Tampa Bay goalie shuts door on Kings

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 44 saves, Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist, and the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 Saturday night.

Tampa Bay also got goals from Alex Killorn, Cedric Paquette and Nikita Kucherov.

Jonny Brodzinski, Kyle Clifford and Christian Folin scored for the Kings, who nearly came back from a three-goal deficit entering the third period. Jonathan Quick stopped 13 of 14 shots after replacing Darcy Kuemper early in the second.

The Lightning retired Vincent Lecavalier’s No. 4 during a pregame ceremony. Lecavalier, who tops the franchise list for game played (1,037) and goals (383), joined Martin St. Louis as the only Tampa Bay players to have their jerseys retired.

After Stamkos scored 65 seconds into the game, Los Angeles tied it at 1 on its first shot by Brodzinski at 5:02 of the first.

Vasilevskiy then stopped 17 straight shots over the rest of the period, including a spectacular save on Anze Kopitar when he put his glove behind his back.

Killorn made it 2-1 on a breakaway off a Stamkos pass right after serving an interference penalty.

Paquette put the Lightning up 3-1 at 3:12 of the second when his backhander from behind the net went in off Kuemper’s left leg. Kuemper departed after giving up three goals on 14 shots.

Los Angeles right wing Dustin Brown received a five-minute kneeing penalty and a game misconduct for a hit on Tampa Bay rookie defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who returned for the third.

Kucherov scored on the ensuing power play.

MAPLE LEAFS 6, SENATORS 3>>

Mitch Marner had two goals and three assists, helping Toronto beat Ottawa.

Ex-San Jose Shark Patrick Marleau added a goal and two assists as the Maple Leafs (33-19-5) won for the seventh time in eight games.

SABRES 4, BRUINS 2 >>

Scott Wilson had a goal and an assist during Buffalo’s big second period, helping the Sabres cool off Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins with a victory.

Evander Kane and Benoit Pouliot also scored during the second and Rasmus Ristolainen added an empty-netter with 29 seconds remaining. Former Bruins goalie Chad Johnson made 25 saves.

The Sabres had lost four of five and entered with the NHL’s secondfewest points.

Rask stopped 24 shots, but lost in regulation for the first time since Nov. 26. It snapped his careerbest 21-game streak with at least a point (19-0-2), the fourth-longest in team history.

Ryan Spooner and David Backes accounted for Boston’s goals. The Bruins failed to get a point for just the second time in 24 games (18-2-4).

BLUE JACKETS 6, DEVILS 1 >>

Artemi Panarin and Oliver Bjorkstrand each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 35 shots as Columbus beat New Jersey to snap a fivegame losing streak.

Pierre-Luc Dubois, Josh Anderson, Nick Foligno and Matt Calvert also scored for the Blue Jackets, who badly needed a win after dropping both ends of a home-and-home series this week to Metropolitan Division-leading Washington and falling farther behind the Capitals in the tightly bunched division. It was their first win in regulation in their last 14 games.

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Ryan Ellis scored the only goal in the shootout to lift Nashville to a victory over Montreal.

Scott Hartnell and Kevin Fiala scored in regulation for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne finished with 47 saves including 10 in the 5-minute, 3-on-3 overtime.

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Brock McGinn scored twice to lead Carolina to a win over Colorado.

WILD 3, BLACKHAWKS 0 >>

Devan Dubnyk made a season-high 44 saves, Charlie Coyle scored twice and Minnesota beat Chicago.

FLYERS 4, COYOTES 3 >>

Nolan Patrick scored in the seventh round of the shootout to give Philadelphia a win over Arizona.