Canadiens win game but lose Price, Weber to injury
Antti Niemi made 31 saves and the Montreal Canadiens beat the struggling New York Rangers 3-1 on Thursday night to snap their sixgame losing streak.
Tomas Plekanec, Jeff Petry and Phillip Danault scored for Montreal, which avoided matching its longest skid of the season. Niemi got the start in place of injured Carey Price.
Before the game, Montreal announced Price will be sidelined indefinitely with a concussion. The goaltender took a shot to the mask in Tuesday’s loss to Philadelphia.
Earlier on Thursday, the Canadiens also announced Shea Weber will miss the rest of the season because he needs surgery for a torn tendon in his left foot. The 32-year-old defenseman has not played since Dec. 16. Vincent Trocheck scored the winning goal with 19.1 seconds left to lift host Florida over Washington, hours after victims of last week’s shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were honored with a somber video tribute. Marco Scandella scored with a second left in overtime, lifting Buffalo over host Detroit. Justin Abdelkader pulled the Red Wings into a 2-all tie with 1:25 remaining in the third period. Robin Lehner finished with 35 saves, including some key ones for the Sabres in the extra period.
Tyler Bozak scored the shootout winner and Toronto edged the visiting New York. Auston Matthews tipped in Jake Gardiner’s shot to tie it 3-all with 3:29 remaining in the third period, but later left the game favoring his right side after taking a hit from Cal Clutterbuck and did not return.
Joel Eriksson Ek and Chris Stewart scored in a 39-second span during Minnesota’s three-goal second period, and the visiting Wild rallied from two goals down to beat New Jersey. Eric Staal iced the game with an empty-net goal, his 900th NHL point. Taylor Hall scored for the Devils and has a 13-game point streak — the longest in NHL this season, one more than David Pastrnak of Boston.
Nikita Kucherov had two assists to reach 80 points this season and Tampa Bay defeated host Ottawa. Tyler Johnson, Victor Hedman, Vladislav Namestnikov and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning, who leapfrogged expansion Vegas to regain the top spot in the overall NHL standings with 85 points. Louis Domingue earned his third win by stopping 33 shots. Connor McDavid scored his 27th goal of the season in overtime to give Edmonton a home win over Colorado.
Jon Gillies rebounded from a first-minute goal to make 35 saves in his first NHL start of the season, helping Calgary beat Arizona on the road. Pekka Rinne made 33 saves in his 300th career win as Nashville routed San Jose at home.