Canes’ Necas produces on birthday

Martin Necas had a goal and an assist on his 23rd birthday and the Carolina Hurricanes stopped a twogame skid by beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 on Saturday.

Vincent Trocheck also had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, who regained their scoring touch after being shut out for the first time this season two nights earlier.

Sebastian Aho and Steven Lorentz had the other Carolina goals and Andrei Svechnikov posted two assists. Frederik Andersen made 30 saves.

The Hurricanes found a way to erase thoughts of their 6-0 loss to Columbus.

Bo Horvat scored in the first period for Vancouver, which has lost the first three games of a five-game trip. Thatcher Demko stopped 29 shots.

Aho opened the scoring with his team-leading 16th goal. It was his first tally in more than a month because he missed three games and then hadn’t scored in five games since returning.

Trocheck’s first goal in seven games gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead just over a minute into the second period.

Necas produced his goal by coming down the right side and firing the puck past Demko. It gave Carolina 3-1 lead less than five minutes into the second period and was his 100th career point.

Since the franchise relocated from Connecticut for the 1997-98 season, seven Hurricanes have posted multipoint games on their birthdays.

Capitals 2, Islanders 0 — Tom Wilson scored early, Alex Ovechkin added an empty-net goal late, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 saves to lead the Washington Capitals to a 2-0 victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Vanecek picked up his seventh win of the season and his third career shutout as the Capitals snapped a fourgame skid (0-2-2).

Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves in only his fifth start for the Islanders since allowing four goals against the New York Rangers in late November.

Wilson opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the slot at 4:35 of the first period. The Islanders lost track of Wilson when the Capitals broke over the blue line and a spinning Aliaksei Protas zipped a pass to Wilson, who was all alone between the circles. Washington outshot the Islanders 16-7 in the first 20 minutes.

The Islanders’ best opportunity came midway through the first period when defenseman Noah Dobson fired a wrist shot off the post after making a nifty move to create space in the slot.

Vanecek preserved the shutout when he denied Islanders forward Oliver Wahlstrom on a stuff-in opportunity with 2:30 remaining in the third period. The 26-year-old goaltender is in his second season with Washington after the organization selected him in the second round of the 2014 NHL draft. The Czech goalie has collected 28 career victories in 55 appearances with the Capitals.

Ovechkin sealed the victory with his 755th career goal in the final seconds.

Lane Lambert led the Islanders behind the bench while coach Barry Trotz remains in COVID-19 protocol.