Flames torch hot Lightning
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and an assist, Mike Smith made 33 saves, and the Calgary Flames beat the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-1, last night in Tampa, Fla., for their fifth straight victory.
Micheal Ferland, Sam Bennett, Mark Jankowski and Matthew Tkachuk also scored to help the Flames improve to 11-5-4 on the road. Gaudreau has nine assists and 10 points during a five-game points streak.
Brayden Point scored the Lightning, who lost All-Star defenseman Victor Hedman midway through the second with a lower-body injury. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots.
Hurricanes 3, Capitals 1 —
Victor Rask broke a tie on a delayed penalty with 9:06 left to give Carolina the vic- tory in Washington, hours after the team’s sale to Dallas billionaire Tom Dundon was finalized.
By improving to 9-7-8 in one-goal games, Carolina leapfrogged idle Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to move into a playoff position after 42 games.
Co-captain Jordan Staal also scored and Sebastian Aho added an empty-netter for Carolina, which got 26 saves from Scott Darling.
Lars Eller scored and Braden Holtby stopped 30of-32 shots for Washington, which had its five-game winning streak and NHL- best 11-game home winning streak snapped.
The Hurricanes celebrated this victory after the league announced Dundon had completed his purchase of the Hurricanes from former majority owner Peter Karmanos. Dundon, Karmanos and commissioner Gary Bettman will hold a news conference today in Raleigh, N.C., to discuss an important step for the franchise.
Dundon has said he’ll keep the Hurricanes there, at least temporarily ending relocation speculation.
Sabres 3, Blue Jackets 1 —
Kyle Okposo had a goal and assist, and host Buffalo beat Columbus to snap a fivegame skid.
Benoit Pouliot and Jack Eichel, with an emptynetter with 6 seconds left, also scored. Linus Ullmark stopped 44 shots in his first NHL game of the season, as the Sabres won in regulation for the first time in nine games — the last victory was a 4-2 win over Philadelphia on Dec. 22
Ullmark stopped the first 39 shots he faced before having his shutout bid foiled on Artemi Panarin’s power-play goal with 6:15 remaining. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots, but the Jackets had a twogame win streak snapped.