Tavares nets 300th, Leafs win
John Tavares scored twice and hit the 300-goal mark for his career in leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils last night in Newark. Defenseman Ron Hainsey also scored in Toronto’s three-goal first period and third-string goaltender Michael Hutchinson made 27 saves as the Maple Leafs beat the Devils for the third time in as many games. Mitch Marner added an empty-net goal with 22 seconds to play. Blake Coleman and Brian Boyle scored in a 26-second span for the Devils late in the second period to get New Jersey within a goal. Keith Kinkaid made 39 saves, including two on Tavares that prevented his hat trick and 30th goal of the season. Blues 4, Canadiens 1 — Oskar Sundqvist had a goal and an assist and rookie Jordan Binnington made 28 saves to lead host St. Louis to a win over Montreal. Robert Thomas, Jay Bouwmeester and Sammy Blais also scored for St. Louis, which won for the second time in its last six home games. Flyers 2, Stars 1 — Carter Hart stopped 37 shots and host Philadelphia beat Dallas to end an eight-game losing streak. James van Riemsdyk had a goal and an assist, and Travis Konecny also scored for the Flyers. Philadelphia entered with a league-worst 36 points. Jamie Benn scored for Dallas, which lost for the third time in eight games. Tyler Seguin had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games. Islanders 4, Rangers 3 — Josh Bailey scored with 1:26 remaining to lift the Islanders over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Cal Clutterbuck found Bailey cutting to the back post, and he beat Henrik Lundqvist to help the Islanders improve to 13-2-0 in the last 15 meetings between the Big Apple rivals. Matt Barzal had a goal and two assists, and Robin Lehner made 27 saves. Jordan Eberle and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders, and Johnny Boychuk had two assists. Blue Jackets 4, Predators 3 — Artemi Panarin scored his second goal of the night 1:22 into overtime to lift host Columbus past Nashville. Boone Jenner also had two goals, and Zach Werenski had a pair of assists for the Blue Jackets in the 600th career coaching win for John Tortorella, the 19th coach in NHL history to reach that milestone. Joonas Korpisalo had 32 saves for Columbus. He got the start when Sergei Bobrovsky was scratched because of an unspecified “incident,” according to the team, with no clear idea of when the Vezina Trophy-winner might be back. Wild 3, Jets 2 — Jason Zucker scored twice, giving the lagging power play a lift with his first goal and getting one later just after leaving the penalty box, and Minnesota hung on to beat Winnipeg in St. Paul. Jordan Greenway also scored and Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves for the Wild, who have won all three games against the Jets so far this season. Lightning 3, Hurricanes 1 — In Tampa, Brayden Point had a tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period and added a late empty-netter in NHL-leading Tampa Bay’s comeback victory over Carolina.