Niederreiter leads Jets past Wild, 4-2
TAMPA, FLA. >> Artemi Panarin scored three goals, Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves on his 28th birthday, and the NHL-leading New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Saturday night.
Vincent Trocheck had a goal and three assists, and Chris Kreider also scored for New York. Alexis Lafrenière had two assists, and Mika Zibanejad had an assist for a career-high 10-game point streak.
The Rangers are the first team to reach 50 points for the first time since winning their last Stanley Cup in 1993-94. New York, which lost 4-3 at Florida on Friday night, is 6-0 in the second of back-to-back games this season.
PENGUINS 4, BLUES 2 >> Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, helping the Penguins top the Blues.
Malkin scored his 14th of the season on the power play. It was his third goal in two games. Malkin also set up Drew O’Connor’s fourth of the year.
Jeff Carter scored his fourth goal for Pittsburgh in the third period, and Sidney Crosby’s 20th of the season was an emptynetter. Tristan Jarry made 25 stops.
PREDATORS 3, CAPITALS
2, SO>> Roman Josi scored a franchise record-tying goal, Yaroslav Askarov made 26 saves in regulation and overtime for his first NHL win, and Nashville stopped a three-game skid.
Luke Evangelista opened the scoring less than three minutes in, and Josi’s goal not long after tied Shea Weber for the most by a Predators defenseman. Josi scored his 166th goal a night after dropping the gloves to fight Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat, a move by the captain that coach Andrew Brunette and his teammates appreciated.
SABRES 3, BLUE JACKETS 2, OT>> Jeff Skinner scored 1:20 into overtime, and Buffalo got the win while playing without coach Don Granato because of an illness.
Casey Mittelstadt and Jack Quinn also scored for Buffalo, which had dropped two in a row. Owen Power had two assists and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 18 saves.
Granato missed the game due to an unspecified illness. Seth Appert, who coaches the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester, was called up to fill in behind the bench.
HURRICANES 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2>> Sebastian Aho had a goal and two assists, and Carolina earned its third consecutive victory.
Michael Bunting and Seth Jarvis also scored for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov made 25 saves.
Timothy Liljegren and Nicholas Robertson scored for Toronto, which got 25 stops from Martin Jones.
The Leafs have dropped five of their last six games.
Carolina went 2 for 4 on the power play, while Toronto went 0 for 3.
PANTHERS 4, CANADIENS 1 >> Eetu Luostarinen scored a pair of power-play goals and Florida extended its win streak to four games.
Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers, who outscored Montreal 3-0 in the third period. Anthony Stolarz finished with 18 saves for Florida.
JETS 4, WILD 2>> Nino Niederreiter scored two goals, powering the Jets to the win.
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Alex Iafallo also scored for Winnipeg, which improved to 9-1-2 in its last 12 games. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 34 shots in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,325 at Canada Life Centre.
Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored for Minnesota, which had won four in a row.
Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 19 saves before being replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury to start the third period. Fleury stopped nine shots.