Stars snap Capitals’ home streak at 15
As dominant as the Washington Capitals have been at home this season, they haven’t been able to figure out the Dallas Stars for years.
That puzzling trend continued Monday night as the Stars beat the NHL-leading Capitals 4-2 to extend their point streak in the series to 12 games.
Dallas snapped Washington’s home winning streak at 15 and point streak at 17, winning in D.C. for the sixth consecutive visit to move within seven points of a playoff spot.
The Stars are 10-0-2 against the Capitals dating to their previous regulation loss to them on Nov. 30, 2006. This time they did it by chasing reigning Vezina Trophywinning goaltender Braden Holtby with three goals on 11 shots and getting 42 saves from Kari Lehtonen on a night they were outshot 44-22. Mike Hoffman had a power-play goal early in the third period and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Boston Bruins. Derick Brassard, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Alex Burrows also scored as the Senators extended their winning streak to three games. Craig Anderson made 25 saves. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask made 25 saves. Ottawa has a four-point lead on the Bruins in the Atlantic Division. With just six remaining home games, the Senators gave the Canadian Tire Centre crowd something to remember in what could be a preview of a first-round playoff matchup should the standings remain as they are. Ottawa took a 3-1 lead early in the third as Hoffman scored his 20th on the power play. It was Ottawa’s first goal with the man advantage in three games.
Mika Zibanejad scored 3:56 into overtime, Antti Raanta made 38 saves, and the New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. Zibanejad beat Andrei Vasilevskiy during a breakaway. Raanta got his third shutout of the season. Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots and Tampa Bay, 8-2-3 over the past 13 games, moved within two points of New York Islanders for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers failed to score on three power plays, and are 1 for 36 over the past 14 games. Tampa Bay, with NHL’s third-best power play, went 0 for 6.
Joe Pavelski scored twice and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Winnipeg Jets. Joe Thornton assisted on Pavelski’s empty-net goal to give him 1,000 assists. Aaron Dell stopped 31 shots in his 14th game for the Sharks.