Quick makes 45 saves as Kings blank Canadiens 3-0

Karri Ramo #31 of the Calgary Flames makes a save in front of Cody Eakin #20 of the Dallas Stars in the first period at American Airlines Center on Dec 17, in Dal

las, Texas. (AFP) MONTREAL, Dec 18, (AP): Jonathan Quick made a season-high 45 saves, and Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty scored as the Los Angeles Kings beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Thursday night.

The shutout was Quick’s second of the season. Marian Gaborik added an empty-net goal to help the Kings improve to 20-9-2.

Mike Condon made 17 saves for Montreal and has lost four straight starts.

The Canadiens have lost six of their last seven games and scored just 11 goals over that stretch. They fell to 20-10-3.

Quick was sensational throughout the game. Montreal hit him with 18 shots in the first period en route to a season-high for shots on goal.

Quick stopped Tomas Plekanec with the glove late in the first and denied Torrey Mitchell from point-blank range in the second.

Flames 3, Stars 1 In Dallas, Karri Ramo stopped 35 shots to help Calgary beat Dallas for its seventh straight win.

Sean Monahan, Dougie Hamilton and Mason Raymond scored for Calgary. Ramo had 17 saves in the third period and outplayed Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen to win his fifth in a row. Ramo has allowed 11 goals in those five games.

Johnny Oduya scored for Dallas and Lehtonen had 24 saves while snapping a career-best eight-game winning streak.

Oduya put the Stars on the scoreboard first with a short-handed goal with 7:16 left in the first period.

Monahan and Hamilton scored later in the first to put Calgary ahead. Raymond added a goal in the second period.

Blue Jackets 7, Coyotes 5 In Glendale, Arizona, Brandon Saad, Alexander Wennberg and Cam Atkinson each had a goal and two assists as Columbus ended a five-game losing streak.

Arizona goalies Anders Lindback and Louis Domingue faced just 20 shots on goal. Lindback allowed four goals on 10 shots and Domingue let in another two goals after entering in the second period.

Matt Calvert, Nick Foligno, David Clarkson and Brandon Dubinsky also scored for Columbus. Dubinsky’s goal was an empty-netter. Scott Hartnell also had two assists.

Tobias Rieder had two goals for Arizona, and Antoine Vermette, Viktor Tikhonov and Jordan Martinook also scored.

Columbus’ Curtis McElhinney stopped 27 shots and overcame a nasty collision late in the game.

Sharks 5, Maple Leafs 4, OT In Toronto, Brent Burns banked the winning goal off Toronto center Peter Holland’s leg 2:13 into overtime.

Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, MarcEdouard Vlasic and Matt Nieto scored in regulation for San Jose, and Martin Jones had 28 saves.

Holland, Leo Komarov, James van Riemsdyk and Michael Grabner scored for the Maple Leafs, who played their third overtime game in a row and 10th of the season. Jonathan Bernier allowed three goals on 27 shots after replacing injured goaltender Garret Sparks and fell to 0-8-3 this season.

Blackhawks 4, Oilers 0 In Chicago, Corey Crawford made 33 saves in his NHL-best fifth shutout and Teuvo Teravainen had two goals and an assist as Chicago beat Edmonton.

Jonathan Toews added a goal and two assists in a strong performance by Chicago’s top line. Marian Hossa had three assists as the Blackhawks won for the third time in four games.

It was Crawford’s third shutout in his last four starts and No. 17 for his career. The Stanley Cup champions kept him clean for most of the night, but he got over to make a nice right pad stop on Mark Letestu with about three minutes left in the second period.

Cam Talbot also had 33 stops for Edmonton, which has lost two in a row after a six-game win streak. Talbot was com- ing off a 47-save performance in a 3-2 overtime win at Boston in his previous start on Monday.

Avalanche 2, Islanders 1 In Denver, Defenseman Francois Beauchemin scored twice, including the tiebreaking goal late in the third period and Semyon Varlamov stopped 33 shots as Colorado beat New York for its fourth straight win.

Beauchemin was in the corner when he sent a puck in front of the net that bounced off the skate of Islanders center Mikhail Grabovski and caromed past goaltender Thomas Greiss with 3:48 remaining. Beauchemin also scored in the opening period.

Blues 2, Predators 1 In St Louis, Vladimir Tarasenko scored a power-play goal with 5:20 left and Jake Allen made 27 saves as St. Louis rallied to beat Nashville.

The Blues came back from a goal down in the third period for the second straight game and have won three of four. It’s their first winning streak since getting three straight victories in early November.

Tarasenko scored his 20th of the season after Viktor Arvidsson was whistled for tripping Carl Gunnarsson. Tarasenko whipped a wrist shot from the faceoff circle.

Wild 5, Rangers 2 In St Paul, Minnesota, Devan Dubnyk made 21 saves in his return to action and Mikko Koivu had two goals and an assist for Minnesota in a win over New York.

Dubnyk missed four games with a groin strain. In his first game back, he helped the Wild to their ninth straight game with a point (6-0-3).

Koivu has scored in three straight

Nick Foligno #71 of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Michael Stone #26 of the Arizona Coyotes skate after the puck during the third period of the NHL game at

Gila River Arena on Dec 17, in Glendale, Arizona. (AFP)

games. Matt Dumba, Jason Pominville and Chris Porter also tallied for Minnesota.

New York lost starting goaltender Antti Raanta in the first period when he was hit in the forehead area of his facemask by a slap shot from Wild defenseman Marco Scandella. Raanta allowed one goal on four shots in 6 minutes, 11 seconds.

Sabres 3, Ducks 0 In Buffalo, New York, Chad Johnson made 44 saves for his first shutout in nearly 21 months, leading Buffalo over Anaheim.

Evander Kane, Jack McCabe and Jamie McGinn scored for the Sabres, who rebounded from Tuesday’s shutout loss to New Jersey.

Johnson got his fourth career shutout, and first since March 21, 2014, while playing for Boston.

It was the seventh time in 31 games the Sabres have blanked the Ducks, good for the Buffalo’s highest shutout-to-games ratio against an opponent.

Flyers 2, Canucks 0 In Philadelphia, Steve Mason made 36 saves, and Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier each scored, leading Philadelphia over slumping Vancouver.

Mason, Philadelphia’s No. 1 goalie who was making his first appearance since Dec. 8, returned to form and earned his first victory in his last eight home starts. Philadelphia has won seven of 10 overall.

The Canucks lost their eighth in 10 games, including the first three of a sixgame road trip that continues Friday night at Detroit. Vancouver has been outscored 11-2 in the three road games.

Panthers 5, Devils 1 In Newark, New Jersey, Brandon Pirri had a goal and two assists, and Jussi Jokinen and Logan Shaw each had a goal and an assist as Florida beat New Jersey.

Florida has won two in a row. Vincent Trocheck had two assists, Dmitry Kulikov and Reilly Smith also scored and Al Montoya made 15 saves for the Panthers.

Cory Schneider made 21 saves and New Jersey lost for the second time in three games. New Jersey’s Sergey Kalinin made it 4-1 with a power-play goal with 6:22 left, but Shaw scored an emptynet goal with 4:44 remaining.