Rick Nash breaks late tie, Rangers beat Kings 4-2
NEW YORK » Stopped on a similar chance in the first period, Rick Nash changed his approach when he got another opportunity with the score tied late in the game, and it worked.
Nash scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:27 remaining to lead the New York Rangers to a 4-2 victory over the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.
Nash stole the puck in the Kings’ zone on the left side near the center line, drove into the left circle and beat Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick on the blocker side for his ninth of the season to give the Rangers their third lead of the game.
“I tried to go high glove and he kind of moved his chest right in front of it,” Nash said of his attempt in the first period. “So I thought I had to switch it up and try to go blocker.”
J.T. Miller added an empty-netter with 54 seconds remaining, and New York won for the eighth time in 12 games (8-3-1). Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes also scored, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 33 shots to help the Rangers improve to 11-1-1 in the last 13 at home.
“It was a real tightchecking game, there wasn’t much room out there and it obviously came down to the last few minutes,” Nash said. “They’re one of the best teams in the West and one of the best organizations in the last little bit here so it was a good test for us tonight. I thought we played pretty much as close as a full 60 (minutes) as we have all season.” RED WINGS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 1» Trevor Daley scored a tiebreaking, shorthanded goal midway through the second period and Detroit held on to beat Toronto.
Danny DeKeyser and Tomas Tater also scored, and Jimmy Howard had 25 saves for the Red Wings. They had won only one of their previous 11 games.
Toronto’s Andreas Borgman opened the scoring 1:58 into the game. The Maple Leafs lost their third straight, matching a season high. Toronto was without star center Auston Matthews for a fourth straight game because of an upper-body injury. DEVILS 5, STARS 2 » Brian Boyle broke a tie with his 100th career goal and added an empty-netter and an assist to help New Jersey beat Dallas.
Steven Santini, Blake Coleman and Nick Lappin also scored for the Devils, and Corey Schneider made 28 saves.
Boyle gave the Devils a 3-2 lead off a rebound with 3:21 left in the second period. He assisted on Lappin’s goal midway through the third period and completed the scoring with the empty-net goal. HURRICANES 5, SABRES 4, OT» Jaccob Slavin scored 2:15 into overtime to lift Carolina past Buffalo.
Jordan Staal, Derek Ryan, Elias Lindstrom, Justin Williams and Slavin each had a goal and an assist to help the Hurricanes win their second in a row to close out a season-long six-game trip. Cam Ward made 37 saves. Buffalo’s Jack Eichel had his first career hat trick and assisted on Jake McCabe’s goal.