Senators rout Sabres with 5 goals in first
Brady Tkachuk and Boris Katchouk each collected a goal and an assist during Ottawa’s five-goal first period on Wednesday, lifting the visiting Senators to a 6-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
Ottawa’s Drake Batherson joined defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Artem Zub in scoring a goal during the first period. The Senators netted five goals in the opening stanza for the first time since Jan. 8, 2004.
Shane Pinto scored into an empty net and added three assists to send the Senators (31-36-4, 66 points) to their third win in a row and sixth in the past nine games.
Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo made 35 saves to improve to 5-1-0 in his past six appearances.
Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen yielded four goals on nine shots before being replaced by Devon Levi (33 saves).
JJ Peterka and Conor Clifton each scored a goal and defenseman Jacob Bryson added two assists for the Sabres (34-34-5, 73 points), who have lost three of their past four games.
Zub started the offensive onslaught by tipping home a loose puck in the crease at 2:37 of the first period. The goal was Zub’s fourth of the season and first since Ottawa’s 5-1 win over Buffalo on New Year’s Eve.
Katchouk deflected Parker Kelly’s blast past Luukkonen at 4:56, his sixth of the campaign. Batherson backhanded the puck past the goalie 65 seconds later to give Ottawa a 3-0 lead.
Lightning 3, Bruins 1
Brayden Point scored his NHL-leading 11th game-winning goal of the season and Tampa Bay stretched its season-high point streak to eight games with a win over visiting Boston.
In the second period of a 1-all game, Point collected a hard rebound off the end board, zoomed around behind Boston goaltender Linus Ullmark (28 saves) and slammed home his team-high-tying 42nd goal at 6:50.
The marker was Point’s sixth in his past four games and broke a tie with Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson and Nashville’s Filip Forsberg for the league lead in game-winners.
Nikita Kucherov scored an emptynet goal with 27 seconds left in the third. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (23 saves) earned his 20th career assist.
Mitchell Chaffee also netted a goal for the Lightning (40-25-7, 87 points), who are 8-1-1 in their past 10 games and 7-0-1 during their point streak.
In his 400th NHL game, Nicholas Paul recorded the primary assist on Chaffee’s marker.
Tradeline acquisition Anthony Duclair failed to produce a point for the first time in his eight games since coming over from the San Jose Sharks.
Boston (42-17-15, 99 points) received a goal from Danton Heinen.
After feeling out the first 10 minutes of the game, the Lightning had their pressure pay off when Paul backhanded a saucer pass into the slot that Chaffee skated into and flipped past Ullmark.