Panthers extend win streak to 13 games, hold off Leafs in OT
Lightning rout Preds
SUNRISE, Fla., April 24, (AP): Brandon Montour scored 2:26 into overtime and the NHL-leading Florida Panthers extended their win streak to a franchise-record 13 games by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2.
The streak matches the seventhlongest in NHL history and is the league’s longest since Columbus won 16 consecutive games during the 2016-17 season. The victory also marked Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette’s 50th in just 71 games behind the Panthers’ bench.
Claude Giroux had a goal and two assists for Florida. Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist and Mason Marchment had two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 34 shots.
Justin Holl and Mitch Marner scored for Toronto. Jack Campbell finished with 32 saves.
Lightning 6, Predators 2
In Tampa, Fla., Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli scored in the first period, and the Lightning beat the Predators.
Hedman became the second defenseman
ICE HOCKEY
in franchise history to score 20 goals in a season, joining Dan Boyle in 2006-07.
Kucherov finished with a goal and two assists, Steve Stamkos also had a goal and two assists, and Ross Colton also scored for the Lightning. Brian Elliott made 19 saves.
Tampa Bay is three points ahead of Boston in the race for third place in the Atlantic Division.
Stars 3, Kraken 2
In Dallas, Roope Hintz scored two goals in a span of about two minutes to pull Dallas even in the second, and Vladislav Namestnikov got the gamewinner for the playoff-contending Stars.
Not only did the Stars overcome an early two-goal deficit, they rebounded from losing all three games on their trip to Canada that was made even more miserable because of travel issues on the way home.
Riley Sheahan and Yanni Gourde scored for Seattle, and Chris Driedger made 28 saves. It was Gourde’s 100th career goal.
Hurricanes 3, Devils 2, OT
In Newark, N.J., Rookie Seth Jarvis scored 1:39 into overtime, lifting the Hurricanes to their third straight win.
Carolina trailed 2-0 before Brady Skjei and Nino Niederreiter scored in the final five minutes of regulation. Rookie Pyotr Kochetkov made 17 saves in winning his NHL debut.
Yegor Sharangovich and Nico Hischier
scored for New Jersey. Jon Gillies, who was minutes away from his first NHL shutout, made 26 saves for the Devils in his first start in a month.
Bruins 3, Rangers 1
In Boston, David Pastrnak scored his team-leading 39th goal after missing
the previous eight games with an undisclosed injury, helping the Bruins to the win.
Taylor Hall and Trent Frederic also scored for Boston, which is jockeying for playoff seeding in the Eastern Conference. Linus Ullmark made 30 stops.
The Bruins had lost four of their previous six games.
Mika Zibanejad scored his 29th goal for New York and Igor Shesterkin made 32 saves.
Penguins 7, Red Wings 2
In Detroit, Evgeni Malkin scored two goals, leading Pittsburgh to the road win.
Kris Letang had a goal and two assists for the playoff-bound Penguins, who won for the third time in four games. Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Chad Ruhwedel each finished with a goal and an assist.
Detroit dropped its third straight game. Jakub Vrana and Michael Rasmussen scored for the Red Wings. Thomas Greiss made 18 saves in the first two periods, and Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 13 stops.
Sabres 5, Islanders 3
In Buffalo, N.Y., Tage Thompson scored his team-leading 37th goal, and the Sabres beat the Islanders in a matchup of non-playoff teams.
Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Vinnie Hinostroza scored for Buffalo in the second period. After New York rallied in the third, Jeff Skinner made it 5-3 when he stuffed in Thompson’s rebound with 7:20 left for his 33rd goal of the season.
Sharks 4, Blackhawks 1
In San Jose, Calif., Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 27 shots, leading San Jose to the victory.
Timo Meier had a goal and an assist for the Sharks, who won for just the second time in 13 games. Tomas Hertl, Jasper Weatherby and Nick Bonino also scored. Chicago outshot San Jose 28-19, but only managed a secondperiod goal by Tyler Johnson. Kevin Lankinen made 15 saves.
Senators 6, Canadiens 4
In Ottawa, Ontario, Mark Kastelic scored his first two NHL goals, powering Ottawa to the win.
Austin Watson, Josh Norris, Parker Kelly and Alex Formenton also scored for the Senators. Anton Forsberg made 44 saves.
Rem Pitlick had a pair of goals and Cole Caufield and Joel Edmundson also scored for Montreal, which has lost eight straight.
Blues 5, Coyotes 4, OT
In Glendale, Ariz., Justin Faulk scored his second goal 30 seconds into overtime and St. Louis extended its point streak to 15 tames.
St. Louis jumped on Arizona early, building leads of 3-0 and 4-1 against one of the NHL’s worst teams. The Coyotes clawed their way back early in the third period, 4-3, on goals by Bokondji Imama and Michael Carcone 46 seconds apart.
Kings 4, Ducks 2
In Los Angeles, Alexander Edler scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and Los Angeles closed in on its first playoff berth in four years.
Arthur Kaliyev, Matt Roy and Alex Iafallo also scored, and rookie Quinton Byfield and Anze Kopitar had two assists apiece in the Kings’ fourth straight victory. Jonathan Quick overcame an egregious misplay and made 19 saves in Los Angeles’ second win in five days over Anaheim in the Freeway Faceoff rivalry series.