Blue Jackets win 13th in row; Minnesota’s streak reaches 11
Crosby, Malkin lead the way for Pittsburgh over New Jersey
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nick Foligno scored a power-play goal midway through the third period and Sergei Bobrovsky had 37 saves as the NHL-leading Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Tuesday night to extend their winning streak to 13 games.
Scott Hartnell, Seth Jones and Matt Calvert scored to put the Blue Jackets up 3-0 in the first period, but they were outplayed from there by the more aggressive Bruins. Columbus stayed in the game thanks to the latest stellar performance by Bobrovsky, who got his first career victory in eight games against Boston.
David Backes, Austin Czarnik and David Krejci scored for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask had 18 saves.
Columbus hasn’t lost since Nov. 26 on this franchise-best winning streak. It leads the Metropolitan Division a season after finishing in last place.
Foligno scored the winner with a wraparound goal 10:46 into the third period off a pass from Alexander Wennberg. The Blue Jackets then killed a power play with less than 4 minutes left and held off a rush by the Bruins after they pulled their goalie with about 1½ minutes remaining.
WILD 3, PREDATORS 2 (OT): In Nashville, Tenn., Jared Spurgeon scored the game-winner at 2:46 of overtime to give the Minnesota a victory over Nashville.
Jordan Schroeder carried the puck up on the right side and slid a cross-ice pass to Spurgeon, and he beat Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne with a one-timer.
Zach Parise and Chris Stewart also scored for Minnesota, which extended its franchise-best winning streak to 11 games. Filip Forsberg and Reid Boucher scored for Nashville.
PENGUINS 5, DEVILS 2: In Newark, N.J., Sidney Crosby scored a goal for the fourth straight game and added two assists in leading Pittsburgh over New Jersey for its 10th win in December.
Evgeni Malkin added a goal and an assist in becoming the fourth Penguin to collect 800 points, and defenseman Justin Schultz scored the go-ahead goal with 5.4 seconds left in the second period after being set up by Pittsburgh’s two star forwards.
Marc-Andre Fleury had 21 saves for the Penguins. RANGERS 4, SENATORS 3: In New York, defenseman Nick Holden scored the go-ahead goal less than 7 minutes into the third period, lifting New York to a comeback victory over Ottawa.
Holden’s second goal of the game and sixth of the season came at 6:31 as he wedged the puck past Senators goaltender Mike Condon just 4 seconds after a Rangers’ power play had expired.
ISLANDERS 4, CAPITALS 3: In New York, Andrew Ladd and Anders Lee scored 43 seconds apart early in the third period to lift New York over Washington.
Ladd had two goals and Cal Clutterbuck added another for New York, which improved to 14-14-6 overall and 11-7-4 at home. NYI’s Jaroslav Halak stopped 31 of 34 shots.
SABRES 4, RED WINGS 3: In Detroit, Evander Kane scored his second goal of the game in the third period to lift Buffalo over Detroit and get coach Dan Bylsma his 300th NHL victory.
Kane got his fifth goal in seven games 8:29 into the third by taking a cross-ice pass from Brian Gionta and beating goalie Petr Mrazek with a high wrist shot to the glove side. JETS 3, BLACKHAWKS 1: In Chicago, Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Drew Stafford scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 34 saves to help Winnipeg beat Chicago.
Jacob Trouba added two assists, and Winnipeg won its second straight and fourth in five games. The Jets beat Central Division-leading Chicago for the third time in three tries this season, outscoring the Blackhawks 9-2 over those games.
STARS 3, COYOTES 2: In Glendale, Ariz., Jason Spezza had a goal and an assist, and Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves as Dallas beat Arizona.
A brawl in the second period resulted in four players serving at least four penalty minutes each. It started when Dallas’ Radek Faksa popped Coyotes goalie Mike Smith in the side with his stick after a shot. FLAMES 6, AVALANCHE 3: In Denver, Mikael Backlund scored two of Calgary’s four goals in the second period and also had an assist as the Flames beat Colorado.
Johnny Gaudreau also had two goals and an assist for the Flames.
All of Calgary’s second-period goals deflected off Colorado players.