Avalanche snap 4-game skid by beating the Capitals 6-3
Artturi Lehkonen had two goals and two assists, and his line led the way as Colorado ended its four-game losing streak by beating Washington.
Ross Colton scored on a 2-on-1 rush off a pass from Miles Wood in the first period and assisted on Lehkonen’s first goal in the second. Lehkonen delivered a no-look, through-the-legs pass to Mikko Rantanen for his goal on the power play and had an empty netter in the final minute.
Wood added another empty-net goal with 32.8 seconds left. Defenseman Devon Toews also scored for Colorado. Alexandar Georgiev made 24 saves to tie Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko for the most victories in the league this season with 28.
Alex Ovechkin extended his goal streak to six by scoring on the power play with 11 minutes left in the third. Connor McMichael and Beck Malenstyn also scored and Charlie Lindgren
made 31 saves for the Capitals, who have lost seven of eight.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, BLUES 1 >> Bobby McMann registered the first hat trick of his NHL career as Toronto defeated St. Louis.
William Nylander had the other goal for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov made 14 saves.
The NHL’s department of player safety announced shortly before the opening faceoff it had suspended Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly five games for his cross-check to the head of Ridly Greig.
Alexey Toropchenko scored for St. Louis, which entered 7-1-0 over its last eight games. Jordan Binnington stopped 28 shots in defeat.
SABRES 7, KINGS 0 >> UkkoPekka Luukkonen stopped 33 shots for his fourth career shutout and Jordan Greenway scored twice and added an assist to lead Buffalo to a rout of Los Angeles.
Rasmus Dahlin, JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch had a goal and assist apiece to help the Sabres snap a three-game home skid in which they combined to score three times. Kyle Okposo and Zach Benson also scored in an outing the slow-starting Sabres flipped the script by scoring the opening goal for the first time in eight outings, and holding a lead after 20 minutes for the first time in 11.
The Kings were flat and sloppy through most of an outing in which they provided little support for goalie David Rittich, who finished with 12 saves through two periods. He was replaced by Cam Talbot, who allowed two goals on seven shots. CANADIENS 5, DUCKS 0>> Nick Suzuki had two goals and an assist and Montreal cruised to victory over Anaheim.
The red-hot Suzuki extended his point streak to a career-high eight games — producing 13 points in that span — and is up to 51 points in 53 outings this season.
Cayden Primeau faced little action, making 13 saves in his first start since Jan. 20 as Montreal earned its first shutout of the season.
Juraj Slafkovsky, who connected with Suzuki all night, had a goal and two assists for the first threepoint game of his career. Jake Evans and Brandon Gignac — with his first NHL goal — also scored for the Canadiens.
Lukas Dostal stopped 33 shots for Anaheim, which was shut out for the sixth time this season.
SENATORS 6, BLUE JACKETS 3 >>
Brady Tkachuk recorded the second hat trick of his career to lead Ottawa to its fourth straight win.
Tkachuk scored twice on the power play, and Claude Giroux added a shorthanded goal and two assists. Ridly Greig and Erik Brannstrom also scored. Anton Forsberg made 37 saves.
Dmitri Voronkov, Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic scored for the Blue Jackets. Daniil Tarasov stopped 24 of 29 shots.