Hurricanes rally from 2 down to beat Jets
Hurricanes 4, Jets 2: Seth Jarvis scored on a contact-filled rebound at 8:21 of the third period to help host Carolina overcome a two-goal deficit and beat Winnipeg on Thursday night.
Teuvo Teravainen and Jaccob Slavin also scored in the rally for the Hurricanes, who entered the night tied with the New York Rangers for the Metropolitan Division lead. Captain Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Jarvis’ score came after he took up position atop the crease as teammate Brendan Smith fired a straightaway shot. The puck hit Eric Comrie in the helmet, then Jarvis knocked off Comrie’s helmet as he reached around to knock the loose puck into the net for the 3-2 lead on a play that ended with Jarvis flat on the ice alongside Comrie after jostling jostling with Nate Schmidt.
The goal stood on a challenge by the Jets for goaltender interference, pushing the Hurricanes to their first lead of the night.
Antti Raanta, pressed into a lead role due to an injury to No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen, made 20 saves for Carolina. The Hurricanes had a 46-22 edge in shots.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor scored first-period goals for Winnipeg. The Jets ended a six-game trip with their fourth straight loss.
Comrie made 42 saves for Winnipeg, including multiple big stops in the second period as the Hurricanes began to control play.
Sabres 5, Devils 2: Kyle Okposo and Alex Tuch scored short-handed goals less than a minute apart in the first period, and visiting Buffalo beat New Jersey.
Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Jeff Skinner also scored, and 40-year-old Craig Anderson had 31 saves for the Sabres in this matchup of teams eliminated from playoff contention.
Nikita Okhotiuk scored in his NHL debut and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Devils.
Okhotiuk’s goal early in the third period cut Buffalo’s lead to 3-2, but Power scored 31⁄2 minutes later. Skinner put the game away with 3:57 remaining.
Panthers 5, Red Wings 2: Aleksander Barkov scored his 38th goal of the season and host Florida tied a franchise record with its 12th straight win, beating Detroit.
Mason Marchment had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart, MacKenzie Weegar and Noel Acciari also scored for the Eastern Conference-leading Panthers, who moved two points ahead of West-leading Colorado in the race for the best record in the NHL. Florida (118 points) and the Avalanche have four games remaining.
The Panthers matched the 12-game winning streak it posted from Dec. 15, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016.
Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists and moved into a tie with Connor McDavid of idle Edmonton for the league lead in points at 113.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots for the Panthers.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Sam Gagner scored for Detroit, and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 22 shots.
Rangers 6, Islanders 3: Andrew Copp scored three goals in the first period, Chris Kreider got his 51st of the season, and the visiting Rangers beat the crosstown-rival Islanders.
Ryan Strome had a goal and an assist, Ryan Reaves also scored, Artemi Panarin had four assists and Adam Fox added three to help the Rangers win their fourth straight and seventh in their last eight.
Alexandar Georgiev had 26 saves to improve to 14-9-2.
The Rangers remained tied with Carolina atop the Metropolitan Division with 108 points. Carolina, which holds the tiebreaker with one more regulation win, beat Winnipeg 4-2.
Brock Nelson scored twice, Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist, and Semyon Varlamov finished with 17 saves for the Islanders, who are 3-5-1 in their last nine.
Flyers 6, Canadiens 3: James van Reimsdyk had two goals and an assist, Ivan Provorov had a goal and an assist and visiting Philadelphia beat Montreal to end a six-game skid.
Oskar Lindblom, Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny had Philadelphia’s other goals. Bobby Brink had his first career multipoint game with two assists. Martin Jones made 31 saves.
Mike Hoffman, Jake Evans and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal.
Panguins 4, Bruins 0: Casey DeSmith made a career-high 52 saves and Jake Guentzel scored three goals as host Pittsburgh beat Boston.
Guentzel completed the hat trick with an empty-netter, his 40th goal of the season, as Pittsburgh moved two points ahead of Washington for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins, Bruins and Capitals have already secured playoff spots but are fighting for seeding in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh and Boston are knotted at 99 points apiece.
Jason Zucker also scored for the Penguins, who have won three of five following a four-game losing streak.
Wild 6, Canucks 3: Kevin Fiala scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, and host Minnesota beat Vancouver.
The Wild locked up the second spot in the Central Division and will face the third-place St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs.
Minnesota lost all three games against St. Louis this season, including two in overtime.
Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and two assists for the Wild, who also got goals from Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman.