightning.
Drew Doughty and Viktor Arvidsson scored, and Jonathan Quick stopped 27 shots for the Kings.
Flyers 6, Devils 1: Cam Atkinson had three goals and an assist to lead host Philadelphia over New Jersey.
Travis Sanheim and Oskar Lindblom each had a goal and an assist, and Justin Braun also scored for the Flyers, who won their third game in a row after losing 10 straight. Philadelphia improved to 3-2 under interim coach Mike Yeo, who took over Dec. 6 when Alain Vigneault was fired.
P.K. Subban scored for the Devils, who have lost three straight and seven of eight.
Senators 8, Panthers 2: Josh Norris scored two goals and Anton Forsberg made 33 saves to lift visiting Ottawa over Florida.
Nick Brown scored two late powerplay goals, and Drake Batherson had a goal and two assists. Tim Stutzle, Dylan Gambrell and Austin Watson also scored for Ottawa.
Sam Reinhart and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for the Panthers, who lost at home for only the second time this season.