Another hat trick for Kreider
Chris Kreider had his second hat trick in five games and the Rangers beat the slumping New Jersey Devils 6-1 on Thursday night in a game marred by a late injury to New York goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Kreider, who scored three times in a loss to Philadelphia on Feb. 24, has nine goals in his last six games, and 13 overall. He completed his natural hat trick 23 seconds into the final period after scoring twice in the second. His fourth career hat trick came on five shots.
Shesterkin seemed to hurt his right leg with just under six minutes to play when he stretched to stop a 2-on-1 break and shot by Damon Severson. He went down without contact and had to helped off the ice, dragging the leg.
Shesterkin kept the Rangers in the game in the first period by stopping 13 of 14 shots. He finished with 32 saves in helping the Rangers win their second straight and their fifth in seven. Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Smith and Alexis Lafreniere also scored for New York.
Islanders 5, Sabres 2 — Matt Martin scored twice and New York beat Buffalo in the opener of a three-game series.
Noah Dobson, Anthony Beauvillier and Jordan Eberle also scored for New York, and rookie Ilya Sorokin stopped 16 shots.
Taylor Hall and Rasmus Ristolainen scored for Buffalo.
Flyers 4, Penguins 3 — Claude Giroux scored his second goal of the night on a tap-in with 2:08 remaining and Philadelphia overcame an early Pittsburgh deluge.
Scott Laughton and Sean Couturier also scored for the Flyers. They trailed by three following a 71-second firstperiod onslaught by Pittsburgh.
Brian Elliott overcame a rough start to stop 26 shots.
Jets 4, Canadiens 3 — Pierre-Luc Dubois scored at 4:29 of overtime to lift Winnipeg past Montreal in the opener of two-game series.
Dubois fired a rolling puck past goalie Jake Allen for his fifth of the season.
Paul Stastny scored twice for Winnipeg.
Hurricanes 5, Red Wings 2 — Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast scored a pair of goals early in the third period to help the Carolina Hurricanes take over and beat Detroit.
Staal’s goal 45 seconds into the period broke a 2-all tie, while Fast — who assisted on Staal’s goal when a shot attempt bounced off him to set up that rebound putaway — followed by finishing at the crease off a perfect pass from Andrei Svechnikov at 2:50.
Svechnikov, Martin Necas and Nino Niederreiter also scored for the Hurricanes.
Panthers 5, Predators 4 — Aaron Ekblad had two goals and two assists to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 victory over the Nashville Predators.
Carter Verhaeghe, Mason Marchment and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for Florida, which snapped a twogame losing streak. Aleksander Barkov had three assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for the Panthers.
Lightning 3, Blackhawks 2 — Victor Hedman scored 4:59 into overtime, with the puck barely over the line at the horn, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks night for their sixth straight victory.
Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli also scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves.