Grabovski helps Islanders edge out Sabres in thriller
BUFFALO: Mikhail Grabovski scored with a snap shot from the slot midway through the second period as the New York Islanders held on for a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
Rookie Anders Lee and Colin McDonald also scored for the Islanders, who nearly squandered a 3-0 lead. Travis Hamonic had two assists in helping New York earn their second win in six games and vault into first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Montreal’s Carey Price made 34 saves to lift the Canadiens to a 3-1 victory and a season sweep over the Boston Bruins.
Dale Weise and Max Pacioretty each had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, who completed their first regular-season sweep of Boston since taking all eight meetings in 2007-08.
Brian Boyle scored the first of his two goals during Tampa Bay’s three-goal first period as the Lightning beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-3.
Valtteri Filppula, Nikita Kucherov and Ryan Callahan also scored for the Atlantic Division-leading Lightning, who had a franchise-record 10-game home winning streak end on Saturday.
Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf, who returned after missing two games due to a lower-body injury, scored his 200th NHL goal and added an assist.
In New York, Ales Hemsky scored 1:02 into overtime as the Dallas Stars overcame a late tying goal by Chris Kreider to end a three-game skid with a 3-2 win over the Rangers.
Kreider levelled it with his 12th of the season, on the power play at 18:40 of the third.
Jason Spezza and Erik Cole each scored second-period goals for Dallas.
The Philadelphia Flyers downed the Washington Capitals 3-1 despite losing starting goalie Steve Mason to an injury as Wayne Simmonds scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period.
Jakub Voracek added an empty-netter for his 18th of the season, and Mark Streit also scored for the Flyers, who have won five of six.
In other games, Filip Forsberg levelled the scores in a power play with 4:43 left in regulation and scored the shoot-out winner in the Nashville Predators’ 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning were 5-3 winners over the Anaheim Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks downed the St Louis Blues 4-2.